Language Analysis Systems, Herndon, VA, a name recognition software provider, said yesterday that Harris & Baseview selected LAS NameParser to help its newspaper clients parse the names of customer records when converting their data to Harris & Baseview's systems.
Harris & Baseview, a division of MediaSpan, Durham, NC, makes software for the publishing industry, including tools to help the editorial, advertising, circulation and production departments. It has more than 3,000 clients worldwide.
“LAS NameParser is the only tool we could find to handle the ethnically diverse names that we find in our customer databases,” said Scott Bray, circulation product manager for Harris & Baseview, Ann Arbor, MI. “Most people don't consider the broad ethnic diversity in U.S. customer databases until they try to do an accurate job of handling personal names. Then it becomes an insurmountable issue.”
LAS NameParser uses knowledge from LAS' study of names to automate the analysis and parse personal names into surname and given name components. Various linguistic and statistical information is used to enhance precision and consistency. Newspapers often have had their existing systems for 12 to 15 years, so they have different standards for how they treat names.
With LAS NameParser, Harris & Baseview can reduce the time to convert systems, allowing a company the potential for more installations.
