SAS Tool to Police Social Networks

In the US, business analytics firm SAS has launched a social media analysis tool which it says will help understand customer sentiment and detect fraud.

SAS says that negative online comments that spread through web sites, blogs and other channels can result in lost business and damaged brands; and that financial transactions also generate data with potential fraud buried deep.

The firm's new Social Network Analysis solution has been designed to help organizations uncover hidden relationships between individuals and data, detect patterns and trends, and mine text and other unstructured data.

Using the tool, insurers and government agencies can pinpoint suspicious individuals and transactions and stop additional fraud, says SAS.

Investigators can use the solution to go beyond transaction and customer views, to analyze all related activities and relationships within a network. This could include shared addresses, phone numbers, employment information, account ownership and other transactional data.

The software's visualization capabilities enable access to full customer details and all related parties and networks, which SAS says makes it easier to identify key opinion leaders and associated communities of interest, and uncover previously unknown relationships.

'Once they identify a suspicious individual, investigators need a quick and accurate way to discover that person's networks. SAS Social Network Analysis provides this important ability,' states John Brocklebank, VP of SAS Solutions OnDemand and Head of the firm's Advanced Analytics Laboratory. 'Are they linked to other risky individuals? Is the institution exposed monetarily as a result? It's critical to know if it's an isolated individual or part of a criminal conspiracy.'

Web site: www.sas.com .