Major Software Packages for International Address Data Validation & GeoCoding
The following questions and answers provide more information on software packages and international data directories that can be integrated with existing systems or run standalone.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for International Address Correction Software:
- How many countries does this software cover?
- Which languages and character sets are covered?
- Can I just get International data quality for one country or a couple of countries?
- How does International Address Correction work?
- What information is corrected?
- What are the benefits and functions of Intl. Data Quality Software?
- How does it impact a business who mails internationally?
- What is Geocoding?
- What products are available?
- What platforms are supported?
- Can this be a SaaS (software as a service)?
- Can these products be API's?
- How easy are these products to integrate into our current business?
- How does this save my business time and money?
- How large a quantity of mail needs to be mailed to get the benefits?
- How does my business decide which product best suites our needs?
Answers to questions on International Address Correction Software
Maintaining high data quality in the global marketplace is critical to business success. FTI offers international data quality products from the major vendors and can recommend the most cost effective solution for your application.
1. How many countries does this software cover?
These software packages cover up to 240+ countries around the world - that’s every populated world territory. The following products cover the following countries:
Global Locator: 238 countries
Data Quality Suites: USA and Canada
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2. Which languages and character sets are covered?
Some packages support Full Unicode (UTF8) data in any character set.
Loqate supports transliteration for many languages including:
Kanji (Japan)
Simplified Chinese (China)
Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
Hangul (South Korea)
Cyrillic (Russia)
Hellenic (Greece)
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3. Can I just get International data quality for one country or a couple of countries?
Yes, either through batch processing or purchasing single country data sets.
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4. How does International Address Correction work?
Sophisticated algorithms process your data and identify and extract geographic and contact information such as name, postal address, telephone and other location related data. These processes then parse unstructured text into labeled address, location and contact components and standardizes to the correct local format. The data is then transliterated from one character set to another and validated against global reference data. The missing components such as postal codes, region etc. are then added. The geocode processes then add a latitude/longitude coordinate to worldwide postal addresses and geographic data.
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5. What information is corrected?
Breadth and depth - Reference data for 240+ countries*
Address and geocode data for many countries
Parsing and Validation
Corrects misplaced data in wrong fields
Unhindered by extraneous non address and junk data
Hierarchical parsing structure (global, language, country rules)
Data Quality and Accuracy Codes added for analytics
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6. What are the benefits and functions of Intl. Data Quality Software?
Some of our products offer all these benefits and others offer some of these benefits.
Unsurpassed Global Coverage
Breadth and depth - Reference data for 240+ countries*
Multiple address and geocode data sources for many countries
Ease of Integration / Time To Market
Single API for all countries
Run batch files on day of installation
Platform independent
Robust Parsing and Validation
Corrects misplaced data in wrong fields
Unhindered by extraneous non address and junk data
Accuracy and Reliability of Results
Processing Performance
Hierarchical parsing structure (global, language, country rules)
Ability to Quantify Data Quality
Accuracy Code used for analytics
Commercial Benefits: Multiple pricing models to match the needs of your business and type of data usage
Pay as you grow/expand
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7. How does it impact a business who mails internationally?
Business intelligence - Creates a solid and credible foundation for driving sound strategic business decisions in all functional areas
Customer Satisfaction - A key index for creating a unified (360) customer view
Cost – Mailing discounts and first time delivery
Process Efficiency - Database merges due to M&A or Customer Data Integration (CDI) initiatives
Compliance - Legal compliance issues around personal customer data
Risk Management – Useful in detecting fraud & identity theft
Customer satisfaction – On time deliveries
Service predictability – no hunting for addresses
Sales & Marketing intelligence – know where your customers are, and where they aren’t
Accuracy - LBS and mapping applications
Risk management – e.g. insurance flood zones
Logistic efficiency – place facilities near customer concentrations
Billing efficiency – taxation boundaries
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8. What is Geocoding?
Geocoding is the process of assigning latitude and longitude coordinates to an existing address. The accuracy of the coordinates depends upon the initial accuracy of the address, but can also be dramatically improved through the address correction process. Geocoding data improves target marketing and allows one to pinpoint the location of customers and leads and target messaging to specific regions. It also helps increase efficiency: address verification at the point-of-entry helps improve shipping, tracking, and mailing efforts, saving time and other company resources.
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9. What products are available?
Global Locator: standardizes, validates and formats address data before assigning corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates - 238 countries.
Data Quality Suites: verify, correct and standardize US & Canadian addresses to SERP requirements at point of entry or in batch.USA and Canada.
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10. What platforms are supported?
Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit, Linux 32-bit, Linux 64-bit, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, SQL Server. Support for Java, .Net, C++ on Linux, Windows 32 or 64, JSON or SOAP,
For product specific platform information please call 888-970-9944.
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11. Can this be a SaaS (software as a service)?
Yes, either via batch processing or real-time processing as a service.
SaaS APIs: JSON, SOAP, Atom.
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12. Can these products be API's?
Yes, C++, Java, .Net APIs. Web Service APIs: PHP.
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13. How easy are these products to integrate into our current business?
Run batch files on day of installation!
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14. How does this save my business time and money?
Cost – Mailing discounts and first time delivery; Sales & Marketing intelligence – know where your customers are, and where they aren’t; Mail reaches your customers so no loss from lost mail; No fines for excessive number of wrong addresses; automated data cleansing and accurate data saves time and money from having to manually correcting wrong data...just to list a few.
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15. How large a quantity of mail needs to be mailed to get the benefits?
It depends on your business. What is the cost of mailing to a single wrong international address that does not get returned? The benefits include such things as: customer satisfaction (on time and accurate delivery and maintaining customer base), mailing discounts and first time delivery, process efficiency, sales & marketing intelligence, logistic efficiency, billing efficiency, to name a few. These all save time and money and improve business processes.
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16. How does my business decide which product best suites our needs?
FTI specializes in matching the right software solution to business requirements. Please call us at 888-970-9944 (Toll-free), or email us at fti@freelancetech.com.
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FTI offers a choice of the above data quality software packages and offers training based on the specific requirements of your business or organization.
Since 1986, FTI has provided mailing software solutions to clients in the Washington DC area and the country. FTI has the expertise to advise which software is the best choice for your application.
