Scott Vercruysse: From Researching Markets to Data Harvesting

Breathing heavy, he darts down the rubble of the trail ahead of him. Somedays the wind blows hard, and somedays the sun shines bright. Either way, he keeps going.

For Scott Vercruysse, one of our Data Acquisition Engineers at BrightPlanet, both running outdoors and taking on client projects presents him with new challenges. He prefers it that way.

His love for completing complex tasks stems from his appreciation for marketing and market research. Native to Minnesota, Scott attended Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall. There, he majored in marketing where he became engrossed in consumer behavior, effective advertising, and methods of selling. He eventually found an opportunity for employment with a market research firm within the university.

Although he enjoyed it, Scott felt that he had a higher calling than his work at the university firm. He wanted to be able to retain his passion for market research, while being able to apply a technical component on a daily basis.

That’s where we came in. Upon discovering us in the hunt for his ideal career, Scott was enticed by our data processes and thought he could be a perfect fit for our data team. He was absolutely right.

The Team Behind Data Harvesting

Being a Data Acquisition Engineer means being a part of a collection of ambitious minds. Their processes are never congruent from one day to the next, but the pursuit of meeting client goals is unchanging.

Over the years, Scott has found a particular passion for assuring quality control from our data harvesting. Working closely with the developers at BrightPlanet to assure that we’re able to collect the greatest amount of quality content possible. Whether it’s on the support side from our data feeds to the API, he makes sure that it’s always working the best for the client.

When it comes to new customers, different industries require different processes. However, data harvesting and leveraging Deep Web technologies is beneficial for all of them.

To begin the process, Scott will address the client’s current challenges with their data and the information they’re trying to acquire. The next part of the process is identifying the sources. Whether a client knows the source they want to leverage or not, he assesses the Big Data that they’re able to acquire.

Due to the delicacy of the process, Scott finds it paramount to educate his clients on the best information related to their business. Pairing this with our small company size allows us to customize any type of data collection to an output that fits our clients’ analytics process. Ultimately, we can customize our Data-as-a-Service to fit your needs.

Confidence in Our Processes

One of the projects that Scott became most passionate about was his work in combatting pharmaceutical fraud. This process was so enjoyable because it really demanded our highly accurate methods of data harvesting and curation.

He finds people falling victim to this crime usually search the web for a cheaper version of a particular drug. Like pieces of a puzzle, Scott used guidelines to tag the drugs being sold to make sure everything fit together and identify any that appeared fraudulent. This included generic drugs, dollar amounts, dosages, and a variety of variables that put the picture in perspective.

In the end, this boosted his confidence in data harvesting and demonstrated to him the immense value BrightPlanet offers. Because the data is so massive, clients are able to tell by the output the network of fraud in place.

Scott foresees industries getting more creative in the way that they view open source intelligence. That being said, many industries still have a ways to go in leveraging their data. He know that as these industries catch up they’ll be looking for the premium Data-as-a-Service and data harvesting that BrightPlanet provides.

If you are interested in how Data-as-a-Service can help solve your data problems, tell us what you’re working on. We’ll assess your situation and help you find the best data solution for your needs and guess what? You’ll probably get to talk to Scott himself.


WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?