Many industries have large sets of data to sort through. Without the right kind of software, this task can seem nearly impossible. If you’re wanting to reduce the time and costs that go into inefficient data sorting methods, consider name matching software. Name matching software allows companies to sort through large amounts of data in order to find a specific named entity. Considering that, here is a closer look at name matching and how it can help your company.

Industries Where Name Matching is Used

You’ll commonly find that name matching for big data is popular within several industries. Analyzing large sets of data goes a long way to help improve border security. Border security professionals use text analytics to identify dangers while forecasting future border problems that might occur.

Many companies utilize name matching for big data in order to help with large sets of customer information. Name matching software helps to find, organize, and remove duplicates from large sets of data. This helps to ensure that companies don’t make any mistakes in regards to the vast amounts of data they manage.

Using Name Matching for Big Data

Big data is an industry term given to extremely large amounts of information. Research conducted by the International Data Corporation found that less than 1% of data will ever be analyzed. Considering that, text mining can help your business make use of the 99% of this data. With that in mind, here are a few common name matching mistakes that the right kind of software takes care of.

1. Nicknames
   
   You’ve likely met someone who goes by a nickname. For instance, someone named William might prefer to go by Will. This can get more difficult with name that commonly have multiple nicknames associated with them. In another example, someone named Richard could also be nicknamed Rick or Richie. However, name matching software can keep track of these multiple nicknames for your business.
2. Changes in Name Order
   
   Many businesses utilize multiple systems for keeping track of data. With that in mind, it’s common for certain systems to enter data by using someone’s last name first. While this is perfectly fine way or organizing data, it can lead to you missing out on important information. For instance, someone named Bill Smith might be entered into another system as Smith, Bill. This problem can be become even more confusing if people in your database use a first, middle, and last name.
3. Managing Missing Fields
   
   If your company speaks with many customers, it’s unlikely each worker will enter in a name the same way. In addition, this might not even be the worker’s fault. For example, consider that a customer gives a representative from your company their first and last name. During another call, the customer throws in their middle name. You’ll want to have a name matching engine that catches and detects these variations.
4. Accidental Misspellings
   
   In certain situations, your employees will be working at a fast pace. With that in mind, it only takes one slip of the keyboard for a customer information to be entered incorrectly. Without using name matching for big data, it’s going to be tough for employees to manually catch and correct these errors.

In closing, name matching software is extremely important for many industries. Name matching for big data allows companies to have an easier time managing and sorting through massive amounts of information. This type of software covers misspellings, abbreviations, nicknames, and much more. In turn, this allows a company or organization to quickly sort through and process large amounts of data.