Publications

See an interview in Cisco World Magazine with Stephan Kudyba, covering data mining, corporate productivity, common pitfalls involved in implementing data mining, and more.

Excerpts: ...

Idea Group Publishing (IGP): What is "tangible corporate productivity" and how does data mining contribute to it?

Stephan Kudyba (SK): Tangible corporate productivity refers to measurable productivity or in other words, measurable changes in performance measures. For example, if data mining analysis determines that a certain marketing program should increase sales for a particular product, the results can be calculated tangibly, (e.g. what is my change in sales resulting from a particular marketing program?).

The key to implementation and evaluation of technology is to measure its impact on business performance. Data mining gives managers the ability to monitor the effectiveness of analytical technology by monitoring the results which were a result of the analysis.

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IGP: What are some of the common pitfalls involved in implementing data mining and how can they be overcome?

SK: Common pitfalls of data mining implementation largely involve: 1. Not being able to effectively communicate mining results within an organization. 2. Not having the right data to conduct effective analysis. 3. Not using existing data correctly. 4. Improperly skilled individuals conducting analysis.

The first point can be overcome by increasing the exposure of data mining results throughout an organization and preparing data mining analysis in a business friendly (report manner). Number 2 requires communication between analytical personnel and those individuals that decide on data collection and storage (e.g. the IT department). One of the essential elements to effective mining is the availability of business relevant data; "your analysis is only as good as the data you use". Finally, numbers 3 and 4 require properly skilled individuals to conduct mining analysis. This can be accomplished by hiring experienced personnel or training existing employees.

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See full interview here.