Data mining is at the core of business
processes but is the software up to the job, asks Lesley Meall.
Business systems are great at recording transactions and turning
them into vast amounts of data. But they are less effective at turning
the data into information or making it available to those who need
it, when they need it and where they need it. As a result, an entire
industry and layer of specialist software applications has sprung
up, dedicated to putting this right.
Analytics, business intelligence, corporate performance management
systems, dashboards, data mining and visualisation tools all attempt
to address the issue and even the ubiquitous spreadsheet offers possibilities,
all with varying degrees of success.
