The amount of data created every day is staggering. Think about how much online work you do. From posting on social media to looking something up with a search engine to commenting on a news article or your favorite blog, you create data. These days, we do it without even thinking. However, many companies and other entities are very much thinking about the amount of data that we produce each day, because they can grow and learn from it. Big businesses, financial institutions, and security organizations are all keyed into this type of data. But how do they sort through it all? With almost two MB of new information created for every person every second, it seems staggering. This is where identity matching software, text analysis software, and other types of software technology come into play.
What is Text Analysis and Identity Matching Software?
Text analytics software tools convert unstructured text data into data that can be read and analyzed. It’s use to gauge customer opinions, reviews of goods, feedback, sentiment analysis, and entity extraction to help strengthen decision making based on facts. Businesses trying to analyze customer data use these tools frequently, as do organizations that research people. The current market stands at around three billion dollars and is expected to hit around six billion by 2020.
Identity matching software is essentially what it sounds like. It helps match identities to the various pieces that make up our “identity” — social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, names, and so on. Since our identity can change (for example, if you get married and change your name or are the victim of identity theft), we may have pieces of our identity floating around that actually all belong to us. Identity matching software helps all those individual pieces match up.
How are These Tools Useful?
This type of data is extremely useful when it comes to building profiles or backgrounds of people or understanding what consumers want. Security organizations can use it to analyze potential security threats or breaches, whereas other retail organizations might use it to see what promotions or advertising campaigns are really working with customers (and to identify what’s not working).
Indeed, text mining can aid businesses in three huge ways. First, it can give them more precise insights that span a bigger range of documents and sources. Second, it can give businesses a better sense of risk, compliance, and threat detection. And lastly, it can help boost customer engagement, using natural language processing to let businesses have an early peak at what customers are thinking about any changes made.
This information is hugely beneficial for businesses, who can cut off a bad program quickly or pump more money into a program that is working. It improves efficiency, financial decisions, and improvement of the brand. And, in some cases, this kind of technology can work to keep towns, cities, states, and even the country safer.
Who is Using This Type of Software?
There are three main sectors who tend to use this kind of software heavily. Financial firms (like banks, insurance agencies, accountants, etc.,) rely on text analytics, identity matching software, and more to do compliance screening for both customers and employees.
Businesses who want to get a sense of how customers feel about the company and its products can use this software to check in on social media and see what’s being said. It can also help them keep an eye on their competitors and their engagement rates.
Border security, counterterrorism, and cybersecurity units also rely on this software to keep us safer. They’re sifting through an immense amount of content — Facebook alone generates an enormous amount of data, with almost two billion active users monthly worldwide — and this software can help identify potential security threats. It can also be used to help enforce sanctions and screen visas and refugees.
It’s clear that this from text analytics software to entity matching and identity matching software, these tools help millions of people all around the world. They help drive our businesses, our safety, and ultimately, our world.
