There are several trends in data quality to look for over the year ahead. For today’s post, I’ll focus on the trend of software-as-a-service. To get everyone on the same page, SaaS refers to a software distribution model in which applications and any associated data are hosted by a service provider and stored centrally, away from the client’s network.

This deployment model is becoming more prevalent. According to a recent Experian QAS study, 60% of respondents cited that some or all software is hosted in the cloud. The majority of these organizations house both on demand and on premise solutions.

SaaS deployments are particularly popular for data quality. These tools require less deployment resources and little maintenance. With data quality, there is also referential data to consider, which can take up a fair amount of space on local servers. With hosted solutions, there is no need to worry about that space.

Before deciding on a deployment model there are several questions stakeholders should ask themselves:

1. What is the company’s existing IT strategy and experience with SaaS?
2. What is the immediate and long-term budget for installation and maintenance?
3. What kind of response time does the company require?
4. Are there regulatory or compliance restrictions to consider?

Check back tomorrow for the next data quality trend of 2013!

• Who is responsible for all of the data?
• What problems exist with the data?
• What requirements need to be in place for quality to be at its best?
• Can a return on investment be quantified in such a case?

This is where Data Quality Management (DQM) comes into play. The goal of DQM is to establish roles, responsibilities, policies and processes to attack data quality issues. Cooperation and discipline is essential. It is important that everyone recognizes problems with the data and participates in determining a solution. Specifically, the IT department plays a major part in DQM, for they are in charge of the overall environment of the architecture, systems, databases, etc. Once problems are recognized and everyone’s on board, standards can be set. If you’re goal is to have a perfect database, you’ve set your expectations too high. We must all realize there is no such thing as a perfect, “spot-less” database. Data quality is a balance between accuracy and completeness. It is impossible to have data that is 100% accurate and 100% complete. We often find that we must sacrifice one or the other. Depending on the data’s value, one can make the decision to keep a record with an error or toss it.

Managing data quality is a continuous process that needs to be re-visited frequently. It is important to update your data in a real-time fashion. If you’re worried about the costs of managing your data, you shouldn’t be. Quality is free; it is the “unquality” that costs money.

Fraud prevention has been has been an industry concern for awhile now. As technology advances, so do criminals and consumers who set up fraudulent accounts in order to over bid, over order, or scam retailers. Typically, internet retailers have put certain software in place to reduce fraud. However, many are now looking towards address verification to help solve the problem.

We’re seeing a trend of companies turning to address verification vendors to help put a stop to the problem before it starts.

Taking the example of online retailers who use a “bidding” method to buy products, fraud prevention comes into play not only when making sure a consumer isn’t able to place more than one bid, but also maintaining the integrity of the website. People tend to get frustrated if they take the time to bid on an item, yet never win seem to win. This can result in consumer frustration and drop off. Capturing a verified physical address can help solve this problem by reducing duplicate accounts ensuring that a consumer is only able to bid once.

Interested in learning more about address verification services? View the latest offerings from Experian QAS.

Our software is designed to handle hundreds, thousands, even millions of addresses so it is typically too expensive for these kinds of inquiries. However, there is a solution… free online address verification tools!

In this article I will introduce you to two of these tools, along with providing some guidance on how to use them and the key benefits of each. So let’s meet them, shall we?

Experian QAS also provides a free address verification tool powered by a stripped-down version of our QAS Pro Web software.

Old Faithful

The USPS provides a free tool at http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp which can be very useful for verifying addresses on a small scale. The tool is robust and usable. Rest assured that it is accurate as the address data comes freshly updated from the most definitive source available!

Use this tool to:

• Determine whether an address actually exists
• Correct street descriptors (e.g. ‘street’ vs. ‘St’ etc.)
• Add directionals such as ‘N’ or ‘W’
• Identify apartments and/or unit numbers

Advantages:

• No limit on the number of searches you can do
• USPS address data is the best there is

The New Kid on the Block

We also provide a free address verification tool available at http://www.qas.com/address-software/free-address-lookup.htm which is great for small volumes of addresses as well. This free tool is powered by a stripped-down version of our QAS Pro Web software.

Use this tool to:

• Search USPS® address data, as above
• Browse all the valid addresses on any street
• Check the street descriptor (e.g. Blvd vs. Ln etc.)

Advantages:

• Easily cut-and-paste the final formatted address
• Results are also based on USPS® data

I hope this information was useful. Of course, we are always looking to improve the services we provide for our customers, so please feel free to provide us with any feedback on our free address lookup tool via the forum post that accompanies this article.

Happy verifying!