
UiPath
Content Grabber is a cloud-based web scraping tool that helps businesses all sizes with data extraction. The platform enables users to manage data extraction workflow through the visual click and point editor. Content Grabber can ...Read more
Foxtrot by EnableSoft is a cloud-based data entry solution developed for businesses of all sizes. It allows users to automate manual processes and data tasks. It primarily caters to users in banking, insurance, manufacturing, heal...Read more
Automai Robotic Process Automation enables businesses across human resources, healthcare, finance and other industries to automate and manage recurring tasks using artificial intelligence (AI)and machine learning (ML) technologies...Read more
Datalogics PDF Tools provides solutions including FLIP2PDF, PDF Optimizer, PDF Checker, PDF2PRINT, PDF2IMG, Adobe Experience Reader Extensions, PDF Forms Flattener and PDF Alchemist to manage PDF documents. Administrators can util...Read more
HelathData Archiver is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses with EMR conversion and data extraction from legacy systems. Primarily catering to health systems, physician practitioners, EMR vendors, hospitals, HIEs and ACOs,...Read more
Altair Monarch is a self-service, web-based data preparation solution that helps businesses extract data from reports such as HTML, PDF and XPS. The platform can access data from customer lists, sales reports, logs, inventories, i...Read more
Astera ReportMiner is a data extraction and mining tool that helps businesses ingest data from unstructured data sources and various file formats. ReportMiner’s automation functionality helps users configure a program to monitor a...Read more
Xtractor, by ActivePDF is a cloud-based developer tool that helps businesses search, extract and convert images or text from PDF files. The solution enables users specify the criteria such as image formats, words, location of inte...Read more
Parascript FormXtra.AI is a document automation software development kit, which provides solutions to automate documents processes such as classification, data discovery, extraction and validation. Designed for BPOs, financial ser...Read more
Clarabridge CX Analytics is a cloud-based business intelligence platform that allows users to analyze and pull insights from various sources including social media channels, review sites, surveys and more. Clarabridge CX Anal...Read more
For small businesses, data is a highly critical factor in determining customer needs, building sales and marketing strategies as well as understanding market trends.
Luckily for your small business, data is ubiquitous in the form of emails, program code, documentation, configuration files, websites etc. All of these can help you understand consumer habits and drive revenue. This data will also give you a competitive edge in the market.
For this reason, you should find ways to connect with your customers. However, small businesses often find it challenging to correctly identify customer behavior—how they select, buy and use your products.
Data extraction software can help you understand these customer actions. The software automates the collection of data from various websites and sources. It makes it easy to organize, store, retrieve and use this information to research and analyze customers.
But finding the right data extraction software can be tough for small businesses like yours. Knowing which features you need and fully realizing the benefits of those features will help you purchase the right software for your business.
This guide will help you understand data extraction software, its features and benefits.
Here's what we'll cover:
What Is Data Extraction Software?
Common Features of Data Extraction Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Benefits of Data Extraction Software
Key Considerations
Data extraction tools help businesses scrape data from a website or server. The data could be in the form of images, URLs, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
The software can help you acquire data regarding the market, your customers and the general state of the economy every day, week or month. It can extract a variety of data, ranging from financial data (such as stock prices and bonds) to contact information (such as email IDs, phone numbers and social media profiles).
The data extraction process involves the following steps:
In this section, we cover the key software features that a buyer should be aware of before they purchase a solution. Most small businesses will need some (or all) of these features in their data extraction software:
Email address extraction | Collect email addresses from web pages, data files or any email account. |
Web data extraction | Collect content structures in the form of product catalogs, search results, URLs, etc., from various websites and store it in the company database. |
Schedule extraction | Set intervals (once a day, month or quarter) to scrape the most recent data whenever the tool detects updates or new content. |
IP address extraction | Extract IP addresses from files, folders, URLs and text snippets. |
Image extraction | Extract images of all sizes and types, including pictures, graphics and photos, from any kind of text file. |
Phone number extraction | Extract phone numbers from web pages and text files using an inbuilt logic that filters out the required information using a comma, colon or another character based per your preference. |
Import/export | Import data from tables and lists from websites, then export these into different formats such as Microsoft Excel or Word. |
Data handling | Organize collected data and store it on a server or in the cloud. |
To further understand these features and the vendors in this category, call our advisors at (844) 687-6771 for free, no-obligation guidance. They'll help you narrow down your options by understanding your requirements and recommending the best-suited solutions for your business.
As you begin shortlisting your options for data extraction software, you need to understand the type of buyer you are. This will help you better analyze your requirements and the priority of software features into "must-have" and "optional."
This section breaks down the most common buyer types. Here are the three main types of buyers in this category:
So far, we've discussed that data extraction tools benefit businesses by automating the process of extracting data and reducing the overall scraping time. Here are some more benefits of using data extraction tools in your small business:
Now that you're aware of the features and benefits of data extraction software, you should be better equipped to explore the solutions in the market. But before you purchase a solution, consider these key factors to make the right decisions:
Increasing data demands require scalability. Your data requirements will increase over time, so the solution should be able to handle future business expansion. A desktop as a service (DaaS) solution is ideal for small businesses and startups. It lets you scale up without having to invest a lot on hardware. DaaS also allows you to quickly make updates and upgrades at a relatively low cost than a traditional workstation infrastructure.
Mass data extraction requires a robust engine. The engine used for the data extraction process should be capable of managing the entire process: sorting, filtering and making advanced extraction algorithm. It should also be able to accommodate HTML structure changes, build a proper workflow for the process, log and track any failures as well as be resilient to changes and updates.
Data interface is essential. A graphical user interface (GUI) is essential to extracting data from visual sources such as websites. GUI lets you separate editing from viewing and gives a high degree of ease when configuring and extracting the data. If your tools lack GUI, it'll be difficult to create a direct relationship between the content you see and the HTML code or configuration files.
Keep these factors in mind when you are searching for a data extraction tool. Once you have fully understood your end-to-end requirements, shortlisting vendors will be easy.