Enterprise Decision Management - a Weblog

Useful posts on data mining

Craig Borysowich has some useful posts on his blog this week. He does nice little series on various topics and he recently completed a data mining series. Here are the links with some comments: Obtaining Management Support for Data Mining...

A word about analytics

I was wandering around our R&D facility yesterday and saw a great sign Analytics simplify data to amplify its value Now I have no idea if this is original or a well-known analytic quote. Regardless, I think it is very...

What is Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics is a proven technology that’s been used successfully for decades. It encompasses a variety of mathematical techniques that derive insight from data with one clear-cut goal: find the best action for a given situation. Predictive analytics simplifies data...

What are the Signs that My Business can benefit from predictive analytics?

You need to make fast decisions while weighing many variables. If you have a wide range of data that seems to you that it should influence what you do next and you want to make the decision quickly, typically by...

What can predictive analytics help me do?

Know your customers—and act on the insight. Predictive analytics provides insight on future customer behavior that can help you identify the best action to take on every customer or transaction. And analytics guides other strategic action, such as placing accounts...

Who uses predictive analytics and how?

Predictive analytics is widely used to solve real-world problems in business, government, economics and even science—from meteorology to genetics. Here are some examples of predictive analytics applied to customer decisions. Financial services: A large credit card issuer saw a $6...

How does predictive analytics help automate decisions?

Predictive analytics helps automate "decision strategies"—the decision logic or ruleset that defines the steps, in order, that will be applied in making a given customer decision. For example, one step in a collections strategy may be to use analytics to...

How does predictive analytics differ from data mining and business intelligence?

Data Mining explores, predictive analytics answers "What next?" Predictive analytics and data mining both apply sophisticated mathematics to data in order to solve business problems. But when people talk about data mining, they are usually referring to an analytic toolset...

What are the types of predictive analytics?

Predictive analytics is often used to mean predictive models. Increasingly, people are using the term to describe related analytic disciplines used to improve customer decisions. Since different forms of predictive analytics tackle slightly different customer decisions, they are commonly used...

How does predictive analytics work?

Different types of predictive analytics are applied distinctively in business. Here’s how some frequently used models work. Scorecards-predict customer behavior Scorecards are a popular form of predictive model, used in risk assessment and other areas. A scorecard produces scores that...

How are models developed?

While advanced modeling tools are essential, the real power in modeling comes from the analyst. Model development is equal parts "art" and "science." The analyst must know both what to look for in the data and what will work for...

How much data do I need for predictive analytics?

As a general rule, the more data, the more powerful the model. With enough data, you can build "segmented model" systems, which use multiple models for different customer segments with different predictive patterns. Depending on available data, business goals and...

What are the legal issues in using predictive analytics?

Many countries and industries have legal restrictions on data use, sharing and privacy. Some also have restrictions on how to segment customers for marketing treatment to prevent preferential treatment or discrimination. US lenders, for example, cannot use race or gender...

What makes someone good at building predictive analytics?

Here are a few of the things a good analyst will excel at: Dealing with data bias. Many modeling data sets have biases, missing data on some percentage of customers or an inadequate sample size. For instance, a data sample...

What makes a good predictive analytics provider?

Whether you’re using scores for the first time or selecting enterprise- class modeling systems, choosing the right analytics provider is critical. A good analytics provider has both experience—in analytic technique and building models that work in practice—and the ability to...