Recently, Melissa hosted the webinar “Address Verification For Federal Agencies”, discussing why Melissa chose to become FedRAMP® authorized, how address verification can help federal agencies, and some use cases for Melissa GovCloud Address Suite. Here’s a brief recap of what Eric Hossenlopp discussed: if you want to watch the full webinar, check it out here.
In 2011, FedRAMP®, a government-wide program began, creating a standardized approach to the security of cloud services for federal government agencies. Once rigorous security assessments and protocols are complete, a service is placed on the marketplace, allowing any federal agency to purchase and use it without having to vet the cloud service again. FedRAMP saves 30-40% of security costs and time for a government agency doing this.
Melissa became FedRAMP authorized to make sure we comply with the highest level of data protection needed for these agencies to utilize clean address data. And there are many reasons for agencies to clean their data. We’ve found that about 20% of all addresses entered online contain errors—this includes things like spelling mistakes, missing or incorrect house numbers, or formatting errors. On top of that, about 13% of US households move a year, which means if you or your customers aren’t updating their addresses, you will have problems reaching them. Outdated and missing information leads to undeliverable shipments, potential fraud, and an overall poor customer experience.
Because of this, Melissa decided on two products that we would offer in our Melissa GovCloud Address Suite (MGCAS): Global Address Verification and SmartMover. Global Address Verification cleans address data for over 240 countries and territories, and can be used in real time single record, or for batch cleansing. SmartMover retrieves change of address records from the USPS 48-month national change of address database (NCOALink®), then verifies and standardizes the address to give you the most up-to-date contact information. This can be used in real time batch record processing.
MGCAS is currently being used in a number of ways. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has created an application that tracks lead poisoning in children based on location, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has created an app that updates old legacy address data that they have to standardize and verify addresses to current.
The webinar recording also features a demo by Michael Lee of how Global Address Verification and SmartMover works in Govcloud Address Suite. Make sure to watch the video if you’re interested!
If you have any questions or want more information on how GovCloud Address Suite might help you, reach out to us at www.melissa.com or call 1-800-MELISSA. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog for everything related to data quality!