Thomson Reuters Permanent Identifier (PermID) has been adopted by Owler to increase the transparency and effectiveness of its competitive intelligence tool.
PermID is a machine-readable identifier developed by Thomson Reuters to create a unique reference for any data item. Owler is using PermID to map the companies it tracks and strengthen its database, allowing it to improve the depth and breadth of the analysis it provides.
Owler helps business professionals quickly monitor and gain insights into their competitors with a series of customized and automated reports. It does this through its Competitive Graph, which maps the relationships between companies. This is constantly updated by hundreds of thousands of Owler users who contribute estimates on key data fields including revenue, headcount and CEO ratings. By using PermID, Owler strengthens the quality of the complex relationships between data, ensuring companies, subsidiaries and other entities are correctly identified and linked. This will also help the growing ecosystem of institutions already using PermID to integrate Owler content more easily into their own systems and processes.
“Thomson Reuters is a leader in the field of open data,” said Tim Harsch, co-founder and director of product, Owler. “Its PermID is helping us ensure greater accuracy and transparency in our database without relying on closed, proprietary identifier schemas. We believe that high quality competitor data has huge business potential, but for maximum value to be gained it needs to be structured on open principles. Thomson Reuters is helping the business community achieve this.”
“Innovative companies like Owler are demonstrating the breadth of ways PermID can help improve data quality,” said Wilbur Swan, vice president, technology development, Thomson Reuters. “We developed PermID for use in Thomson Reuters products, to improve the quality and connectedness of our data for search and analytics. In 2015, we made PermID available to the world under a free, open data license to foster innovation with clients, partners and start ups. It can be of value anywhere there are complex data management needs, helping firms make connections among multiple data items and find the answers they need to succeed.”
Thomson Reuters Permanent Identifier is a machine-readable identifier developed to create a unique reference for any data item. Unlike stock tickers and other such symbols, PermID never changes. PermID was developed by Thomson Reuters to manage its own internal datasets and is now being made available more widely to help solve the big data challenges faced by multiple industries.