Mining online users' access records for web business intelligence

Abstract

This paper discusses about how business intelligence on a website could be obtained from users' access records instead of web logs of "hits". Users' access records are captured by implementing an Access-Control (AC) architectural model on the website. This model requires users to register their profiles in an exchange of a password; and thereafter they have to login before gaining access to certain resources on the website. The links to the resources on the website have been modified such that a record of information about the access would be recorded in the database when clicked. This way, datamining can be performed on a relatively clean set of access records about the users. Hence, a good deal of business intelligence about the users' behaviors, preferences and about the popularities of the resources (products) on the website can be gained. In this paper, we also discussed how the business intelligence acquired, in turn, can be used to provide e-CRM for the users.