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UNISERV GmbH
Rastatter Straße 13
75179 Pforzheim
Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 7231 / 936 - 0
Fax +49 (0) 7231 / 936 - 2500
FAQs about Postal Address Checking
Are Uniserv's post systems suited for B2C or for B2B applications?
Uniserv's systems are recommended for both application fields. In B2C applications, e.g. through the availability of street directories offering blanket coverage and search options via city districts, no longer valid (incorporated) cities and former street names.
For B2B applications, the addresses companies typically use – i.e. post office boxes and major business addresses – are particularly important. Moreover, post can provide the necessary information for applications in which the delivery address, post office box and the major business address are to be stored in individual structures, thus enabling the application to automatically store this information separately.
Are the post systems certified by the respective national postal authorities?
In most cases, Uniserv has had its programs certified by the national post offices in all countries in which the postal authorities offer this. Ask your contact partner at Uniserv for which countries this currently applies.
Why does Uniserv use other databases in addition to the official data in many countries?
Because a complete check without any gaps down to the street level is indispensable for very high address quality. In some countries the postal organizations issue street directories only for the larger cities and not covering the whole area. In part, Uniserv can provide via other sources a better quality of data or supplementary information such as the renaming of streets or an exact house number check, as in the case of postal validation for Germany. But in all countries the "basic data" of the national post offices is one of the most important foundations.
Does the user have to procure the different data sources periodically on his own and then merge and syntonize them in order to have a comprehensive, up-to-date reference table?
No! You can subscribe to the postal reference tables at Uniserv and obtain a complete "ready-to-go" reference file, in which all data (generally including the geocode data) are checked against and coordinated with each other. This entire reference table only has to be loaded. In contrast to other solutions this procedure gives you the highest quality of data with minimal cost and effort. Uniserv takes on for you the not so easy task of merging the different data files, recognizing and removing referential integrity problems as well as continually adjusting to changes in different data files.
How often does Uniserv update the reference lists of the post systems?
This varies per country and depends on the updating rhythm of the different sources. For most countries for which expert systems are available, updates take place 4 times per year, in some countries every two months or even monthly. The same applies for the list-updating in the international postal validation software postWorld.
You advocate doing a postal check of every new address entry or change. Why is it then nonetheless advisable to initiate a postal update of the database?
This is necessary because changes constantly occur: towns are incorporated, streets renamed or postal codes changed. Since you can assume in only the rarest cases that your customer will communicate this information to you, you should let post implement these changes in your database.
Are local government reorganizations and street renamings also automatically executed by post?
Yes, in all of the countries in which this information is available, this is automatically carried out. In many countries, when a street is renamed there are partly changes in the house number as well. post also supports this function, especially in Germany with the exact house number check.
Why does Uniserv recommend carrying out postal checking and geocoding on the same (up-to-date) postal reference data reading?
Even if in geocoding the designated information is only surveyed at longer intervals or e.g. no changes have been incurred in the coordinates, it is always advisable to reference the geocode information to the current version of the postal data files.
Hence, the geocode information is available also in those cases in which following the geocode investigation, towns were incorporated, postal codes changed or streets renamed. Only this ensures you the highest data quality in your application.
Hence, the geocode information is available also in those cases in which following the geocode investigation, towns were incorporated, postal codes changed or streets renamed. Only this ensures you the highest data quality in your application.
Why does Uniserv refer to expert systems with regard to the respective national post solutions and what differences are there compared with the international solution postWorld?
The expert systems have not been developed on the basis of the lowest common denominator. On the contrary, they give intense consideration to postal particularities of the respective country, the specific national post organization and the language. In this connection, it is important to note that the expert systems always work with reference lists of the highest data density and quality. The result quality is correspondingly high. As a result, the solutions are particularly suitable in cases where large address databases have to be checked down to the smallest detail.
In contrast to this, postWorld offers an international checking and validation approach at a more general level, which enables basis postal checks to be carried out e.g. by postcode and place. The use of postWorld is interesting in cases where basis checks are required for small to medium-sized databases from a large number of different countries, in order to secure the quality of the address data.
Do Uniserv post systems also support the "classic" rapid entry in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom?
Yes! In these countries the postal code structure was designed by the national postal authorities so that a postal code and the house number identify a building without any ambiguity. This can be used to accelerate the data entry, in that merely the postal code and house number are entered. The system produces from that the complete address designation for storage in the database.
Is it possible to transfer the house number and the street name to the system for checking in one field?
Yes! The house number can be transferred both together with the street name and in an own field, too. With a common transfer of house number and street name, these are automatically correctly analyzed by post for the postal check. This also applies for complex cases, e.g. in conjunction with house number supplements or street names with numerical terms.
Does post also support unstructured entries?
In the standard version post expects the information at least according to line (street line, city line, postal code number). In conjunction with the function convert-address which is available integrated, it is possible to enter the address data unstructured to the greatest extent. Yes it is even possible here to assign all address information without breaking up the lines to a single line and to nonetheless obtain a checked, corrected and properly formatted address. (See post Demo/function line by line entry.)
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Address Validation
UNISERV GmbH
Rastatter Straße 13
75179 Pforzheim
Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 7231 / 936 - 0
Fax +49 (0) 7231 / 936 - 2500
www.uniserv.com |
12.05.2008