Hands-On Entity Resolution

Preface

We all want to make better decisions. Whether it’s to better serve our customers or to keep them safe, we want to make the right judgments and do the right thing. To act with confidence we need to understand who we are serving and what their place is in the world. While there is often an avalanche of data available to us, too often it isn’t joined up and doesn’t tell us the full story of the individual before us.

Entity resolution is the art and science of connecting the data, joining the dots, and seeing the full picture. This book is a practical guide to help you reveal that wider context and help you be fully informed before you act. It’s often taken for granted, but you’ll see in this book that matching up data isn’t always straightforward—but don’t worry, by the final chapter you’ll be well equipped to overcome these challenges and bring your datasets to life.

Who Should Read This Book

If you are a product manager, a data analyst, or a data scientist within financial services, pharmaceuticals, or another large corporation, this book is for you. If you are struggling with the challenges of siloed data that doesn’t join up, have competing views of your customers in different databases, or are charged with merging information from different organizations or affiliates, this book is for you.

Risk management professionals charged with combating financial crime and managing reputation and supply chain risks will also benefit from understanding the data matching challenges ...