"The hardest thing in the world is trying to convince somebody to spend 10 grand on a stat package. . . I would, but I'm not the person making the decision."

Advanced Scout is currently available from VG, and in use by several other teams in the NBA.

Describing an example typical of a data mining pattern, Tom Weber writes, "…systems that might detect that an abnormally high number of people came in complaining of flu-like symptoms without runny noses, and it might notice that all of them work in, say, postal facilities. Those two facts combined might trigger further investigation."

With a coordinated set of data sources available, early detection and early warning become possible. Quoting Virtual Gold's CEO, Inderpal Bhandari, "…it will require analyzing health-care records in conjunction with other sorts of data. 'It's when you correlate all this stuff together that you get the earliest warning'."

MedInt is Virtual Gold’s first offering under its new initiative on MachInt, i.e., the use of computers to provide cueing or early warning from data pertaining to national security. “In today’s world, we need to be vigilant and proactive in combating all forms of terrorism”, stated Thomas J. Martin, Executive Vice President, Virtual Gold, Inc. “We are leveraging our advanced data mining software platform to build and create smart computer applications to protect corporations and communities from these new threats”.

MailInt is Virtual Gold’s second offering under its new initiative on Machint, i.e., the use of computers to provide cueing or early warning from data pertaining to national security. It can work in conjunction with MedInt, Virtual Gold’s smart computer program to provide early warning of bio-chemical terrorism. “In today’s world, enterprises need to be vigilant and proactive in combating all forms of terrorism”, stated Thomas J. Martin, Executive Vice President, Virtual Gold, Inc. “We are committed to leveraging our advanced data mining software platform to build and create smart computer applications to protect corporations and communities from these new threats”.

Dr. Bhandari launched Virtual Gold’s new initiative on MachInt, short for machine intelligence, a term well suited to denote the use of computers to provide cueing or early-warnings from data pertaining to national security. He sees a critical need for intelligence agencies to develop a sophisticated MachInt capability to go along with other intelligence capabilities such as SigInt (signal intelligence), ElInt (electronic intelligence) and HumInt (human intelligence). “Homeland security and intelligence agencies must build on the strength of technical data collection through the use of coordinated, proactive analysis of that data”, he said. “Strategically, it is the only way forward”.

Dr. Bhandari sees three major hurdles for homeland security and intelligence agencies as they try to become proficient at proactive analysis. First, they do not have an understanding of what it entails. Second, there are no off-the-shelf software packages available to help implement solutions to their unique set of problems. Third, unlike traditional intelligence capabilities, the MachInt infrastructure must extend to local, front-line response units. Virtual Gold’s initiative will remove these obstacles by anticipating security needs and making suitable early-warning applications available to relevant organizations (including front-line organizations) before those needs arise.

Dr. Bhandari described how Virtual Gold’s new initiative leads to proactive action. “We have a proprietary intelligent computer program currently under development that extrapolates future attack scenarios from patterns of past terrorist activities. We also have a proprietary software development platform that automatically introduces MachInt capability in off-the-shelf database and Internet software. We will use our extrapolative analysis to understand worst-case scenarios and use our development platform to rapidly develop intelligent computer programs to provide early warning of those scenarios. Then we will contact the relevant organizations to customize and deploy those programs”.

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In response, Virtual Gold is developing two MachInt software applications, the first tracks questionable mail nationwide and provides early-warning of contamination, while the second tracks initial symptoms nationwide and provides early-warning of exposure. Both applications are largely automated hence efficient. This will reduce the load on the public health and enforcement infrastructures.

Virtual Gold will have these applications functional by the end of this week - less than two weeks after the scenario was extrapolated, indicated Thomas J. Martin, Executive Vice President. “These applications were created using our software development platform that automatically introduces MachInt capability in off-the-shelf database and internet software. We will confer with local law enforcement and health departments, the heads of corporate security in large enterprises, the Postal Service, Centers of Disease Control, to customize the solution to reflect their deeper understanding of the issue. Working proactively in this fashion, the applications can be fully deployed well before the start of the holiday season”.

"Our signal intelligence communities are awash in data," says Frank Cilluffo, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Global Organized Crime Project. "Processing the data, even if you have it, is difficult. Seeing how that information makes sense or doesn't make sense is difficult. . . . It's putting usable information on those systems, and linking what may not seem linkable in real-time, that is the challenge."

"The competition for the Best Practices Awards was exceptionally strong this year," said Ellen Hobbs, General Manager of TDWI. "As always, the quality of the applications was first rate, but several nominations distinguished themselves as true best practices that others can learn from and utilize in their own data warehousing and business intelligence implementations."

Integrated Data Analysis Category Winner: National Basketball Association

Nominating Organization: Virtual Gold, Inc. & IBM

NBA Coaches Score Big with data-mining application

Yankees, Mets... and Virtual Gold's data mining software...Digging in for the World Series...

HARTSDALE, NY, Oct. 23, 2000 -By way of illustrating how its cutting-edge, patent-pending VirtualMinerTM software can be used to transform raw data into strategic insights, Virtual Gold, Inc., a leading data mining and business intelligence company, is working with Major League Baseball, SportsLine.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:SPLN), and MasterCard to create the feature called "Game Within The Game" on http://www.mlb.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball. Following each game, Virtual Gold provides MLB.com with unique statistical facts that have been mined from game data. Within minutes, the MasterCard sponsored feature is available on the site, providing Subway Series fans with additional facts from which to debate the superiority of their team.

A few examples from Game 2:

Rocket went outside, not inside, with a 1-2 count. Roger Clemens got ahead of batters with a 1-2 count on 20 occasions. Despite his tendency to throw inside, Clemens threw only one inside pitch with this favorable count, as opposed to 10 outside pitches. The Mets hitters went 0-for-6 with a 1-2 count against Clemens, making out twice on outside pitches and four times on pitches over the middle of the plate.

Hampton needed to go high or low for success. Mike Hampton performed well as long as he avoided belt-high pitches. Yankee batters went 0-for-5 on low pitches against the Mets starting pitcher, and 0-for-3 against high pitches. The Yankee hitters slugged Hampton when his pitches were at a middle-height, crushing eight hits in 16 at-bats (.500).

The complexity of this mining exercise is best understood by noting that a single pitch thrown by a World Series pitcher has more than 2 million combinations of circumstances, making it difficult for such patterns to be identified without the use of Virtual Gold's software.

Dictaphone Announces Partnership with Virtual Gold
Dictaphone Will Bundle 3-dVTM Data Mining With da Vinci^TM Recording Systems

Software from Virtual Gold finds hidden patterns and potential solutions in call center data

DALLAS, Jan. 24, 2000 -Dictaphone Corporation today said it will bundle 3-dV^TM, a powerful data mining capability, with all its da Vinci^TM quality monitoring systems for contact centers. Dictaphone said it will begin shipping the 3-dV-enabled da Vinci products in the second quarter of this year. The company is demonstrating the new software at Call Center 2000 here.

Developed in partnership with Virtual Gold, Inc., an industry pioneer in developing application-specific data mining programs, 3d-V will help da Vinci users collect and analyze diverse pieces of contact center data and identify hidden problems that the center can address to improve the quality of its customers' experiences. 3d-V will then call up samples of calls and associated data that contact center operations teams and quality assurance departments can review to further confirm and understand the uncovered problem.

"This is a logical extension of da Vinci's focus on evaluating the customer experience that sets it apart from our competitors," said Art Schoeller, vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for Dictaphone's Communications Recording Systems (CRS) division. "Traditional quality monitoring systems focus only on the contact center agent's performance and known problems. Da Vinci and 3d-V represent a first in the industry: They can actually analyze agent performance data, customer experience data and CTI data to uncover and present hidden patterns that suggest solutions leading to better customer relations and more effective contact center operation."

"Dictaphone raised the bar for our competition a year ago with da Vinci's customer-centric approach," Schoeller added. "With 3-dV, we're now doing it again."

Virtual Gold's founder, Dr. Inderpal Bhandari, created one of the pioneering application-specific data mining programs as an IBM researcher, namely, the IBM Advanced Scout Program, which is used by National Basketball Association coaches to identify hidden patterns in game data and video, leading to new coaching strategies.

In August 1997, Dr. Bhandari and his Virtual Gold associates began development of an advanced technology that could put application-specific data mining tools in the hands of a wide range of non-technical, mainstream business users. The result of their effort is the VirtualMiner FrameworkTM(VMF), a patent-pending technology that makes it simple to create cost-efficient, easy-to-use data mining applications for decision-makers. 3-dV is based on the VMF technology.

"3-dV works effectively in call center monitoring," Dr. Bhandari said. "For example, when applied to a customer's data, 3-dV found that call durations increased most significantly when they included exactly one transfer. Contrary to the common sense inference that additional transfers would lengthen the call even more, a second transfer usually meant a shorter overall call. They reviewed sample calls and learned that the second transfer-usually to a higher supervisory level-actually tended to wrap the call up more quickly. The conclusion: revised procedures for deciding when to escalate a call. The result: shorter calls and happier, more loyal customers."

Early response to the system from industry analysts has been enthusiastic. "Dictaphone is the only quality monitoring vendor to offer this data mining capability," said Sheila McGee-Smith, analyst for The Pelorus Group. "It's something that could very well leapfrog them over their competition."

About da Vinci
Introduced last year, Dictaphone's award-winning da Vinci solution gives contact centers customer-centric quality monitoring combined with advanced CTI-enabled call recording and retrieval capabilities. Da Vinci is the first quality monitoring system to track and evaluate the contact center's most important activity - managing the customer's complete experience, even in cases where the call is transferred several times. The da Vinci system has won several important industry awards, including the recently announced "Hot Pick 2000" award from the Call Center News Service.

About Dictaphone CRS
Dictaphone's CRS business unit provides two broad solution platforms to call centers serving a wide range of fields including financial, insurance, travel, utility and public safety. Several of its products, including the FreedomTM* open-architecture recording system and the da VinciTM* quality monitoring/call management system, were launched within the past two years. Dictaphone has strategic alliances and relationships with a number of companies, including GTE, DST Systems, Nortel, Communico Ltd., Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., Siemens and Virtual Gold, Inc.

Rice High School Strikes Gold

New York, New York. Rice High School, "Harlem's Heroes of the Hardwood," are about to show the world once again that they can reign supreme both on and off the court; this time in the arena of educational technology.

Rice High School is happy to announce a landmark project in education made possible through a partnership with Virtual Gold, Inc, a leader in web-based, patent-pending data mining technology now available to mainstream, non-technical users.

While at IBM, the Virtual Gold people created the Advanced Scout data mining program now used extensively by 22 teams of the National Basketball Association. The company, is now about to widen its on- court advantage as it delivers data mining to the entire sports world by launching www.sportsminer.com, a public web site for fans, athletes, coaches and the media. Starting today the young men at Rice High School, in conjunction with Virtual Gold, Inc., will be leading this effort both on and off the court. Even before the public has access to this exciting new sports tool, Rice High School students will increase their knowledge and use of data mining technology.

"This is truly a moment to remember in our efforts to make students successful in a world where math, science, and technology are the keys to their future," said Brother John Walderman, President of Rice High School. "It is rare to find a technology company that will put education first on its agenda. It is even more rare to find a technology company that will give high school students first access to its new advanced technology. I believe that this project will be remembered as one of the first great educational moments of the new millennium."

Students will be able to look at sports statistics on the Internet in an innovative way, using interactive media technology as well as contribute to the development of the school's sports teams by discovering useful patterns in team data. According to Ed Marrero, Director of Public Relations at Rice High School, work will be started to integrate the SportsminerTM with the total curriculum. "We will work in collaboration with educational technology experts and other schools to create interdisciplinary programs that take advantage of this unique technology tool." Since www.sportsminer.com will be Internet accessible, soon other schools around the country will be able to participate in the project and emulate the Rice High School experience.

In recent months Rice High School has launched several technology initiatives including the first Harlem Atmospheric Weather Observatory made possible through partnerships with Toshiba America Foundation, The William E. Simon Fund, and IBM; and is piloting the national Technology Mentoring Partnership Program, brainchild of Herman "Woody" Dorsey, Chair Emeritus of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and Plant Manager of Con Edison's 59th Street Generating Station in New York City. The program generates an estimated 1.5 million in full college scholarships through (NACME) National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering for qualifying Rice students. Its mentors will make use of SportsminerTM to introduce students to concepts in engineering, math, science as well as the process of strategic thinking.

The project is due for launching with a 10:00am press conference at Rice High School on Friday, January 28, 2000. Dr. Inderpal S. Bhandari, Founder and CEO of Virtual Gold, Inc. in Hartsdale, New York will attend the Rice High School announcement. For more information please contact: Ed Marrero, Director of Public Relations.