Global Address Object:Introduction

← Global Address Object Reference

These customizable developer tools have been designed to help efficiently manage and improve the data quality levels in your global address data, all while providing for superior performance and profitability. This product can be used as a turning point at which the international data collected across your organization can be transformed into usable reliable information. With the Global Address Object, you will be able to verify and standardize addresses, geocode address data, in 7+ alphabets/languages and covering 240+ countries and territories.

About Global Address Object

International address data quality is a challenge for organizations of all sizes. International data with its differing address structures, terms, and alphabets can if handled poorly have a substantial negative impact on your data-driven initiatives. By using Global Address Object, you’ll reduce costly international undeliverable and return mail, increase effective multinational communication efforts, and save money on all the data driven initiatives across the organization.

Address Verification Process

When considering the process that the Global Address Object performs when verifying or correcting an address there is a cycle the input address moves through to provide the highest quality match and verification result. This process applies a combination of matching logic and the highest quality reference data to product the best possible address result.

Reference Data Coverage

Melissa Data utilizes the best sources of reference data available on the most frequent refresh schedule to provide a high quality address result. Our reference data is measured from the broadest level of coverage (Locality/Postal Code) to the most precise level of coverage (postal certified delivery point).

File:API GAO ReferenceDataCoverage.png

At Melissa Data we are constantly attempting to improve our coverage and move countries which are covered at a locality/postal code level to a house number, sub house number, and where possible postal delivery point level. As mentioned, reference data is important but only half of the story for successful global address verification.

Verifying an Address

When the Global Address Object attempts to verify input data as an address it moves the data through a specific process flow or steps: Field, Parse, Verify/Correct, and Format & Return.

File:API GAO VerfyingAddress.png

Field

Global Address Object attempts to determine what elements of the input data are address elements and separate those from other input elements (email address, names, phone numbers etc.) that might be included but are not actually part of the address input. In this step Global Address Object also attempts to determine the country associated with the input data if a specific country delineator (country name, ISO code, etc.) is not provided.

Parse

Next the fielded address data will be parsed into more specific address elements. This is the process of taking address lines (1-8) and attempting to classify what part of an address line might be a house number, postal code, thoroughfare/street, etc. Once this is completed, the best parsed result will be matched and verified against our global reference data.

Verify/Correct

Reference data and international address quality standards are applied to arrive at a verification of the accuracy of the address input or a correction/standardization of the address input to produce the best possible result. Once verification and correction has been completed the best address candidate is formatted and provided as the result with corresponding result code(s).

Format & Return

The best address output is formatted appropriately for the destination country and returned in the requested language/alphabet. Formatting includes items like, ensuring the house number is in the correct place for the given country postal format and that the return address data is in the appropriate alphabet. Along with diacritics in the Latin alphabet, Melissa Data supports: Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai, Hebrew, Greek, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese alphabets.