Text Mining for Hospitality
December 1, 2010
The hospitality industry knows that success lives and dies according to customer perceptions. Many of these establishments employ methods of gathering customer feedback to enhance their services. But, as the article “Text Mining in Hotel Reviews” points out, many customers will tell a hotel one thing and then say something completely different in public. In order to get around this roadblock to excellent service, it’s necessary to perform sentiment analysis, in which customer opinions from other, “unofficial” sources are gathered. These sources can include Facebook, Twitter, and other social content engines. In this article, a comparison of the Bellagio and Bally’s in Las Vegas.
Bedbugs enjoy hospitality too.
The author discusses how he looked at different categories such as location, price, and rooms and gathered customer opinions from all over the web. This analysis had a surprising outcome that might not have been discovered had the hotels only relied upon their own surveys. Let’s hope that more hospitality establishments will follow this new trend in order to find out what their customers really want. Now if only they could do something about those bedbugs.
Laura Amos, December 1, 2010
Freebie
MarkLogic Delivers a Hat Trick
November 18, 2010
On November 17, 2010, in the high stakes game of data management, MarkLogic delivered a hat trick. First, the company put 450 to 500 people in a ballroom. In today’s stormy financial weather, the turnout shouts. The second goal was the line up of speakers. MarkLogic’s president hit his stride with a run down of MarkLogic’s financial performance, technical innovations, and client uses of the MarkLogic server’s ability to get unruly information to deliver results. The third goal was the technical deep dives that revealed MarkLogic’s robustness and the technology’s performance.
The MarkLogic government summit also revealed how the firm’s technology is helping veterans gain access to resources. The Warrior Gateway, built on MarkLogic’s technology, came to life in the remarks of Colonel David Sutherland. How powerful was the colonel’s 40 minute talk?
A three minute standing ovation and six people sitting near me with tears in their eyes. The emotion spoke volumes about how effective data management helps solve difficult problems for veterans re-entering their home life, forever changed by war fighting. Ease of use, yes. Performance, yes. Stable system, yes. Many vendors’ systems–maybe most vendors’ systems?–do not measure up to what MarkLogic delivers. That’s MarkLogic’s gain: surging revenues and customers who know the product delivers.
I was there and paid for my time, but I would have gone for free. I think you will want to navigate to www.marklogic.com and read about the firm’s enabling technology. I think you will find the videos shot on site and uploaded in near real time interesting.
But the message is, “MarkLogic has a technology that works.”
In today’s world where marketing baloney and former English majors explain complex technology, I find it refreshing to learn from customers how rocket science helps people meet their invitation needs.
MarkLogic won today in a shut out. Get your ticket for the next match now. I expect a repeat.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2010
Sponsored post and an honest one
Autonomy Outflanks Rivals with Push into Healthcare
November 15, 2010
A Beyond Search Exclusive: Interview with Fernando Lucini
The news in Harrods Creek arrives a day late and a dollar short. We heard that Autonomy, the search and content processing outfit with nearly $1 billion in annual revenues and more than 20,000 customers, has rolled out a new service.
Auminence delivers a vertical solution for the global healthcare industry. Like other Autonomy’s products and services, the solution’s heart is IDOL or what Autonomy calls an “integrated data operating layer.” I think of IDOL as a platform upon which solutions are constructed. Search is one use case for IDOL, which relies on smart numerical recipes. Autonomy IDOL now dispatches problems in video search, fraud detection, big data analytics, and business intelligence.
The firm’s Auminence offering is a vertical play, and it comes at a time when the US healthcare industry is being forced to look for new methods, new systems, and new ways of handling health, medical, wellness, and administrative challenges. Timing is one of Autonomy’s core competencies. The firm’s new healthcare service is as prescient as Autonomy’s move into eDiscovery and collaborative services.
Not surprisingly, Auminence delivers actionable information. The chief architect of the system is Fernando Lucini, an engineer with deep experience in delivering systems that crack tough “big data” problems. He told me:
Think of Autonomy Auminence as a powerful point-of-care analysis dashboard, designed to help the provider make better quality, data-driven, evidence-based, diagnosis decisions. Auminence allows a healthcare professional to combine his or her personal knowledge with the wealth of knowledge that exists on the patient and their symptoms, clinical features, and related diseases – contained in the vast volumes of “human-friendly” information that make up healthcare data.
The user does not require training to use the system. Instead of a laundry list Google-style, Autonomy presents the information in a dashboard and report format. Mr. Lucini said, “We want to reduce the time and cost of tapping into the needed information. We want to help a person rushing to solve a medical problem to maybe save a life. Who wants to work through a list of links. That’s more work. We want to provide answers. Fast.”
Another innovation is Autonomy’s implementation of the service in the cloud. Since the firm acquired Zantaz, Autonomy been advancing its cloud-based services and features at a steady pace. However, what struck me as particularly important was Mr. Lucini’s statement that the service, which is available now (November 15, 2010) supports mobile devices like the Apple iPad and Android phones and tablets.
You can read the full text of the exclusive interview with Mr. Lucini in the ArnoldIT.com Search Wizards Speak collection at this link. One thing is certain: other vendors will have to react and quickly to Autonomy’s well-timed move in the health vertical. For more information about this service, navigate to www.autonomyhealth.com.
Stephen E Arnold, November 15, 2010
Freebie, but Autonomy promised me a cup of tea when I visit the international online show in December 2010.
Can Analytics Turn Drivel into Diamonds?
November 10, 2010
Are Facebook posts drivel or diamonds? Perhaps a better question is, “Can analytics convert drivel into diamonds?” The answer may be, “Yes.”
The Facebook content does not require semantics to squeeze sense out of it. The fact that a person has posted information delivers a signal about content “value.” The article “Drivel on Facebook More Valuable Than We Think” references a Swedish university’s report that calls attention to the importance of the superficial contacts, apparently unnecessary comments, and banal status updates on Facebook.
Regarding the more-than-real pseudo-friends of Facebook, the article says:
These contacts in fact constitute highly useful networks, networks that make use of the ostensibly meaningless comments and updates.
The public value of messages from a semi-private ecosystem is high. Companies and public authorities are not aware of the value of Facebook and other social content, particularly streams of content. Analytic methods, both simple and complex, justifies the cost of running analyses across these data. Who knew that social networking would generate value beyond the satisfaction of communicating with friends and acquaintances. The message is clear, “It’s time to cash on this gold rush.” For more information about text and data mining, navigate to www.inteltrax.com.
Harleena Singh, November 10, 2010
Freebie
Nielsen, about Those Web Traffic Data
November 9, 2010
One, two, three, four… The Nielsen Co. seems to have a problem with their counting skills. In “Nielsen Admits Undercounting Web Traffic” The Nielsen Co. recently found that they have erred in their counting of web traffic due to a glitch in how many characters their counting software is able to read. The miscount seems to have sent the illusion that web traffic is down nearly 22% in the past several months when in fact, this may not be the case at all. The article said:
Media owners have long complained that data from their internal logs was often leagues different than the data they got from Nielsen.
To most people this might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Because Nielson has a corner on the market, this error is going to be felt by many online media and advertising outlets. The numbers that Nielsen puts up affects how these companies allocate their funds. If the numbers aren’t high enough, the companies won’t put money into the website. And then:
We need to do a better job keeping pace with the rapid evolution of the internet.
It should be noted that Nielsen is doing everything they can to remedy the problem. Every part of their Internet measurement methods are under investigation. So, about those traffic stats, Mr. Nielsen?
Leslie Radcliff, November 9, 2010
Freebie
IntelTrax Available
November 9, 2010
The new Web log IntelTrax is now available. The free service from the editors of Beyond Search and ArnoldIT.com covers data fusion. The term “data fusion” refers to systems and methods for processing disparate data and information into actionable intelligence. The phrases “business intelligence”, “knowledge management,” “text mining,” “eDiscovery”, and “data analytics” have become imprecise. Marketers apply these terms to a wide range of companies, products and services.
“No one has a definition for these buzzwords. Yet there are important and exciting developments available,” said Stephen E Arnold, publisher of IntelTrax. “This Web log—edited by Patrick Roland, a professional writer—will describe companies, products, and services that are essential where business and technology intersect. Our research reveals that organizations want information about ‘what’s next’ in information access and management. IntelTrax will help readers cut a path through this dense thicket of activity.”
Like Beyond Search, the Web log will present opinions and commentary. Available immediately are more than 150 articles. These range from a discussion of the i2 Ltd.-Palantir legal matter to commentary about the need for an intelligence framework that works. The About section of the Web log explains the blog’s editorial policies. The publication accepts advertising and if a company wants a sponsored write up, those will be included in the Web log and identified as a placed article.
Arnold continued, “In the last 12 to 18 months, a number of specialized software firms have begun to market services to the general business community. Some of these firms’ technologies were funded by or developed for the US intelligence community or a similar country’s governmental entities. Now these companies are offering commercial versions of their products. These software systems move beyond traditional data mining and map mashups. The companies are shifting information retrieval from guessing words that unlock a results list to a proactive, answer-oriented approach to data and information.”
IntelTrax is updated Monday to Friday with a mix of commentary, original features, and summaries of important reports. In addition, IntelTrax will profile specific companies and products. The information in IntelTrax does not duplicate the information in Beyond Search. The content will be distributed via RSS, and you can sign up for an email each day with that day’s headlines. The service is now indexed by Silobreaker, a content processing company serving both the commercial and intelligence sector.
Comments about IntelTrax may be sent to the editor at inteltrax@ymail.com.
Stuart Schram IV, November 9, 2010
Post sponsored by ArnoldIT.com
IBM Pops Open Cognos 10 and Its Fizzes
October 28, 2010
October 29, 2010 — I don’t know about you, but I have been hearing about Cognos for a long time. I understand that it slices, dices, and makes IBM sales engineers giddy with hardware upgrades, software add ons, and consulting services. The most recent news barrage about Cognos (a name I like by the way) strikes me as more autumn public relations fizz than rare earth material. Information Week, ever mindful of the precepts of How to Win Friends and Influence People, revealed:
IBM has packed a lot into the IBM Cognos 10 release it announced Monday, pulling software from SPSS and Lotus into the suite while also upgrading the usability, manageability and performance of the total platform.
The recipe strikes me as “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” The challenge in my opinion is integrating some odds and ends like Lotus collaboration into SPSS number and text crunching. Wrap these functions inside of Cognos and the overall package has quite a few moving parts.
“IBM Cognos 10 Expands BI Boundaries” said [link may go dark]:
Another big push at IBM has been collaboration. That’s something BI vendors like Lyzasoft and SAP BusinessObjects, with its cloud-based StreamWork offering, are already pursuing. The idea is to let BI practitioners share and brainstorm around insights and analyses to improve interpretations of results and advance analyses. Rather than starting from square one, IBM has embedded collaboration capabilities from Lotus Connections right into Cognos 10. Working from familiar Cognos interfaces, users post messages, initiate discussions, post documents and reviews, tap into decision networks, and add comments and annotations on individual data points. When collaborators with appropriate privileges open the same reports, they see the comments and requests for feedback.
The lousy economy has been a boon for some data analytics companies. But raw horsepower embodied in traditional on premises solutions with an aging grandmother like Lotus collaboration functions is not too exciting to me and the goslings. We think that next generation systems from outfits as diverse as i2 Ltd., Megaputer, Digital Reasoning, and others is where the action is.
But we are not commissioned on our IBM sales and service upsells. Complexity, in our opinion, is engineered into IBM’s most recent Cognos bundle.
Stephen E Arnold
Clarabridge Spans Sentiment
October 24, 2010
My perception of Clarabridge is that the company was a more friendly version of MicroStrategy’s query tools. I guess I was incorrect. I read “Execuvue Software Tracks Guest Sentiment” and learned about my perceptual shortcomings. According to the write up, Apptech “is now leveraging text analytics to include guest sentiment tracking.” For me the key factoid in the write up was contained in this passage:
The Execuvue Sentiment Engine measures the two primary sources of guest satisfaction information: brand data, including email surveys and brand comment cards, and Web data from social media sites and hotel review sites. The system collects data from all sources, including written comments and, in conjunction with Clarabridge, uses a natural language processing program to extract written speech prompts and then converts them to measurable scores. Additionally, it provides drill down capabilities so operators can view individual guest comments that make up the sentiment metrics.
A quick trip to the Clarabridge Web site alerted me that “Clarabridge is the leading provider of text mining software used by many global 1000 companies to improve customer experience management.” When I last looked closely at Clarabridge, I watched as the firm demonstrated how its system could provide information about a retail chain’s inventory.
Like other content processing companies, Clarabridge has verticalized; that is, instead of pitching a one size fits all platform or framework, the company is focusing on solving a problem. Like Lexalytics and Attensity, that problem is figuring out if content expresses happy or sad thoughts. Masssaged with some numerical sage and basil, a licensee will be able to head off trouble or ride a surge of interest quickly.
A Clarabridge document identifies these features of its system:
- Automatic linguistic “reading” of text and ad-hoc searching and filtration;
- Categorization of the text at detailed sub-document, sentence, and clause levels;
- Identification of varying levels of positive and negative sentiments and what they relate to;
- Analysis of root cause, emerging issues, and trends, and;
- Capability to drill down to the original text to understand any areas of interest.
The pricing model is interesting because it appears to be a per document charge. Clarabridge refers to a “verbatim” which is unclear to me. Each processed verbatim rings the cash register at 15 cents. Taxi meter pricing is a valid method, but the fees can escalate unless close attention is paid to the document processing flow.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2010
Freebie
Test Your Feelings toward Sentiment Analysis
October 22, 2010
A happy quack to the reader who alerted us to “Lexalytics, Inc. Offer s No-Hassle Trial of Text Analytics Solution.” My understanding of algorithms understanding text created by free thinking, often creative geese is flawed. Years ago, sentiment analysis was matching a document’s words against a controlled term list. Lots of negative words or phrases such as “My lawyer” would pile up points on the negative side of the ledger. Happy words like “loved” and “wonderful” flipped bits on the positive side. A document with more negatives than positives was a nastygram. In the dark ages, we used a reddish light to indicate trouble. A green light flagged a document as fodder for the PR Trents and Janes. The yellow light indicated that we didn’t have a clue. Today systems are allegedly more sophisticated. You can test this yourself by navigating to Lexalytics.com and download the Text Analytics Trial. You can crunch 50 documents. Get in touch with your inner feelings toward sentiment analysis. For this goose, I will paddle across the pond content to allow humans to figure out if other humans have positive or negative feelings toward a product, person, thing, or software system.
Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2010
Freebie
SAS a Visionary in EMM. EMM?
October 21, 2010
Enterprise Marketing Management. Yep, the workhorse of statistics majors who dabble in oil field exploration, political polling, military intelligence, and cancer researchers are ready for their next job move. Enterprise marketing management. Now that’s going to be a shock to the MBAs who rely on Excel’s math functions to determine a sample size or calculate a rate of return.
Applications of heavy duty stats can wander over the entire landscape of business problems. But one of the azure chip consulting firms has killed off a dog (enterprise search) and created a Frankenstats. Navigate to “SAS Positioned in Visionaries Quadrant in Leading Industry Analyst Firm’s 2010 “Magic Quadrant…” and make up your own mind about this market positioning.
For me, this was an interesting passage:
According to Gartner enterprise marketing management “encompasses the business strategies, process automation and technologies required to effectively operate a marketing department, align resources, execute customer-centric strategies and improve marketing performance. This includes functionality for campaign management, lead management, MRM, loyalty management, event management, industry-specific functionality, marketing performance management and analytics.”
Frankenstats?
Stephen E Arnold, October 21, 2010
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