Explainer · Updated
Record fusion and entity resolution, explained
Entity resolution decides when records in different systems refer to the same person, company or item. Record fusion builds on it to put everything known about that entity in one place, with the reason for every match.
The problem.
Organizations hold the same people, companies and items in many systems: a vendor list, a case file, a customs record, a registry export. Each spells names differently, uses different identifiers and is kept by a different team. Nobody reads them together, so connections that would be obvious on one page stay invisible.
Entity resolution.
Entity resolution is the step that decides whether two records describe the same entity. It compares names, addresses, dates, registration numbers and other attributes, allows for spelling variants and transliteration, and gives each candidate match a score.
The hard part is not finding matches but being honest about them. A good system shows why it matched two records and how confident it is, and leaves borderline cases for a person to confirm.
Record fusion.
Record fusion builds on entity resolution: once the matches are made, it joins what each source says about the entity into one view, alongside open sources such as company registries and news coverage, so an analyst reads one assessment instead of six systems.
What to ask of any tool that does this.
- Can it show why two records were matched?
- If not, you cannot defend the result.
- Who confirms uncertain matches?
- A person should, and the system should record who.
- Is every query logged?
- Joining records about people needs an audit trail.
- Does it stay within the data you are entitled to hold?
- Fusion should not become a back door to surveillance.
Questions.
- What is entity resolution?
- Deciding when records in different systems refer to the same real-world person, company or item, despite differences in spelling and identifiers.
- What is the difference between entity resolution and record fusion?
- Entity resolution makes the matches. Record fusion uses them to combine what every source says about an entity into one view.
Where Alethman fits.
Alethman’s Arctus joins records a team already holds with open sources, shows why each match was made, and puts one assessment in front of a named analyst.
More guides.
All guides- ExplainerWhat is Alethman?
- ExplainerWhat is news intelligence?
- ComparisonNews intelligence, media monitoring and social listening: what each one measures
Terms used here are defined in the glossary.