We are living in an era, in which data is everywhere and the large enterprises as well as small businesses are digging for value in Data. Companies’ obsession with data has fueled the demands for data extraction software, which are designed to automate the process of retrieval of data from varied sources. In the age of Big Data, data extraction technology can offer you a competitive advantage that businesses can no longer ignore.
The practice of gathering and storing data is as old as human civilization. But in the age of Big Data, it has acquired a new dimension. Millions of dollars are being spent by the businesses to gain access to a sea of raw data. In today’s highly competitive business landscape, collection and analysis of data have identified as two major pillars of business decision making process. In this data centric world, businesses in diverse industries are leveraging data to get a better understanding of the markets and the customers. With a heavy focus on automation, more and more businesses are relying on a range of data extraction tools and software to gain competitive edge.
The Process of Web Data Extraction
The World Wide Web is home to millions and millions of websites, all containing valuable data. Different businesses find the contents of different websites valuable for different reasons. The government portals, E-commerce sites, social media, competitors’ websites and even job posting sites—all types of websites are tapped by the businesses for raw data. Given the wide range of websites and the enormous volume of contents thereof, the process of manual data extraction becomes complex , time consuming process and prone to human errors. This is where data extraction solutions come into play—they not only speed up the process by capturing data automatically, they capture the data at the right time, store them in the right formats and automatically integrate into a variety of enterprise applications to facilitate data-driven business decision making.
Data Extraction Automation Use Cases
The businesses across the sectors, including health care, finance, E-Commerce, legal, pharmaceuticals and more are leveraging data extraction software to derive web intelligence.
As for example, quick data extraction can enable the share trading companies to garner real time information about the factors that are impacting share prices.
The utility companies can leverage data extraction technology to monitor Internet connected smart meters to monitor the consumers’ energy consumption patterns in real time.
Variety of Ways You Can Benefit From Data Extraction Solutions Investment
- Data extraction solutions can dramatically speed up acquisition and delivery of information across the enterprise applications. In addition to speeding up data acquisition, the software makes data acquisition affordable for a large number of businesses, for whom it used to be an expensive proposition previously.
- At one point of time, data mining referred to a complex project that lasted for months. By using data extraction software, you can wrap up any data automation project within a few days.
- Premium software solutions do not stop by gathering data; they also go on to help integrate the data in your enterprise systems, so that the acquired data can be consumed enterprise-wide to speed up business decision making process.
- With a focus on promoting ease of use, the data extraction solutions are designed keeping the non-technical users in mind. This facilitates a seamless flow of information across the enterprise, enabling the organizations to handle crisis more efficiently and respond more quickly to customer demands.
How They Work
The beauty of data extraction software lies in the fact that they can access even the hardest to reach data that resides in the pages of web browsers, in PDF files, E-mails and in the Microsoft excel s.
In the next step, the software connects the acquired data to enterprise applications. In many cases, the integration is done through traditional APIs. Many advanced software utilize the Synthetic API approach to capture fragmented data. Synthetic Web APIs make capturing of data possible regardless of their locations.
In a nutshell, a suit of data extraction software can significantly improve the team efficiency and productivity. The investment frees your employees from a tedious, error-prone manual process, giving them more time to focus on other aspects of business. This translates into an enhanced brand image and improved bottom line.