Introduction

The challenge in writing a book on data mining is to differentiate its content from the plethora of other books, articles, and seminars on the same topic. The explosive growth of data has certainly fuelled the need for more discussion on this topic, yet, minimal content has been actually devoted to the topic of data. The focus of the book is on data and its use in shifting the key levers of your business, and to ultimately understand how this drives ROI. Data mining is highly popular now because most businesses understand the value of information and of using it to make more profitable decisions. In most organizations today, data mining either is or will soon be a key business process. Since data mining is relatively new, knowledge and understanding of it is critical for its successful implementation. Certainly, consulting has grown in this field, and many people profess to be experts in data mining. Companies must realize that this is a new field and that it is difficult to find practitioners with extensive experience. As with any other discipline, the key to becoming knowledgeable and acquiring expertise is to put ideas into practice and observe the results. Although much of this practical knowledge has been acquired in the context of direct marketing, the approach and processes of data mining are similar in other areas. The key to attaining data mining excellence is in how one deals with the data. Data Mining is about data and how we derive knowledge from this information. This is the essence of data mining, as you will realize in the course of reading this book.