Page 162 - DCAP208_Management Support Systems

Unit 10: Data Mining Tools and Techniques

Notes
Example: A user should be able to set a value which will determine the speed and detail
of models that are generated.
For example, if a user needs to be able to create a rough model quickly that will give them a
general idea of how to solve a problem, this should be available. However, if the customer
needs a detailed model which may take an extended period of time to generate, this function
should be available as well.
Data mining developers will want to allow users to set their own parameters.
Because most businesses will naturally want to deal with financial issues, this should be
integrated into data mining programs. The goal of a business owner is to increase their profits
rather than deal with technical issues which are not relevant for their operation. Because of this,
finance issues should play an important role in the development of data mining tools.

There are various types of data mining available in the market. Each tool comes with its own
advantage and weaknesses. Information personal have to keep update with the different type of
data mining tools and suggest to purchase the right tools that support the best need of the
organization. Data mining tools can be classified in to three main categories which is dashboard,
text mining tools and traditional data mining tools.
Traditional data mining tools use complex algorithms and technique to establish data
trends and patterns. To monitor data, trends and captures information that not in the
database, these tools should be installed in the desktop. Most of the tools are compatible
with both Windows and UNIX version.
The second categories of data mining are dashboard. Basically organization will install
these tools to monitor the data changes, information contained in the database and onscreen
update. Basically this tool comes in the form of table and chart to allow the user to get
better seeing of the business performance. Beside that, dashboard also allow user to refer
historical data. This will enable user to find changes on the data. Beside easy to use, this
function makes dashboard interesting and easier for the manager to view the company’s
overall performance.
Text mining tools is the third type of data mining. This tool has the ability to mine data in
various kind of text such as Microsoft words and acrobat PDF. The ability of this tools to
scan and convert data into the right format that suitable with the tool’s database has brings
easy and convenient data access to the user. By the use of this tool, user does not need to
open different application for every different data format. The data scanned may contain
structured or unstructured data. This input captured will gives organization a wealth of
information which can be mined to determine attitudes, trend and concept. The origins of
data mining began on the first storage of data in the computers and continue with the
progress in data access, until nowadays technology that allows users to browse through
data in actual time.

Best way in applying advanced data mining techniques is should have interactive and flexible
data mining tools which is directly integrated with the organization’s data warehouse. It is the
best practice to integrate data mining to data warehouse. This allows organization to simplify
the application and mining result implementation. Besides, if the data warehouse grows larger,
organization can mine best practice continually and apply for the future decision making.
In contrast, with using outside mining tools that is not efficient and time consuming where by,
few extra mining steps are required. The techniques are discussed in the next section.

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