Recently in International Address Verification Category

By Allison Moon
Data Quality Analyst

This new interface in the current Phone Object takes in a phone number and country to determine whether the number is valid for the region. It can also take in a phone number alone and determine what country the number is from - by simply looking at the international access code (these are the digits used to dial into a country).

For example, with +49 3079788829, the Global Phone Object will be able to determine that this number is from Germany, just by looking at the international access code, +49.

In addition, Global Phone Object will also return international geographical information. Just like the current Phone Object, the Global Phone Object will return the latitude and longitude coordinates of the detected region.

It can also return the predominant language spoken in the phone number's region. This field is helpful in preventing phone calls from being lost in translation. By determining the pre-dominant language of the region, phone calls in a call center environment can be distributed to employees who are fluent in the detected language.

The Global Phone Object is a powerful tool that can be used in a multitude of ways to bridge international communication.

-- Allison Moon is a data quality analyst and software engineer for Melissa Data.

-- For more info on Global Phone Object, go to:
http://www.melissadata.com/phone-verification/index.htm

By Charles Gaddy

1. Do you think you could make an international phone call?
2. Do you think you could address a letter to Germany?

These may seem like simple activities, but for the average American, I feel they are quite challenging. Of my "back of the napkin" survey about seven out of 10 felt they could make the call, and two out of 10, the address. However, when asked how to address a letter they mostly replied - "just like in the U.S., but with a Country at the end."

This drives home the idea that in the U.S., businesses are just now starting to focus on international markets. I know that if I asked someone from the EU or from Great Britain, they would be knowledgeable in telephone country codes, shipping to mainland Europe from the UK, etc.



What I am hoping to address in the next several blog postings are the necessary guidelines for the configuration and storage of postal address data in a database table or tables, which is flexible around address format, structure, postal code indicators, and alphabets/languages.

How to Account for International Address Formats in a Database Table

In the past, I have done database work with domestic and international companies. One very specific example, which is relevant to this blog post, is a major international airline. This airline started as a U.S. domestic carrier and has expanded over time into Central and South America as well as the PAC RIM and Europe. The legacy systems they had in place stored address data in a classify U.S. format: Address1, Address2, Address3, City, State, ZIP Code.



My company was hired to do postal address verification, correction, and standardization on their international data and put it into this legacy system. Immediately, you can see the challenges. ZIP Code in the U.S. is a number; in the United Kingdom, Canada, and others - it's alphanumeric. In Mexico there can be as many as eight address lines as well as three administrative - a village, district, province model which does not fit with the classic U.S. city and state model. Even the best of address verification and correction cannot account for "putting a square peg in a round hole," which is these legacy structures.

In the next blog post, I will suggest an optimized format for storing address data within a single database table.

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.