Please Mister Postman

May 10, 2006 12:49 PM

Anyone used Address Validation software?

I have a client that needs to clean all the addresses in a large database. I have taken a cursory look at Code-1, Melissa Data and ZP4, but would like to hear about some real experiences. The client wants to be able to take an Excel or CSV file containing all the records and have the file returned with the records cleaned. This seems fine for a one-off cleaning, but I am also interested in integrating it with a ColdFusion application to validate new addresses as they are added.

posted by juggler to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Sounds like you are trying to do a lot with this list. How many records are there? The Melissa NCOA will update the change-of-addresses and check against the USPS data file, but my experience is that these databases have lots of duplicates that don't get caught even in the most sophisticated de-duping apps--nothing is 100% accurate. Is there any intention of doing a test mailing after the cleaning with address service requests? I can't speak to the ColdFusion question because I don't know what type of database you are using or if the data entry is automated. Good luck.
posted by mattbucher at 2:58 PM on May 10, 2006

While I haven't used it myself, I can say that my company uses Code-1 and it's a pretty industry standard/trusted sort of thing, so if you're looking for data hygiene I think it should achieve what you're after.
posted by twiggy at 10:00 PM on May 10, 2006

I use Satori Software's Mailroom ToolKit. Costs a lot, but we CASS databases with 20,000 records and it gets the job done.
posted by Ekim Neems at 6:36 AM on May 11, 2006

I use IQ8 by FirstLogic (now Business Objects). Its great, does exactly what you require from it and more. Although, its extremely expensive if that is all you are hoping to use it for.
posted by cusecase at 1:32 PM on May 12, 2006