In a Global Economy, a Global Solution is Vital
Melissa Team | Address Quality, Address Standardization, Address Validation, Data Integration, Data Management, Data Quality, International Address Verification |
By Patrick Bayne
Data Quality Tools Software Engineer
Heidelberglaan 8
3584 CS Utrecht
If you were given this address, how would you know it was valid? Is it formatted
correctly? How long will it take you to verify? For years businesses have
understood a need for address validating solutions, because clean, accurate data
is essential. Without accurate and consistent data, customers are lost due to
missed mailings, synchronization across servers is difficult, and reports become
inaccurate – all adding to costs and missed opportunities for your business.
In an ever-emerging, ever-increasing global economy, there is a strong need for
a global address solution that is not only accurate but cost-effective. Melissa
Data, a long time value leader in address cleansing solutions, is proud to
announce the launch of its Global Address Verification Web Service. Now it’s
easier than ever to cleanse, validate, and standardize your international data –
allowing you to make confident business decisions, execute accurate mailings and
shipping, plus maintain contact with your customers.
The Global Address Verification Web Service easily integrates into your systems.
Because of the nature of a Web service, any platform that can communicate with
the Web is open to use the service. And the Web service supports a variety of
popular protocols – SOAP, XML, JSON, REST and Forms. The multiplatform,
multi-Web protocol openness of the service allows simple connection to any point
of entry, or batch system.
Enhanced Global Address Verification
What if you only had the street address and not the actual country name? Global
Address Verification Web Service’s unrestrictive address cleansing capabilities
will append the name of the country to ensure deliverability.
The solution automatically puts components into the correct address field,
making applications that process location data more accurate – bringing more
value to your data. The process is also resilient to erroneous, non-address
data. The solution can translate addresses between many languages and can format
address to a country’s local postal standards.
Result Codes for the Highest Verification Level
While it’s easy to set up the Web Service and make calls to it, you will also
know exactly what changed in the submitted address through results codes. There
are three types of codes to detail the data quality: AE (Error) codes signify
missing or invalid information; AC (Change) codes indicate address pieces that
have been changed; and new AV (Verification) codes inform you as to how strongly
the address was verified according to the reference data we have for a
particular country.
Quantifying the quality of a match is easy through the results codes. An AV
followed by a 2 designated that the record was matched to the highest level
possible according to the reference data available. An AV followed by a 1
denotes that the address is partially verified, but not to the highest level
possible. The number following, which is 1 to 5, indicates the level to which
the address was verified. Think of it as a sliding scale.
For countries like the France, Finland and Germany, where there is data up to
the delivery point, you will know that there was a full verification on an
address when there is a result code of AV24 or AV25. A country such as American
Samoa, where reference data is up to locality, would be fully verified with a
results code of AV22. Any missing or inaccurate information would change the
results to be partially verified. The user-friendly results codes will help you
make more informed decisions about your data.
The Global Address Verification Web Service will open new doors to cleanse and
validate your international data. The service is operating system and
programming language neutral, allowing you to use it wherever you desire.
All data is maintained by Melissa Data, reassuring you that it is up-to-date and
relieving you of the stress of any maintenance. You will have confidence that
your data is accurate and be able to make informed, effective business decisions
based on your data, increasing your productivity. So the next time you see,
“Heidelberglaan 8, 3584 CS Utrecht,” you will know how to quickly and assuredly
verify that it is a valid address.
— Patrick Bayne is a data quality tools software engineer at Melissa Data.
For a free trial of the Global Address Verification Web Service,
click here.