Data mining refers to analyzing data sets to discover hidden patterns and trends. This information can help companies improve strategies for marketing, analyzing customers and markets, increasing revenue, and forecasting sales. Data mining has proven useful in business, computing, biotechnology, and analyzing stock markets. While a relatively new term, data mining has long been used by large corporations to analyze large data sets and draw conclusions. Microsoft has introduced the SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007 to make data mining accessible through a familiar Microsoft Office environment. It connects Excel to the powerful data mining algorithms in SQL Server Analysis Services. The add-in allows users to perform tasks like data preparation, modeling, and validating models with just a few clicks.