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Preface 23

Both Ramesh and Dursun have worked extensively in DSS and analytics and have
industry as well as research experience.
• A live-update Web site. Adopters of the textbook will have access to a Web site that
will include links to news stories, software, tutorials, and even YouTube videos related
to topics covered in the book. This site will be accessible at http://dssbibook.com.
• Revised and updated content. Almost all of the chapters have new opening
vignettes and closing cases that are based on recent stories and events. In addition,
application cases throughout the book have been updated to include recent exam-
ples of applications of a specific technique/model. These application case stories
now include suggested questions for discussion to encourage class discussion as
well as further exploration of the specific case and related materials. New Web site
links have been added throughout the book. We also deleted many older product
links and references. Finally, most chapters have new exercises, Internet assign-
ments, and discussion questions throughout.
Specific changes made in chapters that have been retained from the previous edi-
tions are summarized next:
Chapter 1, “An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Decision
Support,” introduces the three types of analytics as proposed by INFORMS: descriptive,
predictive, and prescriptive analytics. A noted earlier, this classification is used in guiding
the complete reorganization of the book itself. It includes about 50 percent new material.
All of the case stories are new.
Chapter 2, “Foundations and Technologies for Decision Making,” combines mate-
rial from earlier Chapters 1, 2, and 3 to provide a basic foundation for decision making in
general and computer-supported decision making in particular. It eliminates some dupli-
cation that was present in Chapters 1–3 of the previous editions. It includes 35 percent
new material. Most of the cases are new.
Chapter 3, “Data Warehousing”
• 30 percent new material, including the cases
• New opening case
• Mostly new cases throughout
• NEW: A historic perspective to data warehousing—how did we get here?
• Better coverage of multidimensional modeling (star schema and snowflake schema)
• An updated coverage on the future of data warehousing
Chapter 4, “Business Reporting, Visual Analytics, and Business Performance
Management”
• 60 percent of the material is new—especially in visual analytics and reporting
• Most of the cases are new
Chapter 5, “Data Mining”
• 25 percent of the material is new
• Most of the cases are new
Chapter 6, “Techniques for Predictive Modeling”
• 55 percent of the material is new
• Most of the cases are new
• New sections on SVM and kNN
Chapter 7, “Text Analytics, Text Mining, and Sentiment Analysis”
• 50 percent of the material is new
• Most of the cases are new
• New section (1/3 of the chapter) on sentiment analysis

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