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Rockin' Your World
May 7, 2004
Source: bettermanagement.com
Is it a mountain, a pyramid, or just
a pile of rocks? What differentiates the three?
The distance from which we're observing, our size
in relation to the size of the object we're observing,
the way in which the parts form the whole-all
of these details combine to help us decide what
we're looking at.
Numbers, names, size, color, age,
height-these are facts. Bring them together in
some kind of collection, and you have data. Identify
patterns and trends, and collation and intersection
points, and you have information. Finding patterns
and trends and collation and intersection points
in your information leads to knowledge. Knowledge
drives action.
How we make decisions is influenced
strongly by the data we have available and the
format of its presentation. Take, for example,
the number string 9715916034. Glance at it for
a moment, then look away and try to remember the
full number. It's difficult, isn't it? Now look
at the same number for the same amount of time,
but in a new way: 971-591-6034. You'll find it
far simpler to recall accurately, especially if
you live in the United States or make frequent
international calls. That's because it's formatted
in the same order as a United States phone number.
In fact, if you make a lot of long distance calls
in the U.S., you might even recognize the state
represented by the first three digits. Now look
at this number string: 971-59-1603. Different
by only one digit, but if you live in the United
States, you'll instantly recognize the "cadence"-
it is, of course, a representation of a U.S. Social
Security number.
How data is organized and presented
makes a huge difference in its value. We organize
data in many ways, but with one end goal-to turn
that data into information, and hence into knowledge
to help us make decisions, chart strategies and
avoid risks.
The challenge, of course, is how
to do all that efficiently, accurately, effectively,
profitably and timely. That's where data warehousing
and business analytics technologies come into
the picture. Data collection, sorting, aggregation
and preparation produce data that is accurately
and appropriately prepared for analysis. Business
intelligence and reporting systems can then further
aggregate, summarize and evaluate data, looking
for patterns, repetitions or exceptions that might
identify trends or events of interest. Business
analytics go even further, applying extensive
or complex statistical processes to uncover less
obvious associations and patterns.
Recognizing the simple methods we
use in our everyday lives to organize and classify
information helps us understand the value of applying
similar techniques to our business data. It's
only when you can make sense of the data that
you know whether you're climbing a pile of rocks,
or a mountain. For an excellent real-world example,
read Inside Text Mining and learn how hospitals
are applying text mining practices to identify
and quantify quality services.
Rock on, dude.
Shelly Stalnaker
Editor Bettermanagement.com
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