Financial Data Provider Adopts FirstRain Analytics

An unstructured data analytics specialist and a financial information provider are expanding their partnership to leverage social media and other web content to create advanced financial data visualizations for business users.

Data analytics vendor FirstRain and financial information provider Mergent Inc. said they the will try to take the “noise” out of business intelligence by combining unstructured data analytics with Mergent’s financial information platform.

FirstRain, San Mateo, Calif., said Thursday (April 9) the expanded partnership would provide Mergent with its layered algorithms used to extract real-time social media and web content that can be used to build business data visualizations. The enhanced services would be offered to academic and corporate customers using the latest version of Mergent’s Intellect platform.

FirstRain said its algorithms along with predictive analytics capabilities dissect unstructured data that can be sold by Mergent to customers and prospects assessing and entering new markets.

FirstRain said its layered algorithms are used to extract business intelligence from key structured and semantic characteristics in order to build a detailed business graph on a given market.

Mergent, Fort Mill, S.C., recently launched the 3.0 version of its Intellect platform that incorporates the FirstRain analytics package. FirstRain asserts that its approach goes beyond “noisy, repetitive” news feeds by leveraging real-time social media and other web content to provide a more comprehensive view of individual markets.

The partnership also illustrates the growing shift in business intelligence towards leveraging social media and web data to get an unfiltered look inside different market segments. Data analytics companies like FirstRain are able to organize unstructured data with a short shelf life and deliver it to customers who have integrated the analytics tools into their platforms.

FirstRain’s approach to predictive analytics includes sifting though unstructured data generated by Twitter and blogs to expand beyond traditional news feeds. (The risk here, of course is that these data sources are unfiltered and likely contain as much opinion as news reporting and analysis.)

Nevertheless, FirstRain stresses that these data points provide “real-time insights” that complement other data on the Mergent’s Intellect platform. These data are then pulled together in business intelligence visualizations designed to provide users with a clearer picture of what is happening in a particular market.

In one recent use case, FirstRain demonstrated the latest version of its data analytics tool and visualizations at the American Library Association. Mergent provides business and financial information to the academic, corporate and financial customers.

Last September, FirstRain rolled out a new API designed to allow application developers to embed its “just-in-time” analytics package into their platforms. The API aims to provide developers with real-time access to the proprietary FirstRain business graph generated using real-time big data analytics. The business graph is designed to extract relationships between businesses and markets while providing access to users’ own personal predictive analytics profiles through a RESTful secure API, the company said.

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