Bangalore: Today technology directs our life; some say it even rules our life. One thing that has become abundant with the proliferation of technology in our life is that data is being recorded and captured all around us. What purchases you made on your credit card, how many different websites you visited on your laptop, kind of products you prefer to buy when you go online! some of this data is what is called “structured data”. However a large amount of data that is available today to businesses falls in the “unstructured” category –data that cannot be linked to a specific individual or entity by itself. A classic example is the amount of ‘chatter’ data that is available on social media sites like Facebook – data on hot topics that people are talking about with their friends through posts, scraps and sharing tools, says Arvind Nagpal, CEO, TEG Analytics, a data analytics company.

Companies have immense interest in this unstructured data because it contains the sum total of the “trend pattern” that is unfolding – the predominant movement of behaviour, attitude and preferences of the human psyche. Imagine the kind of real-time political mileage that even politicians could garner if they could get real-time, data-based insights on the perception of important issues in the public eye, it could make or break an election! However the challenge remains in how to put a “structure” around this free-floating data and then create relevant insights that can be used as a competitive advantage?

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