Data Mining with Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008

Chapter 5. Implementing a Data Mining Process Using Office 2007

In Chapter 4, you learned how to get the best out of SQL Server Data Mining using the tools in the box, such as BI Development Studio (BI Dev Studio) and SQL Server Management Studio. Although it's true that these tools provide the most comprehensive access to the data mining functionality in SQL Server, it is also true that, for most users, they simply are too much to handle. The Data Mining Add-Ins for Office 2007 do not claim to offer fidelity with BI Dev Studio—or even to cover the entire feature set of SQL Server Data Mining—but they do provide a much simpler client interface for performing data mining. Also, because of the nature of the tools themselves, they offer useful and interesting functionality not present in the toolset that comes with SQL Data Mining.

As with Chapter 4, this chapter is not intended to replace Books Online. Instead, this chapter gives you a higher-level overview, lower-level details, and tricks that allow you to exploit the tools to your best advantage.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following:

• The overall data mining process as implemented using the Data Mining Client for Excel 2007

• The different methods for getting data into Excel, and how to prepare the data for mining

• Creating structures and models using Excel data or external data

• Validating models for accuracy

• Applying, browsing, and managing models

• Creating shareable, interactive model visualizations using the Data Mining Templates ...