OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) is the

technology behind many Business Intelligence

(BI) applications. OLAP is a powerful
technology for data discovery, including
capabilities for limitless report viewing,
complex analytical calculations, and predictive
“what if” scenario (budget, forecast) planning.

How is OLAP Technology Used?

OLAP is an acronym for Online Analytical Processing. OLAP performs
multidimensional analysis of business data and provides the capability
for complex calculations, trend analysis, and sophisticated data
modeling. It is the foundation for many kinds of business
applications for Business Performance Management, Planning,
Budgeting, Forecasting, Financial Reporting, Analysis, Simulation
Models, Knowledge Discovery, and Data Warehouse Reporting. OLAP
enables end-users to perform ad hoc analysis of data in multiple
dimensions, thereby providing the insight and understanding they need
for better decision making.

Advantages of OLAP
Knowledge is the foundation of all successful decisions. Successful
businesses continuously plan, analyze and report on sales and
operational activities in order to maximize efficiency, reduce
expenditures and gain greater market share. Statisticians will tell you
that the more sample data you have, the more likely the resulting
statistic will be true. Naturally, the more data a company can access
about a specific activity, the more likely that the plan to improve that
activity will be effective. All businesses collect data using many
different systems, and the challenge remains: how to get all the data
together to create accurate, reliable, fast information about the
business. A company that can take advantage and turn it into shared
knowledge, accurately and quickly, will surely be better positioned to
make successful business decisions and rise above the competition.
OLAP technology has been defined as the ability to achieve “fast
access to shared multidimensional information.”  Given OLAP
technology’s ability to create very fast aggregations and calculations
of underlying data sets, one can understand its usefulness in helping
business leaders make better, quicker “informed” decisions.

Drill down is a capability that takes the user from a more general view of the data to a
more specific one at the click of a mouse. For example, a report that shows sales
revenue by state can allow the user to select a state, click on it and see sales revenue
by county or city within that state. It is called “drill down” because it is a feature that
allows the user to go deeper into more specific layers of the data or information being
analyzed.

Further levels of drill down can be set up within the report–practically as many as
supported by the data. In our example, the drill-down can go from country to state to city
to zip code to specific location of stores or individual sales reps. Typically, the look and
feel of each level of the report is similar–what changes is the granularity of the data.

Instead of taking the user to a more granular level of the data, drill through takes him to
a report that is relevant to the data being analyzed, also at the click of a mouse. For
example, a tabular report that shows sales revenue by state can allow the user to click
on it and reveal an analysis grid of the same data, or a heat map representing the data
in visual form. It is called “drill through” because it is a feature that allows the user to
pass from one report to another while still analyzing the same set of data.

Benefits of Drill Down and Drill Through

 Gain instant knowledge of different depths of the data – Drill down gives the user a
deeper insight of the data by letting him see what makes up the figures he’s analyzing.
For example, in mere seconds, drill-down answers questions such as: of my National
sales figure, which states are performing better? Which states are underperforming?
And within each state, which territories are driving revenue?
 See data from different points of view – Drill through allows users to analyze the same
data through different reports, analyze it with different features and even display it
through different visualization methods. This greatly enhances the users’ understanding
of the data and of the reasons behind the figures.
 Keep reporting load light and enhance reporting performance – By only presenting one
layer of data at a time, features like drill down lighten the load on the server at query
time and greatly enhance reporting performance–while offering great value to the end-
user.

Data mining is the process of sorting through large data sets to identify

patterns and establish relationships to solve problems through data analysis.
Data mining tools allow enterprises to predict future trends.
Data mining parameters

In data mining, association rules are created by analyzing data for frequent

if/then patterns, then using the support and confidence criteria to locate the
most important relationships within the data. Support is how frequently the
items appear in the database, while confidence is the number of times if/then
statements are accurate.

Other data mining parameters include Sequence or Path

Analysis, Classification, Clustering and Forecasting. Sequence or Path
Analysis parameters look for patterns where one event leads to another later
event. A Sequence is an ordered list of sets of items, and it is a common type
of data structure found in many databases. A Classification parameter looks
for new patterns, and might result in a change in the way the data is
organized. Classification algorithms predict variables based on other factors
within the database.

Data mining tools and techniques

Data mining techniques are used in many research areas, including

mathematics, cybernetics, genetics and marketing. While data mining techniques are a
means to drive efficiencies and predict customer behavior, if used correctly, a
business can set itself apart from its competition through the use of predictive
analysis.

Data Mining 101

Web mining, a type of data mining used in customer relationship management,

integrates information gathered by traditional data mining methods and techniques
over the web. Web mining aims to understand customer behavior and to evaluate how
effective a particular website is.
Other data mining techniques include network approaches based on multitask learning
for classifying patterns, ensuring parallel and scalable execution of data
mining algorithms, the mining of large databases, the handling of relational and
complex data types, and machine learning. Machine learning is a type of data mining
tool that designs specific algorithms from which to learn and predict.

Benefits of data mining

In general, the benefits of data mining come from the ability to uncover hidden
patterns and relationships in data that can be used to make predictions that impact
businesses.

Specific data mining benefits vary depending on the goal and the industry.
Sales and marketing departments can mine customer data to improve lead
conversion rates or to create one-to-one marketing campaigns. Data mining
information on historical sales patterns and customer behaviors can be used
to build prediction models for future sales, new products and services.

Companies in the financial industry use data mining tools to build risk models
and detect fraud. The manufacturing industry uses data mining tools to
improve product safety, identify quality issues, manage the supply chain and
improve operations.

Self-Service Analytics or ad hoc reporting gives users the

ability to develop rapid reports, empowering users to analyze
their data. End users can analyze their data by dynamically
modifying, drilling through, or adding calculation functions to a
report. This flexibility decreases IT resource drain freeing up
valuable development resources.