The Differences between Data Mining and Predictive Analytics

Data has become an important part of businesses and it gives businesses an advantage over the competition when used appropriately. Data Mining and Predictive Analytics have gotten wider recognition.  

Data Mining and Predictive Analytics use data to discover information and provide the best solutions. Both are commonly linked to explain how data is processed, however, there are substantial differences between them. The difference between Data Mining and Predictive Analytics is that the latter studies the data and the former answers. In essence, they are two different analytical methods with their exclusive benefits.

In this blog, we will examine the differences, as well as the benefits of Data Mining and Predictive Analytics.  

Let’s dive in!

Definitions

Data Mining is the technical process of extracting usable data from a bigger set of any raw data to identify patterns and establish relationships. With data mining, you can identify, investigate, sort, and organize consistent patterns. This is a strategic practice that is essential for successful businesses. Data sources can include databases, data warehouses, and the web.

Predictive Analytics is a valuable tool for forecasting. Predictive Analytics describes a range of analytical and statistical techniques used for determining patterns that may be used to predict future trends, behaviours or outcomes. In other words, Predictive Analytics aims to forecast future events.

Techniques and Tools

There are several innovative and intuitive Data Mining techniques, which include classification, sequential patterns, clustering, regression, outer detection, and association rule discovery. Data cleansing, clustering, and filtering are features a Data Mining tool should have. Two frequently used programming languages in data mining are R and Python.

With the advancement in technology, business users can use a more user-friendly tool to forecast business outcome or market trends. Software technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are Predictive Analytics tools to examine the available data and predict the outcomes.

The Objective

The two main objectives of Data Mining is to offer businesses information by retrieving interesting patterns in the data and to provide businesses with predictive power to assess future values or outcomes.

The objective of Predictive Analytics is to go beyond identifying and understanding what has happened, to offer the best estimation of what will happen in the future. And it helps businesses to get to know their consumers and understand the trends they follow. Although, it will not give an exact picture of what will happen in the future, Predictive Analytics can help businesses mitigate future risks. Businesses will be able to take necessary action at the right time.

Functionality

Data Mining has three phases which are:

a) Exploration – this phase includes business understanding, data understanding, and data preparation. Here, the appropriate data is collected, cleaned, and integrated from multiple sources.

b) Model Building or Pattern Identification – this phase involves modelling and evaluating the data. Here, the same dataset is applied to different models, and the most fitting with the business requirement needs will be chosen and evaluated.

c) Deployment – in this phase an implementation plan is made, strategies to support and monitor the results for its effectiveness are formed, review to check for repetition and finally, the selected data model is applied to predict results. 

Predictive Analytics utilizes various models to analyze and predict a customer’s behaviour. Models can be prepared to analyze the most recent dataset and examine their behaviour. 

Talent

Engineers with a strong mathematical background, machine learning experts, and statisticians’ experts commonly use Data Mining techniques. 

Predictive Analytics is usually employed by business analysts and other field whizzes who are skilled in evaluating and decoding patterns located by machines. 

Benefits  

Data Mining helps businesses to get the information required to make better decisions. As a result, you can add value to your business by better understanding customer segments, purchase patterns, and behaviour analytics. 

Predictive Analytics helps a business to improve efficiency, as well as gain an advantage over the competition. It allows you to tap into valuable information that already exists to provide more insights. Additionally, Predictive Analytics helps to considerably reduce risk and meet consumers’/customers’ expectations.

So, what is the future of Data Mining and Predictive Analytics?

The world of business moves briskly, and technology moves even faster. We are in an era of constant growth, where businesses are using available data for investigating patterns, forecasting outcomes, and executing decisions that will influence their business.

Data Mining and Predictive Analytics are some of the tools that can help businesses to make informed decisions by cutting costs, discovering fraud, saving resources, intensifying productivity, and producing effective results. The future of Data Mining and Predictive Analytics seems bright.

You need the right knowledge or expertise to help you make the best out of Data Mining and Predictive Analysis. Get in touch with us to learn more!

6 Ways to Ensure Your Nonprofit is Secure

There’s a saying that goes something like “why do bad things happen to good people?”. What we are referring to here is the constant security issues for nonprofit organizations. Which is why security should be one of the main priorities for any and all nonprofits! 

In the past, nonprofits didn’t have the monetary funds to allocate towards securing the organization from hackers or other outside threats (which will be discussed later in detail). However, with more traction must come more security. 

In this blog, we’ll look at 6 different steps your nonprofit organization can take to build a strong security system, that way you’re able to stress less and focus on your mission. 

Securing your Nonprofit Organization

As cybersecurity breaches tend to be more common these days, nonprofits must change the way in which their security functions. Compromised data, breaches, and cyber attacks are grave occurrences within today’s technological world and unfortunately, the main targets tend to be nonprofits. 

The last thing your organization needs is to be vulnerable and exposed. You’re able to eliminate this risk by putting security higher on your list of priorities.

How can you be sure your organization is taking the right precautions? Take a look below at the 6 steps to secure your network. 

6 Steps to Secure Your Nonprofit 

1.  Form a security solution to ensure you’re able to detect a breach and respond quickly.

2.  Be aware of how and where your staff, board members, and whoever else is part of your organization are accessing the nonprofit’s data. You need to secure the endpoints with multiple authentications and management solutions. 

3.  Use an “assume breach” method for your security; assume that a breach is about to occur - this reduces the amount of time it takes to recover. 

4.  Move your nonprofit to a secure cloud server; this comes with great benefits! 

5.  Watch out for Shadow IT (e.g. Dropbox or Google Drive which are in your network without authorization). Members of your staff may have downloaded such applications to ease their workload, but without your knowledge, it can put your entire organization at risk. 

6.  Balance your employee’s productivity with your organization’s security. Ensure you’re protecting your data, regardless of where or who it is shared with. 

Microsoft 365 Business is a beneficial tool as it integrates collaboration and productivity resources! 

Do you want to increase your organization’s security? 

If after reading those steps, you fear your organization may be lacking in cybersecurity and are unaware of what security measures should be taken, then consider ISU Corp for your security needs! 

We are able to guide you on proper security measures and offer great security services to ensure your organization is able to accomplish your mission. Reach out to us today to learn more. 

Benefits of Cloud-Based Email

Email is one of the most important communication tools for businesses. Internal email services housed on your servers used to be gold standards for many businesses, but now an increasing number of businesses are moving their email services to the cloud. As there should be – Cloud-based options offer far greater scalability and flexibility than server-based email.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the major benefits that come with implementing a Cloud-based email.

1. Cost Savings

Cloud-based email is a subscription service model, so businesses do not need to purchase servers or software licenses. Getting rid of large capital expenses and changing your email to monthly or annual operating expenses allows for significant cost savings in managing and maintaining the email environment.

2. Easier Disaster Recovery 

Imagine a situation where your internal server or network becomes compromised, then all the data (contract agreements, spreadsheets) in your emails are at risk. Losing all that vital information could cause issues for your business. With Cloud-based emails, problems with hardware don’t matter because all of your emails are stored in the cloud. Your records are more recoverable – since they are always there.

3. Flexible Scalability

With the flexible scalability that Cloud-based email provides, you can increase your email size without major changes to the environment itself. If your business grows, you can modify your user license and storage size depending on your needs.

4. Remote Access

Due to the pandemic, most organizations had to switch to operating remotely. Cloud-based email can be accessed immediately from anywhere, on any device, as long as you have an internet connection (and there’s almost wifi everywhere these days!). The convenient remote access to emails improves productivity as email accounts now have the ability to sync up simultaneously.

5. Improved Security

Using a Cloud-based email means you are using a secure email environment. Your corporate emails will reside in a highly safe location, that is more secure than on-premises. Moreover, Cloud-based email providers devote more resources to securing their facilities than other organizations.

6. Collaboration

The benefit of Cloud-based emails is enhancing collaborative work efforts amongst your business team. You will be able to gain instant access to the latest information available about the ongoing projects. Cloud-based email allows for real-time project collaboration and document editing, as well as instant project updates.

Bottom Line

Cloud email gets rid of the stress and time consuming factors linked with traditional server-based email systems. Cloud email is always up to date with all the recent security features. If your system goes down, you don’t have to worry about losing your data because it is saved in the cloud.

To enjoy all the benefits of cloud email, you must choose a trustworthy cloud provider. If you see your business benefiting from a cloud email service, contact us to begin your trustworthy set-up!