Record Linkage…The Backbone of Contemporary Business Strategy

Today we live in 21^st century. It is an era when the generation, accumulation, distribution and intelligent usage of statistical data have become all the more important. In this age of cut throat competition innovations in services, products, marketing campaigns are the only key to survival.  It is feared that in coming days work units will be lessened and more emphasis will be paid on cutting costs. In this situation data gathered from various sources will attain a significant position. Equally important are the methodologies through which this data will be collected, generated and disseminated in anaptmanner.

The quality of the data gathered from various sources is also of major concern. One way of ensuring this quality is record linkage. With the help of a record linkage software two or more pieces of information belonging to the same entity can be brought together and analyzed to ensure quality.

Pre-Processing

 In this step adequate linking results are ensured and hence identifiers are arranged before performing the actual linking. This is done through “parsing” .i.e. cracking up the composite identifiers, “standardization” or “normalization” i.e. conversion of identifier values into a regular representation. While standard data cleaning processes ensure consistency and plausibility.

Blocking

 In this step files are divided into sub-sets of records. These subsets are called blocks. This stage reduces the number ofcomparisons and only those records are compared that are formed from corresponding blocks.

Comparison

In this stage, some matching score from the parallel identifier values of the records is ascertained.

Classification

This is an important stage where the similarities between the identifiers are cumulated into a total of identicalscore for every record pair.

Fusion

This is the last and final stage where matching recorded are clubbed together into a “master” or composite record.

  

Advantages Record Linkages Can Bring To Your Business

Record linkage can be beneficial for your business on several accounts. Some of them include:

Cost Effective

As compared to the methods where data direct collection is involved, record linkage is very economical.

An Easy Substitute

Sometimes, direct data collection is difficult because of ethical issues or technical problems, in such situations record linkage can be an intelligent substitute.

Less Burden

It reduces the burden of surveys on respondents.

Data Quality

Depending on the situation, record linkage can produce better data quality that direct data collection

Large Sample Size

Large sample sizes can be attained without any additional costs.

Availabilityof Record Linkage Software

There are many softwaresavailable for businesses for commercial, while some are available free of cost for the academics. More information on record linkage software can be sought at; http://dataladder.com/record-linkage-software/