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Success Story
Building and Managing a Database of Portfolio Companies through Automated Web Scraping Solution
Impact
0%
efficiency improvement as compared to the manual approach with auto-tracking of changes in the portfolio firms every month
0%
Higher capture rate (changes in the portfolio companies) by using a balanced approach of automation and human intervention
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Client
A leading business intelligence company
Products
Portfolio companies - database management
Industries
Business intelligence and media publishing
target geo
Global
business objective
- To develop a comprehensive web scraping solution capable of extracting the names and other details (such as websites, date of entry or exit, deal status and stake acquired) of the portfolio firms mentioned on the websites of 7,000+ asset management firms. The extracted information should be stored in a database capable of handling large volume of data.
- To efficiently manage the database by identifying any changes (addition or deletion) in the portfolio firms each month and update the records accordingly. It should also generate alerts to notify stakeholders of these changes.
Context
- The client wanted to establish and maintain a repository containing the details of portfolio companies of 7,000+ asset management firms. They intended to monitor and record any changes in these portfolio companies in the repository.
- The client was manually tracking these changes every month, which was very time consuming and could not meet their requirements because the capture rate of the portfolio firms’ changes was less than 75%. As a result, they engaged Cognition to develop a solution capable of tracking portfolio companies changes quickly and accurately.
Our solution
Cognition implemented a multi-phased approach, leveraging automation and human intervention to produce a cost-effective solution and error-free output
Automation
- Scraping scripts were created for each fund management website with a unique structure, through which portfolio firm names and other fields were retrieved. The data and scraping software were stored on a cloud server.
- A scheduler was also installed on the server to extract the names of portfolio firms, as well as other information once each month. The newly retrieved data was compared to the previously stored data to determine any changes in the portfolio companies (added or deleted) of the given asset management firms.
- If any changes occur in the portfolio firms, an email notification will be automatically sent to a Cognition team member.
Human Intervention
- The team member will review the changes notified by the algorithm and update those changes in the database.
- Apart from reviewing the changes, the Cognition team will also make random checks to ensure that the scripts are working properly and capturing the desired changes.
Outcome
- Auto-tracking of changes in the portfolio firms every month resulted in an efficiency improvement of over 60% as compared to the manual approach
- Capture rate (changes in the portfolio companies) has increased from less than 75% to more than 95% by using a balanced approach of automation and human intervention
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