Nigeria - Companies operating in Nigeria have been urged to embrace data mining and predictive analytics for more efficient decision making and improvement of revenues among other benefits. A data mining and predictive analytics expert and Chief Executive Officer of Cognitro Analytics, United States , Dr. Amjad Zaim, made the call in Lagos recently. Data mining is sorting through data to identify patterns and establish relationships while predictive analytics is the process of dealing with variety of data and apply various mathematical formulas to discover the best decision for a given situation.

Speaking to newsmen at seminar organised jointly by FCSL Group, Cognitro Analytics and Datasense, on Data Mining and Predictive Analystics, Zaim said that due to lack of knowledge, many companies all over the world have failed to optimise the benefits of tool.

According to him, as companies strive to compete for customers, optimize business performance and achieve operational efficiency, a new culture of decision making in business is emerging; one that is guided by intelligent insights drawn from advanced data analysis and information discovery. The new culture, he said, is data mining and predictive analytics.

Zaim said, "Data mining and predictive analytics are changing the landscape of decision making, empowering companies to harness the full power of its most valuable assets data, and enabling companies to profit from it. Data mining involves sifting through data in search of precious information. From a business point of view, it is the process that allows an organization to read between the lines and discover the needs, aspirations, risks and opportunities within the target market. Technically speaking, it is the art and science of extracting hidden patterns from large database, describing an interesting phenomena and predicting future trends, hence the terms descriptive analytics and predictive analytics."

Zaim explained that data mining has huge impact on almost every level of organisation or community.

"Data mining and predictive analytics benefit companies and organisation by improving efficiency of business, minimizing the risk of losses, improving revenue and profitability and quality of services of companies," he said.

He added that when companies embrace data mining, they get better understanding of customer behavior which will in turn propel better decision.

"They can also generate more business by identifying hidden markets and reaching those markets. Profitability is improved because abnormal patterns in sales and transactions are could be detected and corrected," he noted.

He said that through the seminar, it was demonstrated how managers can effectively tap into their corporate databases and employ data mining and predictive analytics to transform their raw data into knowledge that provides significant business intelligence and competitive advantage.

Goddy Egene

This Day/10/03/2011