IBM announces data mining solution for improved decision making; new ammo for knowledge discovery and validation of business intelligence

Business Wire, April 9, 1996

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1996--IBM today announced new decision support offerings that allow customers to "mine" their data assets in search of high value business intelligence, such as hidden relationships, new trends and previously undetected patterns, that can give them a competitive edge. The new products and services include: - The IBM Intelligent Miner, a knowledge discovery toolkit for

analyzing, extracting and validating data traditionally held in

data warehouses; - The IBM Intelligent Decision Server, a LAN-based information

analysis server to deploying decision support applications

throughout an enterprise; - A number of customizable, cross-industry applications; and - Consulting and services support to help customers in a wide range

of industries take advantage of knowledge discovery and validation

techniques.

"Business intelligence is not just about building a data warehouse; it's about detecting something that you didn't know before," said Tim Negris, vice president, Sales and Marketing, IBM Software Solutions Division. "Now all types of companies -- both large and small -- can leverage the tremendous business benefits that were previously only available to large corporations who could afford customized data mining and business intelligence solutions."

"Our studies show a real need for this type of technology in retailing, diversified financial services, telecommunications, and other markets," said Aaron Zornes, executive vice president of META Group's Application Development Strategies. "During 1996, we believe that IBM's data mining toolkit and related service offerings will set the pace for large-scale business technology initiatives in data warehousing."

IBM Intelligent Miner

The IBM Intelligent Miner toolkit consists of powerful algorithms and processing techniques that enable application developers to analyze data stored in flat files or databases, such as IBM's DATABASE 2 Parallel Edition (DB2 PE)(a). The Intelligent Miner algorithms enable analyses ranging from deviation detection, classification and predicative modelling, to association discovery, sequential pattern discovery and database segmentation.

Through deviation detection, for example, a financial services company could quickly and easily detect fraudulent usages of credit cards by examining deviations in the credit-card usage patterns of its customers. Using predictive modelling, a retailer could forecast changes in customer buying patterns and keep abreast of comparisons of purchases over the Internet or through mail-order with those through in-store buying. Through association discovery, a supermarket chain could determine which products are most frequently sold in conjunction with other products, and stock these store items on shelves accordingly to maximize sales opportunities. An insurance company could use customer segmentation data to create target-marketing campaigns, or to cross-sell services among existing customers. Sequential Pattern analyses could help medical researchers identify common patterns of symptoms that lead to particular illnesses.

The Intelligent Miner also includes an extensive pre-processing library of tools to prepare that data for mining and verification. To improve the data analyst's productivity, these tools can be invoked dynamically, without coding, during the iterative process of preparing, mining and verification. They include data selection, transformation and cleansing. Additionally, a set of interactive visualization tools can be used to bring out unusual features that might otherwise be "drowned out."

"Businesses are facing competitors that are not just across town or across the country -- but around the world as well non-traditional competition over the World Wide Web," said Ben Barnes, general manager, IBM Worldwide Decision Support Solutions. "Data mining is quickly being recognized as an essential business intelligence tool. IBM data mining tools and solutions can provide the knowledge necessary to improve a company's market presence and differentiate their products and services in today's global marketplace."

Intelligent Decision Server

The Intelligent Decision Server (IDS) provides an affordable, easy-to-use solution to both Internet and Intranet users. It allows them to develop and distribute decision-support applications based on advanced analytics. With IDS, for example, a sales manager could request a customized market share report using a familiar browser front-end system such as Lotus Notes(b) or a World Wide Web. The request is sent to the application server, processed and returned as a customized report. Meanwhile, analysts may also be drawing on the same server -- this time using high-end analytical clients. Any change in calculation logic or any new data discovery algorithm is automatically updated for all users with no change in the client software.

Application development within IDS is done in a graphical, icon-based environment, using transformers (executable objects) to perform distinct functions within the Intelligent Miner itself, this speedy development environment also fosters the reuse of object-oriented decision support applications that can be executed from any common network client software, including the Web, Lotus Notes, OS/2(a) and Windows(b). IDS's open Application Program Interface (API) enables support vendors, such as Cognos, Business Objects, Andyne, Brio and others, to work on product integration.