From data to decisions: Knowledge discovery solutions for intelligent enterprises

To compete in today's environment, organizations have to develop an ability to use intelligently the knowledge assets already inherent within them as well as the new intellectual capita/they create daily. Many companies have already adopted some type of business intelligence (BI) tools such as report writers, spreadsheets, and, more recently, OLAP to gain a competitive advantage in decision making. However, these tools are woefully inadequate at analyzing data patterns. Thus, superior tools and methods are required. Knowledge discove1y is about understanding a business. It is a process that solves business problems by analyzing the data to identify patterns and relationships that can explain and predict behavior. It enables an organization to better understand its core business processes by searching automatically through voluminous data, looking for patterns of events, and presenting these to the business in an easy-to-understand graphical form. Knowledge discove1y is then a competitive necessity for today's organizations. This chapter describes various knowledge discove1y tools and technologies that can help to create intelligent enterprises.