Equifax Selects Datawatch to Unlock Value from Unstructured Data

CHELMSFORD, Mass. and LONDON, Feb. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ-CM: DWCH), a leading global provider of visual data discovery solutions, and Equifax Ltd., the leading consumer and commercial insights expert, today announced an important strategic initiative to automate much of the data extraction from multiple unstructured sources including financial data used in Equifax's growing commercial business.

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Equifax provides commercial credit reports and related services to its clients on over 2.3 million companies who file their accounts at UK Companies House each year, as well as comprehensive reporting on non-limited businesses. Equifax customers, who include major financial institutions, multi-national corporations and SME's, are then able to evaluate credit scores and facilitate business lending.  This initiative will enhance Equifax's ability to update its business databases with the most current data on the UK business landscape while significantly reducing operational costs and maintaining data accuracy.

"As with most sectors, the competitive environment in our industry is becoming more challenging.  It's crucial for us not only to offer competitive services but to be leading the field with innovative practices," states Nick Beresford, Equifax UK's Head of Data Operations.  "This new collaboration with Datawatch will drive major business efficiencies, but most importantly will help us to become a Centre of Excellence globally for our customers.  It's anticipated that this initiative will form the template for services across other Equifax geographies where the need to extract data from unstructured sources is also essential."

This new solution uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to record, verify and extract core data from the thousands of records received by Equifax each day.  The complete solution leverages the Datawatch platform to take the readable electronic data from the OCR engine, apply business rules and verify the information within the Equifax environment using Datawatch's unique data protocols.  Automating this process has taken data inclusion timescales down from days to hours.

"This has been a landmark implementation with a very forward-thinking team," concludes Haj Muntz, general manager EMEA at Datawatch. "At a time when speed of access and accuracy of data is increasingly critical to commercial success in this industry, we're exceptionally proud to have been able to support this industry-first."

About Datawatch Corporation
Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ-CM: DWCH) provides visual data discovery software that optimizes any data – regardless of its variety, volume, or velocity – delivering next generation analytics to reveal valuable insights for improving business. Its unique ability to integrate structured, unstructured, and semi-structured sources like reports, PDF files and EDI streams with real-time streaming data into visually rich analytic applications allows users to dynamically discover key factors that impact any operational aspect of their business. This ability to perform visual discovery against any data sets Datawatch apart in the big data and visualization markets. Organizations of every size, worldwide use Datawatch products, including 99 of the Fortune 100. Datawatch is headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts with offices in New York, London, Munich, Stockholm, Singapore, Sydney and Manila, and with partners and customers in more than 100 countries worldwide. See the Whole Story for yourself by downloading the free trial at www.datawatch.com/trial.

ABOUT EQUIFAX
Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provide businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 600 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide.  The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enable it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 18 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index.  Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2013, Equifax was named a Bloomberg BusinessWeek Top 50 company, was #3 in Fortune's Most Admired list in its category, and was named to InfoWeek 500 as well as the FinTech 100. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such statements, including but not limited to those relating to results of operations, contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from current expectations include the following: risks associated with the continuing weak global economy; risks associated with fluctuations in quarterly operating results due, among other factors, to the size and timing of large customer orders; risks associated with acquisitions, including the recent acquisition of intellectual property from Math Strategies and the acquisition of Panopticon; the volatility of Datawatch's stock price; limitations on the effectiveness of internal controls; rapid technological change; Datawatch's dependence on the introduction of new products and possible delays in those introductions; competition in the software industry generally, and in the markets for next generation analytics in particular; Datawatch's dependence on its principal products, proprietary software technology and software licensed from third parties; risks associated with international sales and operations; risks associated with indirect distribution channels and co-marketing arrangements, many of which were only recently established; the adequacy of Datawatch's sales returns reserve; risks associated with a subscription sales model; Datawatch's dependence on its ability to hire and retain skilled personnel; disruption or failure of Datawatch's technology systems that may result from a natural disaster, cyber-attack or other catastrophic event; and uncertainty and additional costs that may result from evolving regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure. Further information on factors that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated is detailed in various publicly-available documents, which include, but are not limited to, filings made by Datawatch from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, those appearing in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2013. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of those factors.

Investor Contact:
Datawatch Investor Relations 
[email protected]
Phone: (978) 441-2200 ext. 8323

Media Contact:
Sarah Bernardi
Datawatch Corporation
[email protected]
Phone: (978) 441-2200 ext. 8387
Twitter: @datawatch

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SOURCE Datawatch Corporation