Identity Resolution Daily

[Post from Infoglide] Recession Driving Insurance Fraud

“A recent post on McClatchy’s blog attributes growing insurance fraud to the recession: A recent survey of 37 state insurance-fraud bureaus by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud found that the recession “appears to have had a significant impact on the incidence of fraud” last year. On average, the bureaus reported increases in case referrals and new investigations in all 15 categories of fraud the survey covers.”

tdwi: MDM at a Crossroads

“MDM has a ‘dirty little secret,’ too, according to Dyché… most DI or information-integration players tend to have ulterior motives when it comes to MDM. That’s something you almost certainly won’t hear them talking about. ‘[These] acquisition[s] … start to reveal the dirty little secret that vendors don’t want you to know about MDM: Once you invest in an MDM technology and on-board a system or two, you’re pretty much on the hook. It becomes foundational, not only from an IT perspective — as it continues to link data from heterogeneous systems — but from a business-enablement perspective,’ she concludes.”

Liliendahl on Data Quality: What is Data Quality anyway?

“If we look at what data quality tools today actually do, they in fact mostly support you with automation of data profiling and data matching, which is probably only some of the data quality challenges you have.”

Voice of America: Murder of US Consulate Workers in Mexico Signals New Phase in Violence

“Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for Austin, Texas-based analysis firm Stratfor, says the killings might have been related to a recently announced U.S. plan to increase cooperation with Mexican law enforcement agencies. ‘We believe that it is likely related to a decision last month to start working more closely with the Mexican government by the Americans,” said Scott Stewart. “They were going to put some personnel into a joint fusion center in Juarez.’”

Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: False claims act for Maryland

“The Coalition issued a statement supporting the bill, saying it would serve as a deterrent and a powerful incentive for medical providers to have strong compliance programs and to “play by the rules.” False claims acts help detect fraudulent schemes that otherwise might not ever be known because they allow insiders to blow the whistle and initiate civil actions.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Architectures for Entity Resolution-Part 2

“In the last post we examined how entity resolution (ER) systems are actually implemented, starting with the most basic merge/purge process and heterogeneous join systems. Both of these approaches focus on collecting equivalent references from among the sources provided, either as a large batch of references in a single file, or through queries against a federation of databases…”

The Foundry: Thwarting the Next Terrorist Attack: Are We More Prepared?

“Knowing what we know now, would the U.S. be able to stop another attack like that of Christmas Day 2009? This is certainly the question on the minds of many Americans today.  It is also one that Jamie McIntyre, veteran journalist and blogger for Military.com, had the opportunity to ask of Rand Beers, Under Secretary for National Protection and Programs Directorate from DHS, at a Heritage Foundation National Security Bloggers Luncheon.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8K6ApOnGE

Perceptive Information Strategies: Informatica and the Identity Opportunity

“In the middle of all of this are software providers, primarily IBM InfoSphere Identity Insight Solutions, Infoglide (which is providing software for the DHS) and Informatica… Identity recognition and resolution systems enable organizations to use data matches to gain a better understanding of identity across multiple systems. This could include not just individual identities but also networks and relationships: that is, who people know and how they are connected.”

Managing Automation: The MDM Supplier Market Gets a Little Smaller

“It’s been a heady couple of months in the IT infrastructure market, as any independent company that wasn’t tied down seemed to be swept up in a whirlwind of M&A activity. Independent data integration specialist Informatica, a 4,000-customer company in business since 1993, announced in January that it had acquired Siperian for $130 million.”

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By the Infoglide Team

tdwi: Informatica Ups the MDM Stakes

“Until now, Informatica’s MDM strategy has largely been peripheral. It had most of the tools (e.g., data integration, data quality, data profiling, and identity resolution) but tended to partner with bigger or best-of-breed players to promote MDM-oriented offerings or services… What’s risky about the acquisition of Siperian is that it imperils Informatica’s existing MDM partnerships (especially with Oracle Corp.) and compromises its neutrality pitch.”

GCN: Fusion centers to be assessed

“Fusion centers will conduct self-assessments, followed by a gap analysis and peer reviews, according to officials at the National Fusion Center Association, a new not-for-profit organization based in Alexandria, Va., that represents the 72 fusion centers. The assessments are meant to determine their progress in reaching baseline capabilities. Those capabilities were created by a federal advisory committee that also wrote the original guidelines for those centers.”

WorkersCompensation.com: NYSIF Announces 154 Arrests

“Recent significant cases resulting in millions of dollars in savings to NYSIF have included claimants who receive benefits while operating businesses or remain employed in other capacities, the most prevalent type of workers’ comp. fraud. Other cases involve premium fraud, the most costly type, in construction, asbestos abatement and other contracting, including investigations in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Postal Inspector, and local labor racketeering bureaus. Still other cases involve fraudulent provider billing.”

SignalScape: Experts Ponder Both Sides of Border Security

“The DHS has also tested mobile identification systems and created an information sharing plan with the Department of Justice which allows officials to search for criminal records. Art Macius, chief of staff at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) added that organizations such as his and the DHS must also share information with their international counterparts. This international cooperation includes efforts such as cargo screening for commercial aircraft though efforts such as the Secure Flight program. Macius said that by this spring, the program will work with U.S. airlines to screen baggage and air cargo, and that the coverage will extend to international carriers by the end of the year.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Is MDM Dead?

“Andrew White of Gartner recently posed a question about whether master data management (MDM) is dead. He didn’t actually suggest that the demise of master data management is imminent. He was challenging whether our current terminology adequately clarifies the current reality about MDM and associated product areas.”

Inside the Biz: The Good News about MDM Market Consolidation

[Jill Dyche] “Last year, Informatica’s MDM story verged on the schizophrenic as the company simultaneously advocated a “roll your own” approach to MDM using various software components while at the same time making investments in both Siperian and rival Initiate Systems. Siperian fills in some significant voids in Informatica’s MDM capabilities, most notably hierarchy management and transaction integration—updating the golden record in real time.”

porter: FAQ Secure Flight

“What is Secure Flight and what does it do? Secure Flight is a behind the scenes program that streamlines the watch list matching process. It will improve the travel experience for all passengers, including those who have been misidentified in the past.”

Computerworld: Meeting an Olympic-size security challenge

“First is the classic ‘entity resolution‘ challenge. Information about any individual is likely going to be scattered across a range of databases. While one database may contain a red-flag item — a pending drug charge or a secondary connection to a known terrorist — another database may not. The challenge is bringing this information together to create a single record — a ’single version of the truth’ — about an individual or entity.”

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By Mike Shultz, Infoglide Software CEO

Andrew White of Gartner recently posed a question about whether master data management (MDM) is dead. He didn’t actually suggest that the demise of master data management is imminent. He was challenging whether our current terminology adequately clarifies the current reality about MDM and associated product areas.

Certainly the terms describing many markets and types of products are being associated with MDM. Jackie Roberts of DATAForge pointed out that the definition of MDM now seems to include “data integrity, data quality, entity resolution, matching, data integration, governance, metrics and analysis.”

While entity resolution was mentioned in her list, our obsessive focus on entity resolution (aka identity resolution) leads to the conclusion that, rather than being subsumed, its role is growing. Wayne Eckerson at TDWI seems to agree that identity resolution is a critical component of the recent MDM acquisitions. In his post about the acquisitions by Informatica and IBM of Siperian and Initiate Systems, respectively, he described the two transactions this way:

“You could say that Siperian is mostly MDM, but with identity resolution and other capabilities, whereas Initiate is mostly about identity resolution, but with MDM and other capabilities.”

Identity resolution is becoming an integral part of many product areas. Within MDM itself, creating a single-entity view is best done with an identity resolution engine. Data mining is greatly enhanced by the addition of entity resolution. Dan Power of Hub Solution Designs wrote about how key identity resolution is to data matching. We’ve talked about how social CRM can resolve identities of individuals across multiple disparate data sources using identity resolution, as well as “rationalize multiple variations and errors and anomalies that block finding existing customers within their systems”.

Although identity resolution technology has been years in the making, it has only recently risen into the consciousness of most analysts and customers. Because of its ability to bring enhanced clarity to ambiguous data, advanced identity resolution is now beginning to have a significant impact across many data-centered disciplines.

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By the Infoglide Team

IT-Director.com: The Informatica Event

[Philip Howard] “To begin with, the company talked about its acquisition of Siperian. I have already commented on this but one point that emerged at the conference was the way that Informatica describes Siperian as infrastructure MDM as opposed to application MDM. This is a hitherto unrecognised distinction (with respect to terminology) in the MDM market. Informatica distinguishes the former from the latter by saying that infrastructure MDM is domain and data model independent.”

Workforce Management: Medical Clinic Owners Plead No Contest to $60 Million Workers’ Compensation Fraud

“Investigators alleged that the pair purchased thousands of workers’ compensation client referrals from an attorney television advertising service. Clients were then sent to doctors who had a relationship with Premier, which would handle billing and collection work in return for a 50 percent fee for money they collected. Clients were then sent to attorneys who had a business relationship with Fish and Bacino, investigators allege. ‘Getting kickbacks for referring medical payments is illegal and drives up the costs in the system,’ California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said in a statement.”

SignalScape: DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier Describes How Technology Is Changing Police Work in the Capitol

“The MPD also established a fusion center, which is responsible for the national capitol region. From a homeland security perspective, Chief Lanier said that the center collects and stores crime and terror alerts into a data warehouse.”

Injured Workers’ Law Firm Blog: Insurance Fraud Is a Huge Crime

“The fraudulent claims that can be made through insurance companies are categorized as being soft or hard. Soft fraud is the most common type of fraud and usually takes place when someone exaggerates a claim being made. Hard fraud takes place when someone deliberately plans a deceptive act such as a collision or the theft of their vehicle.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Attacking Subscription Fraud with Identity Resolution

“In March 2006, the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA) estimated that annual global fraud losses in the telecom sector were between $54 billion and $60 billion, and the losses continue to be substantial. Many types of fraud have been identified, but by far the most prevalent is subscription fraud.”

ITBusinessEdge: Analyst: SAP Missed Out During Recent MDM Acquisition Spree

“SAP, on the other hand, has had a lot of issues in the past couple of years. They haven’t made a direct MDM acquisition since they acquired A2i years and years ago, which was a PIM vendor and they’ve just been working off of that architecture and been trying to improve it.”

Liliendahl On Data Quality: Data Quality Tools Revealed

“Data matching is the ability to compare records that are not exactly the same but are so similar that we may conclude, that they represent the same real world object.”

BeyeNETWORK: Master Data Management: Moving Forward…

“So now that MDM has been around for a while, and the master data terminology has drifted into our standard vocabulary, it might be worth stepping back and asking a different question:  Is MDM the revolutionary approach to organizational data consolidation and enterprise information management or is it devolving into yet another  (of many) data management tools?”

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[Post from Infoglide] Identity Resolution Still On the Rise

“We’ve noted several times over the past couple of years how the market visibility of entity resolution has been evolving. Now the consolidation of the master data management (MDM) market is causing even more conjecture about the crucial role of this technology.”

SIGNAL ONLINE: Good Guys Share, Bad Guys Lose

“Lindsey adds that personnel on Joint Terrorism Task Forces, in fusion centers or in other counterterrorism-related positions could benefit from the system by accessing the more complete data source and incorporating information found there into their own analyses and evaluations. ‘We’re out there for the crime fighters, but we’re also out there to prevent terrorism activities,’ he states.”

Claims Magazine: Fraud Triage Programs 

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that the total cost of insurance fraud (excluding health care) exceeds $40 billion per year. That means insurance fraud costs the average U.S. family between $400 and $700 annually in the form of increased premiums. In California alone, the Department of Insurance (CDOI) identified the potential loss from fraud in the 2007/2008 fiscal year at $1.2 billion, according to the 2008 Annual Report of the Insurance Commissioner.”

FoxNews.com: Flight Diverted to Florida Over Passenger’s Mistaken Identity

“Some airlines already have moved to a new identification program, called Secure Flight. All domestic carriers are expected to move to the new program by March. The government system will include more details about the passenger in question, including the passenger’s sex, birth date and full name as it appears on a government identification document.”

Precision Document Imaging: What is EMR?

“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides significant cash incentives to physicians who implement electronic health records. However, in order to qualify for these incentives the physician must not only have the proper software but must engage in “meaningful use” of the software. The government plans to publish the criteria for meaningful use in February 2010. ARRA incentive reimbursement to physicians will begin in 2011.”

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By Mike Shultz, Infoglide Software CEO

We’ve noted several times over the past couple of years how the market visibility of entity resolution has been evolving. Now the consolidation of the master data management (MDM) market is causing even more conjecture about the crucial role of this technology.

We’re continually on the lookout for the trends and opportunities that affect the identity resolution space. We’ve written about entity resolution moving into cloud computing, the growing use of entity resolution by state agencies, the crucial role that identity resolution plays in fusion centers, how it’s related to “social CRM”, and how it might be used in e-discovery.

A few days after IBM’s recent announcement about buying Initiate Systems and a little over a week after Informatica’s acquisition of Siperian, Wayne Eckerson at tdwi wrote an insightful article in which he noted that these acquisitions are about MDM, yet they are also about identity resolution:

“Siperian is well-known for its master data management (MDM) solution… Initiate, on the other hand, is well-known for its identity resolution hub… At this point, I need to cycle back to Siperian and point out that it, too, provides identity resolution capabilities. And I forgot to mention that Initiate also has some MDM capabilities. You could say that Siperian is mostly MDM, but with identity resolution and other capabilities, whereas Initiate is mostly about identity resolution, but with MDM and other capabilities.”

Considering IBM’s acquisition of Initiate Systems, along with Informatica’s purchase of Siperian shortly before that, plus its 2008 purchase of Identity Systems, it’s clear that IdentityResolutionDaily is going to have even more to write about this year than before!

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By the Infoglide Team

itWorldCanada: IBM has ulterior motives with Initiate: Informatica

“IBM owes it to its customers to explain if, when and how it plans to rationalize and integrate the overlapping MDM and data quality technology, said Ivan Chong, executive vice-president of the Redwood City, Calif.-based company’s data quality product division. ‘If I were them, I would have the impression that IBM is repurposing the technology for something completely different,’ said Chong.”

naplesnews.com: Naples, Marco and Collier law enforcement officials announce participation in database sharing

“Of the more than 300 law enforcement agencies in Florida, 105 — including the Lee and Charlotte county sheriffs’ offices — are currently sharing information on FINDER. Another 41 are currently utilizing the database, but aren’t sharing information. ‘The more departments we can get involved, the better,’ Weschler said. In the coming months, the Southwest Florida regional fusion center is slated to be operational. As an information hub, the center will gather, digest and compare data from across 10 Southwest Florida counties and 72 other fusion centers in the United States.”

Information Week: Global CIO: Will Informatica’s Surging Success Trigger A Takeover?

“But as Abbasi and his team at Informatica continue to grow faster than most software companies, and as CIOs continue to realize how valuable Informatica’s data-integration and data-quality tools can be, and as it grows and expands into new areas such as MDM via its Siperian acquisition, Informatica’s value to those big software companies is soaring.”

9news.com: Covert videotaping: a tool to fight crime or intimidate people?

“‘It’s just a blatant attempt to obtain benefits and money,’ Cosson said. ‘If someone files a false claim or is working while receiving benefits, ultimately that results in a loss of revenue for the insurance company and if they lose revenues, they have to raise rates and then the premiums clearly go up for legitimate businesses all over Colorado.’ The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says that all insurance fraud costs every family $1,000 a year in higher premiums and it makes goods and services more expensive.”

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