The Best Advice You Can Ever Receive On Address Collection

Address Collection - How to Make Sense of Your Data

Address collection can be a difficult task. It's important to collect clean data, whether you're collecting data for weddings, holiday cards or even for parties.

Businesses can save time and money by using correct addresses. Incorrect addresses result in rejected mail, additional fees and missed opportunities. Address verification tools can cut expenses by ensuring addresses are properly entered.

ArcGIS Solutions for State and Local Government

Address collection is essential for local government. It is also a key component in geospatial management. Many governments struggle to manage authoritative address repositories. They require simple workflows to capture the physical location at an early stage in the creation of an address, standard maps that inform decision makers and the public about the quality and accuracy of their addresses, as well as tools to share authoritative addresses with other agencies.

To meet these needs local government employees are employing Esri solutions. These pre-built maps and apps are configured to specific workflows. This makes it easy for local government staff of all sizes and levels geospatial expertise, to adopt them.

Scott Oppmann is the State and Local Government Solutions Team Director at Esri. According to him, solutions are organized in categories that reflect "the common needs of state and local government agencies." Click here to view the complete list of capabilities.

Address Field Inventory for instance, contains an array of tasks to help you create an address layer that is based on a list of verified proposed sites that are collected through an online form. This feature layer can be used to create USNG coordinates as well as a mailing address. The solution lets you split a street at a particular point, calculate the municipal boundaries, and then update address attributes in the master road table.

Managing Address Field Operations is another Esri solution that can be used to assist address authority personnel collect missing or inaccurate information from internal and outside stakeholders. Office staff can assign a task to their field employees to use the address crowdsourcing app on their mobile devices. They can then check the submitted addresses and capture any new addresses they find while out in the field. The information is automatically entered into appropriate database tables to be processed and then published.

The solution permits office personnel to assign tasks by giving them the option of validating an existing set of address data with the specified accuracy level. This helps them identify mistakes, such as duplicates or mismatched addresses, in the database. This information can be imported into the master address database to improve the data quality and make the data more accurate.

Reverse Geocode Geoprocessing Tool

Reverse geocoding can be used to make sense of data when you're trying find the location of a business or just want to know which area is the most profitable. Many mobile apps such as Uber and Lyft use reverse geocoding to transform raw GPS coordinates into information drivers can comprehend. Retail chains use reverse geocoding to better understand their customers' shopping habits. Urban planners can also link address data to population density to determine the best location to construct public infrastructure.

The Reverse Geocode tool turns point locations within a feature class into addresses by searching for the nearest intersection or address based upon the search distance. It can be used to website reverse geocode single or multiple points. Its output is organized and ready for integration into other systems and tools.

It can handle both standard and custom formats of address data, including the standard X, Y attribute values of the Point Address feature, as well as the identifiers for POIs (Point of Interest). You can also specify which location type the matching geometry is. It could be an address location for routing (a street side location that can be used to route) or the parcel centroid or rooftop of an address.

You can also use the tool to create composite locators by connecting two or more locators. If it cannot find the address using your local information, the resulting locator will use ArcGIS World Geocoding.

Reverse geocoding can be costly, particularly when you're working on large quantities of coordinates. You'll need to keep your usage under Esri's free usage level--which is about 200 thousand requests each month--or you'll incur costs. You can also purchase a service to convert coordinates into address in a masse.

As a final note, it's important to verify the accuracy of any address information that you receive from customers through reverse geocoding. You can do this by using an address verification API that is certified by CASS like PostGrid. This will ensure the addresses you use for your direct mail campaigns are delivered to your customers.

Data Assistant Add-in

The Data Assistant add-in contains a collection of tools that help you migrate data from one dataset to another with an entirely different data structure. These tools can be used to perform many tasks, including concatenating multiple source fields into a single target field, or splitting a string into several fields of target.

To make use of the Data Assistant add-in, you must first install it. Click Start then select Control Panel, then Add or Remove programs. Then, search for Microsoft Data Assistant 1.0 and follow the on-screen directions to remove it.

Once the Data Assistant add-in is installed, you can configure it to create a source-target configuration files and then load or replace data from the file. The Data Mapping tool also includes several methods that you can use to transform data into different formats and handle special characters.

To learn more about the Data Assistant add-in, including how it can help with your address collection needs, read How to use the Data Assistant add-in. This solution provides information on how to use the Data Assistant add-in and how to perform workflows to collect and update parcel data and populate community layers.

Data Validation Tool

A reliable address validation tool is a powerful tool that aids businesses in maintaining integrity of their data and improve operational efficiency. It ensures that the correct address is used for mail and invoices go to the right customer and marketing campaigns are sent to the intended recipients. When choosing a validation software pick one that provides seamless integration into your business processes and extensive coverage across all countries. Consider the pricing structure and choose tools that have a high return on investment.

It is crucial to make sure that the initial entry of addresses is accurate whether it's written on handwritten forms in the retail store, or electronically during an online check-out or the integration of data from CRM systems. This will help reduce the chance of errors in shipping and return and ultimately increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. This requires more than just using a standard postal code or ZIP code lookup, it requires thorough address collection and verification.

This process begins by using an advanced data parsing program that breaks the address into its constituent elements, including street name, city and postal code. The tool then compares these pieces with commercial databases to confirm their accuracy. Then, it standardizes the address to conform to the global postal norms including converting extended forms to standardized abbreviations and capitalization.

The address is geocoded to verify its location. This is especially important for companies that are globally-based. It lets them determine shipping costs with accuracy and provide transparency for customers, minimizing the risk of costly delays due to inaccurate or incomplete information. A robust geocoding API can assist businesses in complying with international shipping laws and avoid issues with customs.

Once the address is verified, it is automatically updated in CRM and enterprise resource planning software to ensure that each customer contact, shipment or delivery is based on accurate data. A precise address can also simplify the logistical aspect of operations by reducing procurement and logistics processes, which saves time and money.