Entity Resolution – Business Data Accuracy & Harmonization

If your business is operating on fragmented, outdated, or inconsistent data, you’re making decisions in the dark. Before you can analyze trends, launch campaigns, or activate AI, you need to start with the foundation: entity resolution.

Entity resolution is the first critical step in any modern data strategy. It’s how you begin harmonizing data across disconnected systems — ensuring that the records you rely on represent real people, real actions, and real value. Not duplicates. Not guesswork. Just clean, connected, validated information you can trust and act on.

What Is Entity Resolution?

Entity resolution is the process of identifying when multiple records — scattered across systems and formats — actually refer to the same person, business, or account. But at harpin AI, we take it a step further. We don’t just resolve identities — we validate them, link them to their behaviors and transactions, and add real-world context: time, place, value, and relationship. That way, you don’t just know who someone is — you know what they’ve done, when, where, and why it matters.

In a modern business environment, where data is fragmented across tools and teams, this connected view is everything. With entity resolution done right, you can finally stop guessing and start making confident decisions based on trusted data.

Industry-Specific Applications of Entity Resolution

Entity resolution can help every business determine where problems lie and improvements can be made. The specific ways it helps your business, though, will largely depend on the industry you’re in.

Retail & eCommerce

Brands can connect customer data across channels and systems to understand how individuals engage — from first-time buyers to high-value loyalists. With structured, validated profiles in place, teams can segment more intelligently, track behavior over time, and uncover trends in engagement or drop-off. This enables more targeted loyalty programs, sharper marketing strategies, and faster answers to business-critical questions.

Restaurant

Restaurant operators can connect reservation, point-of-sale, and loyalty data to understand the full picture of guest behavior. From identifying high-value diners to analyzing visit trends and offer effectiveness, entity resolution helps reduce manual reporting, streamline targeting, and drive smarter service decisions.

Hospitality

Hotel brands and resort groups often operate across multiple systems — from property management and booking engines to guest profiles and loyalty programs. Entity resolution helps connect these fragmented data points into accurate, trusted guest profiles. With validated, connected data, teams can access insights more easily and act on them with confidence—whether it’s improving retention, personalizing experiences, or identifying opportunities for upsell across properties.

Gaming

Gaming organizations can use entity resolution to connect fragmented data from assets, player clubs, and property systems to get a holistic view of guest activity. This allows:

Identifying high-value players and behavioral patterns
Tracking coin-in, win/loss, and time-on-device by asset, player, and location
Targeting loyalty offers based on value, not guesswork
Detecting shifts in player behavior or visitation frequency
Streamlining reporting and enabling immediate answers to operational questions

Digital Marketing

You can’t personalize what you don’t understand. Incomplete profiles, fragmented tools, and noisy data make “personalized” feel more like “mass-blasted with a first name.” With connected, validated profiles, marketing and CRM teams can:

Build personal journeys that reflect real behavior and history
Target with confidence using high-intent signals, not broad strokes
Adapt to real-time behavior, not lagging data
Turn data into revenue by answering the “why” behind conversion trends

Personalization becomes more than surface-level. It becomes timely, intentional, and effective.

harpin AI: Entity Resolution That Delivers Answers

The power of entity resolution isn’t just in the data — it’s in the ability to ask better questions and get faster answers. With resolved, validated entities and interactions, business users can:

Explore customer behavior across time, channels, and locations
Quickly assess performance at the player, guest, or customer level
Identify gaps, anomalies, and emerging trends
Save time and eliminate manual report-building

Whether you’re trying to understand why engagement is dropping in one segment, which promotions are driving lift, or what player types are worth retaining, entity resolution enables you to get real answers from your data.

Best Practices for Implementing Comprehensive Entity Resolution

When you implement comprehensive entity resolution strategies, you get the clarity you need from the data you collect. Then, you can make sense of the information and act with confidence. Your data foundation should be built on the right tools, policies, and processes to ensure quality, availability, and usability.

To implement an effective strategy, consider:

Defining your scope and objectives, including sources and accuracy requirements
Ensuring quality through normalization, governance, and data validation
Matching and linking using the right criteria and algorithms to reduce false positives/negatives
Maintaining your resolution pipeline through regular audits and continuous improvements

Entity resolution is complex — but when it’s paired with contextual understanding and the ability to get immediate answers, it becomes the key to data-driven transformation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What’s the scope of entity resolution?

Entity resolution at scale means more than merging duplicates. It starts with Observe — surfacing what exists across your data systems. Then comes Resolve — validating those records, correcting errors, and linking identities with the right context: time, place, value, and relationship. True resolution means knowing exactly who a person is, across channels and systems, and understanding their actions without relying on guesswork. It’s the foundation for getting real answers, not just cleaned-up records.

Can resolution handle complex, large-scale data?

Yes, resolution can handle complex, large-scale data. harpin AI has provided enterprise-level implementations at companies such as Princess, Marriott, and Fire & Vine Hospitality. Scalability considerations are vital when choosing an entity resolution option, to ensure the solution you choose will be right for you as your company grows.

How does resolution support data privacy?

Data privacy and protection are crucial components of entity resolution software. At harpin AI we run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and all the customer data we store is AES-256 encrypted. We also use Key Management Service (KMS), GuardDuty, and Inspector, and are SOC 2 Type II certified through rigorous, independent audits.

What ROI can businesses expect from comprehensive resolution?

Companies that have worked with us in the past have seen ROI benefits of as much as a 650% increase in actionable data, and a 40% increase in data quality, along with upgraded guest experiences and ongoing value for increased future success.

Transform Your Data Strategy Today

Ready to understand what your data is actually telling you? The right solution connects the dots across your systems, enables deeper insights, and helps you get answers that move the business forward.

Be the next success story, with the transformative potential of comprehensive resolution. Book a demo with harpin AI today!