Exploring how to gain value from text with text analytics at KMWorld 2019

Text analytics is becoming essential for any organization that wants to understand unstructured text. However, there is still confusion about best practices and the type of applications that can be built with text analytics.

To shed light on this important area of analytics, at KMWorld 2019 in Washington, D.C., Tom Reamy, chief knowledge architect, KAPS Group, LLC,  and author of "Deep Text: Using Text Analytics to Conquer Information Overload, Get Real Value from Social Media, and Add Bigger Text to Big Data," presented a workshop, titled "Text Analytics 101."

Videos of KMWorld 2019 awards presentations,  keynotes, and sessions can be found here.

KMWorld 2019 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences, which also includes Enterprise Search & Discovery, Office 365 Symposium, Taxonomy Boot Camp, and Text Analytics Forum. 

Reamy's interactive 3-hour presentation covered the current state and trends within the technology, tips and tricks for key aspects of text analytics processes, how to get started, how to get C-level buy-in for text analytics, how to evaluate software, applications that can be built with text analytics—and the overall value it can provide to an organization. The technology is a hot topic now but actually is not new, having started in the 1950s with a company called Inxight (out of Zerox Parc), which was acquired by BusinessObjects (later acquired by SAP), said Reamy.

As of 2018, the market for text analytics exceeded $1 billion, and represented about 10% of the total analytics market, said Reamy. The market is growing at a rate of 20% a year, and search is about one-third of the total market.

In terms of trends, the text analytics market is expected to grow to between $3.5 billion to $10.5 billion by 2023, he added.

Currently, Reamy noted, there is no clear leader or approach that has taken hold with different vendors offering strengths in different environments. In general, however, implementation is shifting from installed enterprise apps to cloud-based technology.

Text analytics is really a platform from which other applications can be built, explained Reamy, who cited a survey of KMWorld 2017 attendees, which found that some of the key application areas for using text analytics are BI (87%), decision support (83%), financial intelligence (81%), KM-productivity, followed by search apps, security, compliance, Voice of the Customer, and social media analysis.

Reamy urged attendees to adopt the mantra, "Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast," with their projects. In particular, he stressed, it is advisable to do a knowledge audit and analyze the content, start with a pilot project or PoC that can deliver immediate value and provide the opportunity to learn by doing in order to gain management buy-in, and then scale fast across multiple applications once the infrastructure is in place.

Many speakers at KMWorld 2019, including Reamy, are making their presentations available at www.kmworld.com/Conference/2019/Presentations.aspx.

SAVE THE DATE FOR KMWORLD 2020- NOVEMBER 16-19, 2020!