Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services with MDX and DAX

Chapter 12

Data Mining, Multidimensional BISM, and Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2010

What's in this chapter?

• Understanding the data mining process
• Data mining applications in the real world
• Solving business problems with data mining algorithms in SQL Server Analysis Services 2012
• Working with relational and OLAP mining models
• Using data mining with Office 2010

Not everyone is well versed in the area of data mining, so this chapter starts with what data mining is and what you can do with it. Data mining is the process of applying algorithms to data sets with the goal to expose patterns in the data that would not otherwise be noticed. The reason such patterns would not otherwise be noticed owes to the complexity and volume of data within which the patterns are embedded. Another, less academic way to look at data mining is as a technology that you can use to answer questions like the following:

• When customers visit our corporate web site, what paths are they most likely to take when navigating through the site?
• When a $10 credit card transaction is processed at a gas station immediately followed by a $600 purchase on the same account from an electronics store in a different ZIP code, should a red flag be raised?
• For optimal sales revenue generation in a grocery store, which products should be placed in close proximity to one another?
• What additional products can we recommend to our online shoppers that can help increase our revenue?

To address these types of questions, and many ...