DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED SYSTEMS

The world of computing has evolved from a small, relatively unsophisticated world in the early 1960‘s to an environment of massive size and sophistication. Everything from the daily life of individuals to our national economic productivity has been profoundly and positively affected by the growth of the use of the computer. And this growth can be measured in two ways –structured systems and unstructured systems.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED SYSTEMS Structured systems are those where the activity of processing and output is predetermined and highly organized. Structured systems are designed, built and operated by the IT department. ATM transactions, airline reservations, manufacturing inventory control systems, point of sale systems are all forms of structured systems. By contrast, unstructured systems are those that have little or no predetermined form or structure. Unstructured systems include email, reports, contracts, and other communications. A person who performs a communications activity in an unstructured system has wide latitude to structure the message in whatever form is desired. The rules of unstructured systems are fewer and less complex.

Structured Data Corporate Transactions Corporate Reports Corporate Databases Customer Files Audit Reports

From the beginning, the world of structured systems and unstructured systems has grown separately and yet in parallel. Therefore, it is no surprise that each environment is separate and apart from the other in ways such as: • • • •

technical organizational structural functional

Imagine the possibilities if the two worlds were able to be connected in an effective and meaningful way. Imagine the new types of systems that could be built and the enhancement to existing systems. And imagine the amazing benefits to be gained if the technical, organizational, structural and functional barriers were to disappear.

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Structured Data Corporate Transactions Corporate Reports Corporate Databases Customer Files Audit Reports

Great benefits can be achieved from bridging the gap between structured and unstructured systems! A NEW PERSPECTIVE OF DATA Business intelligence has come a long way. However, it still faces a significant limitation because it is primarily or entirely based on numbers. The first way to bridge the gap between structured and unstructured content is to combine text and numeric data, which can provide a blend of information and insight previously not possible. There are many ways that this merger of textual data and numeric data can be used to produce new and innovative results. One obvious example is the creation of an unstructured contact file, which is a file listing every contact or communication the customer has had with your organization, including emails, letters, and other documents. This file contains not only the substance of the communication, but also an index of the date of the contact, the nature of the contact, to whom the contact was made, and so forth.

USES FOR THE UNSTRUCTUED CONTACT FILE One of the most powerful uses of the customer contact file is in terms of supplementing a CRM system to create the true 360 degree view of the customer, enabling you to accomplish these important objectives: Cross Selling. If you understand a lot about the customer in one arena, the opportunity to sell to the same customer in another arena will materialize, • Prospecting. The more you understand about a customer, the better you can qualify a sales or sales prospect list, • Anticipation. By understanding a lot about the customer, you can anticipate future needs, and so forth. •

One of the basic tenets of CRM is that it is much easier to sell into an established customer than bring in a new customer. This long term relationship is established based on integrated knowledge about the customer, including: age education occupation marital status address cost of home

net worth income spending habits children car driven


The idea behind creating the 360 degree view of the customer is to bring together data from many different places in order to integrate the data and achieve a truly cohesive and comprehensive view of the customer.

In order to achieve the 360 degree view of the customer, lots of different kinds of data are integrated together.

However, there are challenges to integrating all this data, such as: • • • • •

finding the data in the first place Maintaining data using different technologies integrating and merging the data as it is gathered keeping the customer profile up-to-date managing the volume of data that has been collected

Unstructured Contact File CUSTOMER ID • • • • • • • • • • • • •

name age gender address phone occupation income net worth marital status children spouse education investments

By itself the data gathered as part of this process is valuable. But to create a true 360 degree view of the customer, you must enhance this structured data with the rich vein of unstructured customer communications data. Only then will you have the complete perspective. Instead of just knowing odd facts about the customer, the corporation can know what the customer has been saying – what communications have transpired.


Unstructured contact file

What about recent communication with the corporation?

One of the primary customer communications channels is email. The challenge is that each is email is different. Emails in an unstructured file might look like – “...I want my money back…” “...I want to order more…” “...I want to return an item…” “...I have a suggestion…” “...I had a problem with the sales clerk…” “...I want to compliment Jane Doe…” “...Your store was messy and dirty…”

BUILDING THE UNSTRUCTURED CONTACT FILE There are several ways to accomplish the building of an unstructured contact file. Again, using emails as the example, the most common way to is index the unstructured contact file and leave the emails where they are originally located. Using this technique an index is created for each communication, containing items such as: • • • •

date of the communication to whom the communication was directed name and identification of the customer location of the email, and so forth

When the corporation wants to find out if there has been any communication, the index is used. When it appears that the communication is of interest or relevance, the corporation can then go to where the email is stored and actually read the email. Alternately, the actual email is forwarded with the index and no further search is required. While this approach requires considerably more system resources, it does minimize the work required find a specific email.

USES OF UNSTRUCTURED CONTENT IN OTHER APPLICATIONS One important usage of unstructured content is in litigation support. For example, suppose a corporation is sued by Peggy Jones. The first thing the corporation needs to know is what contact it has had with Peggy Jones? Who has she been working with and who has she contacted? In cases like this, the ability to access unstructured data is invaluable.


Another use of mixing unstructured data with structured data is the ability to enhance reports and business intelligence. While it is through reports and business intelligence that applications convey their findings to the end user, there is a great limitation to reports and business intelligence because they primarily rely on structured systems for their information. Structured applications are good at: creating summaries creating drill downs creating drill across breaking data down into different categories of summarization

• • • •

1,220,229 456,007 2,998,308 47,669 3,880,221 2,998,330 1,229,337

34 9 12 28 7 2 10

6,556 1,273 667 2,775 337 1,220 9,300

There is an entirely different dimension of information that is not captured by numeric information, and that dimension is the textual dimension of data that comes from the unstructured world. The organization can benefit greatly from the merger of unstructured and structured data.

“...I want my money back…” “...I want to order more…” “...I want to return an item…” “...I have a suggestion…” “...I had a problem with the sales clerk…” “...I want to compliment Jane Doe…” “...Your store was messy and dirty…”

Text + Numbers

One example of how text and numbers complement each other (i.e., how unstructured data and structured data complement each other) is illustrated in the form of a “what they are saying” file, which contains direct pieces of information that are relevant to the corporation. Sources for this file include customers, prospects, competitors, industry analysts and financial analysts. Another way that unstructured information can be of value is through the creation of a “hot wire” file, which is designed to alert the corporation that something of interest is being discussed, such as: • • • •

a competitor’s product a corporation’s product an individual’s name a phrase

Once the “alert list” is created, the communications of the corporation are monitored and whenever the alert list word or phrase appears, management is contacted.


ALERT LIST • • • •

Product name Company name Individual’s name Competitor’s name

ALERT WORDS FOUND

The first step is to create an alert list file. This file contains the words and phrases that are of interest to management. The second step is to monitor the flow of data and communications that pass through the unstructured environment. Upon encountering one or more of the words or phrases that are on the alert list, the alert is sent to the person(s) desiring the contact. Another use for unstructured data is the gathering of feedback in response to promotions. In many ways promotions are one of the backbones of marketing and sales of every corporation and the goal of most promotions is to boost market awareness and to generate sales revenue. Promotions are usually measured by hard numbers – dollars produced, units moved, sales quotas made, and so forth. However, there are other measurements of promotions that are only captured in communications. Merging this unstructured communications data with the structured promotional data can produce very valuable and insightful results.

“..As we see it the event was a success…” “..Thanks for the sale. I enjoyed it greatly…” “..I think you should know what happened…” “..I went down the street and saved…” “..I want to return my purchase…” “..I found a stain on the bottom of the…” “..Let me tell you how pleased I was when..” “..Your sales person is fantastic. Did you…” “..Your products are great but service is…” “..I want my money back…”

Washington’s Birthday

METHODS OF VISUALIZING UNSTRUCTURED CONTENT There are other ways that unstructured data is useful, even when it is not mixed with structured data. In these instances, it is often useful to visualize unstructured data as it stands alone. “..As we see it the event was a success…” “..Thanks for the sale. I enjoyed it greatly…” “..I think you should know what happened…” “..I went down the street and saved…” “..I want to return my purchase…” “..I found a stain on the bottom of the…” “..Let me tell you how pleased I was when..” “..Your sales person is fantastic. Did you…” “..Your products are great but service is…” “..I want my money back…”

TERM A

TERM B

TERM E

TERM C

TERM D


One way that unstructured data can be visualized is through a “spider web” diagram. In a spider web diagram, different terms or phrases are placed around a circle. Then the relationships that have been mentioned in the unstructured data are indicated by a line. The lines then tend to show what relationships are strong and which are weak. Another useful form of unstructured data is that of plotting occurrences of unstructured data onto a map. In this form of unstructured data visualization, there is a merger of unstructured data and mapping technology. Once the data is added to the map, the data can be projected over time. By using these techniques it is possible to create a perspective of data that is insightful and useful for long term planning. When there are a large number of unknown variables, IDS Visualization can be extremely helpful. Visualization displays unstructured data in the form of Self Organizing Maps (SOM’s), that show both the quantity of data in particular categories and the relationships (correlations) between different data. The power of this form of visualization is the organization of knowledge made in a way so that a neophyte can quickly become aware of what data is available and how that data is relevant to the questions at hand. In a word, this form of visualization is good for seeing through the fog and bringing an uninitiated person quickly up to speed as to what the issues are. “..As we see it the event was a success…” “..Thanks for the sale. I enjoyed it greatly…” “..I think you should know what happened…” “..I went down the street and saved…” “..I want to return my purchase…” “..I found a stain on the bottom of the…” “..Let me tell you how pleased I was when..” “..Your sales person is fantastic. Did you…” “..Your products are great but service is…” “..I want my money back…”

An IDS Visualization Self Organizing Map With a properly constructed IDS Visualization SOM, you can look at: • • • • • •

Large numbers (hundreds to millions) of unstructured documents that have been formed into a library Documents and data at real time speed The deepest level of accuracy that is possible Individual unstructured documents and the relationships between documents Views of data ranging from the larger picture to drill-down detail Factors in your business that you are currently unaware of

About Inmon Data Systems Inmon Data Systems (IDS) was formed in 2003 to develop and distribute software to facilitate the merger of unstructured and structured content environments. We believe that a powerful relationship is formed when unstructured data is merged with structured data. IDS has proven that corporations and public sector organizations can achieve tremendous value from adding unstructured content to the knowledge pool, and creating a new infrastructure for reporting and business intelligence that is available to the end user. Contact us at 303-681-0474 or [email protected] for further information.


DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED SYSTEMS

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