Unlocking Business Insights: Strategic Applications of Data Mining Techniques

The assignment content discusses various data mining techniques such as classification analysis, association rule learning, outlier detection or anomaly, clustering analysis, regression analysis, tracking patterns, prediction technique, and their importance in different industries like communications, insurance, education, manufacturing, banking, retail, service providers, E-Commerce, supermarkets, Crime Investigation, and bioinformatics. These data mining techniques help organizations to acquire knowledge-based information, make profitable adjustments, automate forecasting of behavior and trends, and discover latent patterns.

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Data Mining Techniques-Importance of Data Mining
Techniques
29th June 2019
Data Mining
Data mining can be defined as the process which helps in discovering several patterns in
large sets of data involving techniques of intersecting statistics, machine learning, and a
database system. It is an in a disciplinary sub-category of statistics and computer science. It
aims at extracting information along with intelligent methods from a set of data and
transforming the same into a comprehensive structure which could be used for other
purposes. In discovering knowledge on the database, the role of data mining is quite
analytical. It is basically the analytical step which involves data management and database
management. It also involves model, data pre-processing, and inference considerations along
with complexity consideration, intersecting risk metrics, visualization, post-processing of
investigated structures and online updating. Data mining has a wide scope in analyzing
different sets after gathering and transforming them. Sometimes we get confused by data
mining and data analysis. These two concepts are quite different from each other. Data
analysis is applied to hypothesis and test models on the data set. For example, data analysis is
mainly used in analyzing marketing campaign effectiveness irrespective of the quantity of
data. On the other hand, we can see data mining makes the use of statistical models and
machine learning to investigate and reveal hidden patterns in a large quantity of data.
The main aim of data mining is to extract knowledge and patterns from a huge volume of
data. It is not only limited to the extraction of data. It is frequently used in referring to large
volume data or the process of collecting, extracting, warehousing, analyzing, and producing
statistical information. It is also equally applicable to the domain of decision support system
of computer and machine learning along with business intelligence. In the domain of artificial
intelligence, the use of data mining can be observed. It can be said that data mining is a semi-
automatic task or an automatic analysis of the huge volume of data with the aim of extracting
interesting patterns and unknown patterns of data records, dependencies, and unusual records.

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Here, the dependencies mean sequential pattern, mining, and rule mining. On the other hand,
unusual records indicate anomaly detection of several groups of data records. Several
database techniques are involved in spatial indices. Database techniques are found as a
summary of the entire input data which could be used in predictive analysis and machine
learning. Data mining process or step identifies several groups within the data which could be
applied to gather more comprehensive and accurate predictions on the basis of the decision
support system.
Data Mining Techniques
There can be several data mining techniques which are used to cater to specific business
problems and to come up with a different insight. It is very important to identify the
particular type of business issue or problem which is to be solved with the application of data
mining techniques. If the business problem is identified accurately, it should be quite easier to
select the particular data mining technique which could be useful in yielding best results.
Today's world has become quite digital in nature. People are surrounded by huge quantities of
data. It could be forecasted that there would be a rapid growth of 40% per year in the coming
decade. But there is a challenge in this \rapid growth. The population is slowly drowning in
data but people are starving for accurate knowledge. The basic reason behind this is the fact
that all the data which are created are difficult to get processed. The failing initiatives to big
data have generated huge amorphous data. The basic knowledge is buried inside. If people do
not have the strength of powerful techniques and tools of mining such data, it would be
highly challenging for them to gather benefits from the data. There are some of the data
mining techniques which can help the business organizations and the entire population to
develop optimal results to some particular problems.
The data mining techniques help in the analysis of different data from different angles and
perspective. Now, we can have the knowledge to develop our decisions on the selection of
the best-suited data mining technique so as to summarise data and come up with useful
information. It is very important that the information which we develop with the application
of any one of the data mining techniques can be applied in solving different business
problems. These techniques are highly important because actually help in analyzing the
problems and identifying the workable solutions which could not only increase the revenues
of the business but also could increase customer satisfaction and decrease unwanted operating
and business costs. Furthermore, these techniques have been introduced after several

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experiments and trials. Therefore, people can depend on these techniques to understand the
business problems and to figure out the best-suited solutions to each of the problem. The
main aim of the business owners and analysts is to come up with prudent strategies and
decisions which could eliminate the issues and put in place effective policies and actions
increase the overall performance and revenues of the business.
Classification analysis- Classification analysis is a data mining technique which is applied to
retrieve relevant and important information about metadata and data. It is mainly used in
classifying several data and categorizing them in different classes. The classification process
is quite similar to that of clustering because in the case of classification, data segments are
created from data records and the segments are known as classes. But in the case of
clustering, the data analysts initially gather knowledge of different cluster and classes. So in
the case of data classification and analysis, we can apply algorithms with the aim of deciding
the ways new data could be classified. For example, in the case of Outlook Email, algorithms
are used to characterize a particular email as spam or legitimate.
Association rule learning- Association rule learning is another data mining technique which
helps in identifying interesting relations like dependency modeling. The relations which are
revealed by this technique highlights the relationships among different variables present in
large databases. This technique helps us in unpacking some latent patterns in the data which
could be used to recognize variables present within the data and also could highlight the
concurrence of several variables appearing quite frequently in the data set. This technique is
quite essential and useful for forecasting and examining customer behaviors. It is highly
important that this method could bring in positive results in the retail industry sector. This
technique is also used in determining catalog design, product clustering, and shopping basket
data analysis and store layout. In the domain of Information Technology, the professionals
are found to use this technique to develop programs which are capable of machine learning.
Outlier detection or Anomaly- Outlier detection or Anomaly is another method of data
mining in which observation for different items of data present in a data set which actually do
not match with unexpected behavior or pattern takes place. Anomalies are the novelties,
outliers, deviations, noise, and exceptions. They are actionable and critical information
providers. Anomaly is basically an item which deviates from common average present
between a data sets or in a combination of various data. These items are generally statistically
isolated from the rest of the data. They basically indicate something special or when

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something out of an ordinary takes place which needs additional attention. This data mining
technique can be applied in system health monitoring, intrusion detection, fault detection,
fraud detection, sensor networks, event detection, and ecosystem disturbance detection. The
analysts discover outcomes with efficiency and accuracy by removing from the database stop
the anomalous data.
Clustering analysis- Clustering analysis is another data mining technique which actually
considers the collection of data objects which are similar within a particular cluster. The
objects within a particular cluster are found to be having similar properties when they are in
the same group but they are dissimilar or different from the objects present in other clusters
or groups. It is a process of revealing clusters and groups in the data with the help of a
process where the association degree between any two objects is found to be highest. But
they should belong to a similar group. The result of clustering analysis can be applied in
developing customer profiling. It is another important method which is quite similar to that of
the classification method of data mining. But in the case of clustering, a grouping of data
takes place between the data which are of similar nature. Clustering can be done on the basis
of demographics of the audience of any particular organization. The disposable income of
that particular target segment can be recognized and identified by the method of clustering.
This method also helps the business organizations and brands to develop an idea of the
frequency of purchasing of the shoppers.
Regression analysis- Regression analysis is another important and commonly found data-
mining technique which is expressed in statistical terms. Regression analysis is the method of
identifying and analyzing the fundamental relationship between several variables. This
method can help us in understanding the fundamental and characteristic value of several
dependent variables and their changes. The changes independent variables take place when a
single independent variable gets varied. This method is also an important method because it
identifies the basic value of various dependent variables and analyses their changes with the
change in independent variables. In the domain of forecasting and predicting, regression
analysis technique is very commonly used to come up with an accurate outcome.
Tracking patterns
Tracking patterns is one of the fundamental techniques of data mining which is used in
learning the patterns in the data sets. This technique is basically a recognition of some of the
aberration in our data which are taking place at regular intervals and it also helps in

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recognizing the flow of variables with time. For example, the sales of any product or service
can seem to be getting higher before some particular holidays. Some organizations can also
observe that a particular website gets the majority of the views because of a particular season.
These data patterns are recognized by tracking patterns method.
Prediction technique
Prediction is another important and valuable technique of data mining. It is very important
because it is implemented to project particular types of data which the business organizations
assume or predict for the future. In most of the cases, understanding and recognizing
historical trends is sufficient to result in accurate prediction about future outcomes. For
example, the prediction technique helps in reviewing credit histories of the consumers and
their past purchases and provide information about whether the customers will be credit risk
for the future or not.

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Importance of Data Mining Techniques
Data mining techniques are highly important and valuable because they help business
organizations to acquire knowledge-based information. They also support organizations to
make profitable adjustments in their production and operation. Data mining is one of the
efficient and cost-effective solutions compared to any other statistical data application. It can
be said that data mining basically helps the decision-making process to become more
efficient. It also facilitates automated forecasting of behavior and trends and also an
automated discovery of latent patterns. Data mining techniques can be implemented in both
existing platforms and new systems. These techniques can help the users to analyze the huge
quantity of data in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Data mining techniques have
different applications in different segments such as communications, insurance, education,
manufacturing, banking, retail, service providers, E-Commerce, supermarkets, Crime
Investigation, and bioinformatics.
In the domain of communication, data mining techniques are implemented in predicting
consumer behavior and helping business organizations to offer relevant campaigns and highly
targeted promotional strategies. In the field of insurance, data mining techniques can help the
insurance organizations to fix the prices of their deliverables in an efficient way where the
insurance providers can earn profits and promote various new offers to both their existing and
new customers. In the field of education, data mining techniques help educators to have
complete knowledge about the data of the students. The educators can get comprehensive
knowledge of the students on the basis of their achievements. They could predict such levels
of achievement and they could also group the students on the basis of their merits. That also
enhance their focus on the students who need extra attention. For example, the students weak
in Physics can be provided with additional support and attention by the educators. In the field
of manufacturing, the data mining techniques help in predicting depreciation of the
production assets. The manufacturers can also anticipate overall maintenance so as to reduce
that defect and to reduce downtime. In the domain of Banking, data mining techniques help
the financial sectors to acquire better knowledge on the market risks. The bankers and the
financial sector can manage and organize regulatory compliance from the data they get from
the data mining techniques. The banks can easily identify probable defaulters and they could
also make prudent decisions regarding the issuance of loans and credit cards on the basis of
the information. Data mining techniques also help grocery stores and retail malls to identify
most attentive positions of sellable items. The retailer could also arrange such items so as to

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earn desired profitability. The shop owners could also come up with several lucrative offers
which could motivate the customers to enhance their purchases and spending.
The service providers such as the utility industrial participants and the mobile phone dealers
can use several data mining techniques in predicting the fundamental reasons behind
switching of customers from their brands to the others. The service providers could also
analyze customer service interactions, billing details, complaints of the customers, and issues
in offering incentives. This information helps the service providers to come up with prudent
strategies to minimize customer complaints and grievances and to retain their valuable
customers. The supermarkets also develop several rules with the help of data mining
techniques in predicting the expectations of their shoppers. The buying patterns of the
customers would be better evaluated from the data they get. The supermarket owners would
have detailed information and knowledge about the particular products and demands of some
particular target segments. We can also find in the domain of crime investigation, data mining
techniques are of great help. These techniques help the agencies engaged in crime
investigation to deploy suitable police workforce in the areas where frequent crimes are
found to take place. Data mining techniques are also widely used in bioinformatics where
these techniques are helpful in mining biological data from huge data sets required on the
domain of medicine and biology. Therefore, it can be said that data mining techniques are all
about analyzing and explaining the past with the aim of forecasting the future for better
analysis. Huge quantity of data can be extracted by the help of data mining techniques. The
data mining techniques are highly important because they could be used in diverse industries
and could help in solving any kind of business problems.