This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The Transformation Process
As we wrote this book, we noticed that the documented examples and case studies followed a general pattern. Based on our experience of working within our own company and working with clients in many different industries, we have found that it is very difficult to get to the full scope of mining unstructured information's potential in one big step. We have found the process to be iterative. As the users and consumers of Mining the Talk become more familiar with the approach and build trust that it will achieve the results intended, they will embrace and expand the scope.
Each new potential customer of our approach believes that their situation is unique and their data is different. So typically, we go through a process of showing them the efficacy of our approach on a limited set of their data. This allows us to collaborate with the customer in exploring the data and enables them to envision the potential of the endeavor. This is usually followed by an enhanced proof point in a major application area, but one still focused on a limited portion of the business. Once the business value is achieved on this proof point, we are on our way to a full-scale deployment and exploring additional potential opportunities in other parts of the business.
This breaks down roughly into five key steps for business transformation process enabled by Mining the Talk: 1) Identify the business drivers; 2) Identify the key information sources; 3) Identify what we can learn; 4) Set up an initial unstructured mining process; and 5) Establish a sustainable process that can continue to create value. Subsequent chapters will cover each of these steps in more detail, for each of the application areas.