Most organizations – businesses, government agencies, non-profits – are just scratching the surface of what they can learn and accomplish through the analysis of unstructured text. Opportunities abound, applications are multiplying, and the landscape is coming into sharper focus.

Before outlining options for where and how an organization can start unveiling opportunities with unstructured text, it is important to understand what Text Analytics is and why one should care. At a high level, Text Analytics is about deriving information from text sources – client interactions, product reviews, call center logs, emails, blogs, tweets, and other forms of electronic text – so organizations can make business decisions more effectively. Text Analytics can reveal insights about the firm’s products, the products of competitors, and other information to improve business operations and performance.