US Patent 7571191 Defining a data analysis process

A data analysis workbench enables a user to define a data analysis process that includes an extract sub-process to obtain transactional data from a source system, a load sub-process for providing the extracted data to a data warehouse or data mart, a data mining analysis sub-process to use the obtained transactional data, and a deployment sub-process to make the data mining results accessible by another computer program. Common settings used by each of the sub-processes are defined, as are specialized settings relevant to each of the sub-processes. The invention also enables a user to define an order in which the defined sub-processes are to be executed.