Monthly Archives: June 2013

Jun 20

Analysis of Telephone Call Data Records with Sentinel Visualizer

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Discover more about Telephone Call Data Records Analysis


What valuable information can you get out of huge amounts of telephone call records?

The US government is trying to collect all the telephone call data records (CDR) for US and international phone calls though its PRISM program. Does having this information constitute snooping? Is it an invasion of privacy? Or can it really help investigators track, find, and thwart threats?

Does it Matter with So Much Data?

With billions of phone calls, how could anyone possibly find anything of value amid all the innocent, unrelated calls? No one can possibly gain significant insight looking at an Excel spreadsheet or a database showing rows and columns of all those calls. Isn’t it just noise?

How Sentinel Visualizer Analyzes Call Data Records

Without advanced analytics software, the data is overwhelming. Our commercial Sentinel Visualizer program from our Advanced Systems Group provides a platform to gain insight into the massive number of phone calls. It’s about managing large amounts of data, seeing the relationships between entities (phone numbers and people), drilling down where necessary, and filtering based on time, geography, and relationships:

  • Call detail records are imported into the Sentinel Visualizer database (SQL Server)
  • Link Analysis Networks can be used to visually see the calls made by any phone number
  • Multiple levels of phone calls can be linked to identify groups of phones related to each other (cells of activity)
  • Geospatial Mapping and integration with Google Earth to see calls across the world
  • Social Network Analysis (SNA) to identify related phones (cells) and spanners between cells
  • Temporal Analysis can be used to filter data to specific time ranges
  • If information exists for known individuals and their phone number(s), related phones can be quickly identified as warranting additional investigation
  • Link Traversal Analysis can be performed between two phone numbers to show all the phones related to them through multiple levels, and quickly filter out the unrelated calls to identify the “community of interest”
  • Numerous reporting and exporting options: print diagrams and customized reports, or export them in image, PDF, Word, Excel.

Link Analysis Network Visualization of Telephone Call Data Records (CDR)

Learn more here.

Jun 14

New Technical Support Forum and Ticket Tracking for FMS

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We are very pleased to announce our new technical support site (http://support.fmsinc.com) to provide forums and the ability to submit technical support inquiries.

Our new site lets you submit requests and respond to them via email with our support team. It also lets you visit our site to check the status of your requests and their entire chain of communications. You can login directly or use affiliated logins from Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

You can also read information and ask questions to the community on topics related to Microsoft Access, Visual Studio, LightSwitch, and SQL Server. We hope you’ll join us.

Additional support resources are available here:

Jun 07

Comparison of Microsoft Access, LightSwitch and Visual Studio Platforms for Database Developers

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Last month I spoke at the Portland Access Users Group Conference at Silver Falls State Park. I gave a presentation introducing Visual Studio LightSwitch and how it could be used for SQL Server applications deployed on a variety of platforms. As a follow-up, I’ve created a summary matrix and discussion that highlights the features and limitations of the variety of platforms from Microsoft Access, Visual Studio LightSwitch, and Visual Studio.

Microsoft Access started at the beginning of the Windows revolution 20+ years ago and became the most popular database of all time. More recently, additional technologies have become significant, so it behooves the Microsoft Access community to be aware of the trends and options.

Database Platform Matrix

Ultimately, it’s about being able to create solutions that help you and/or your users accomplish their mission. Sometimes the user’s platform is critical, sometimes, it’s the data source, and other times it’s the permissions you have to deploy a solution. A variety of platforms and options are available with benefits and limitations with each. Meanwhile, Microsoft Access is also evolving with their latest Access 2013 version offering new web based solutions.

We’ve written a new paper, Comparison of Microsoft Access, LightSwitch and Visual Studio Platforms for Database Developers  that summarizes what we’re seeing and experiencing.