Data mining is used in many areas of business and research, including sales and especially in customer relation-ship management (CRM). Data mining is a decision support process to solve almost any business problem involv-ing data. CRM is a set of practices and strategies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. Put yourself into the role of the management of a fictional company. Which specific problems in CRM could arise in your company that can be answered and solved with methods of data mining?
Task: Identify the best data mining software to support and optimize the CRM in your company.
As a successful manager you know that customer orientation is a key success factor for your company. In order to improve this, you conduct a business process analysis to identify the top 3 CRM topics (e.g. customer focus, customer acquisition, etc.). The topics of your choice should then be solved using data mining methods. The first step is to create an overview of possible questions with a justified weighting, to describe everything you need to build your data mining-based applications. You will create at least one process diagram (e.g. in Power-Point) and insert it into the written concept to show the tasks in the customer relationship life cycle. This diagram should show which problems can still be solved using data mining models.
A conceptual text (1 DIN A4 page) must be prepared for the submission, explaining these analyses and consid-erations, together with your diagram(s), showing the interaction of the components and the process. A brief ex-planation of the individual top 3 CRM topics, which form the basis for the further process and its solution, must be included in the form of a text of maximum half a DIN A4 page in the designated text field of the template.
After the analysis in phase I, approaches are to be developed that transfer the requirements into the context of data mining. The goal is to specify suitable data mining models that can be used to solve typical CRM require-ments, especially the problems mentioned above. This is where the actual work of implementation begins. Answer the following questions:
- What are the main tasks of a CRM?
- Which methods can be derived from these tasks?
- Which data mining models can be used to solve the methods?
The first goal is to create a general overview about tasks, methods, and models. Answer the question: Which models can be used to solve the problems resulting from the analysis? Justify your presentation and answer. An explanation of the procedure is submitted as a composite presentation PDF (with about 10 slides). The file should contain visual elements that facilitate comprehension, it needs to be structured and hyperlinks to the frameworks used. Furthermore, a brief explanation of the main elements of your approach in the form of a text of maximum half a DIN A4 page must be included in the designated text field of the template.
In the last phase, it should be shown which standard data mining software solutions are possible to cover your requirements. What are possible solution scenarios? Weigh the pros and cons of each scenario. Identify the best toolset for your company by comparing costs, functionality and the coverage of your requirements of the tools. As a result, only one solution scenario should be recommended. Additionally, an abstract is desired which describes the BI-architecture of your company in terms of content and concept and which presents a short description about the chosen BI-Tools in a clear and informative way. The finished product is submitted, together with the abstract.