Data mining lets you use historical information to make better business decisions. Whether you know it or not you're managing a lot of databases in your business. Tons of mission-critical information resides in a huge variety of applications on your company's computers. From the customer list in the accounting system to the email in people's inboxes, these bits of information are nuggets of gold if they can make it to the right person at the right time. Through a process called "data mining," you can actually look at historical information and use it to make better business decisions. But data locked in silos can be difficult or impossible to mine. Let me give you an example.

Customer Joe emails his salesperson, irate that the shipment he ordered has not arrived. The salesperson has no access to the shipping system and must offer to call back when he digs up the information. He calls the shipping department, they figure out where the shipment is, and he emails Joe back, reassuring him that the delivery will arrive tomorrow.

There are two things wrong with this scenario. The first is a practical problem: Sales couldn't help Joe right away because the information about the shipment was locked up in an inaccessible system. The second is what blocks any chance of data mining: The fact that Joe complained at all is information that is now locked up in the salesperson's email account, doubtless headed for the delete folder.

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