Data extraction tools are used to retrieve structured, poorly structured, and unstructured data from a variety of sources for storage or further data transformation. Businesses can use this software to help identify and extract data which will be used for business intelligence needs, and improve analysis of otherwise unstructured information. Data extraction tools and software can help businesses make better use of the unstructured data they do not currently use.
The best data extraction tools works well with data quality software and data preparation software, as both help clean and organize data after scraping. It may also be beneficial to combine data extraction solutions with data integration software so that multiple data types and sources can be aggregated in one place. Data extraction platforms are often considered similar to OCR software. However, OCR software is usually used for obtaining data using document processing techniques. OCR and intelligent document processing (IDP) software carry out tasks like scanning an image for text and extracting data from various PDF files and other documents.
To qualify for inclusion in the Data Extraction category, a product must:
- Extract structured, poorly structured, and unstructured data
- Pull data from multiple sources
- Export extracted data in multiple readable formats
