The IBM DataOps team is thrilled to announce that the next generation of IBM QualityStage Address Verification Interface (AVI) is now available. Current QualityStage AVI and U.S. Address Certification (USAC) customers will be delighted to find enhanced global address verification and CASS certification capabilities specifically engineered to meet the needs of the enterprise in the age of digital commerce and premium customer experiences.
As data quality and enrichment capabilities continue to grow in importance in producing the fuel to innovations that are transforming global businesses, the new IBM QualityStage AVI solution delivers new capabilities and features such as Reverse Geocoding and CASS certification within an environment that enables greater data security, control, and flexibility.
Today, IBM QualityStage AVI is available as an optional on-premises add-on for customers who own IBM QualityStage, DataStage Enterprise Plus, Information Server for Cloud Pak for Data, or an offering that bundles these products.
IBM QualityStage AVI with CASS certification and Reverse Geocoding was co-developed through the strategic partnership of IBM and Loqate, IBM’s address data specialist.
Read the formal announcement here: Link
Why AVI?
The last year has accelerated businesses towards a digital-first economy, where technology lies at the heart of society’s infrastructure. As noted by Forbes, “At the foundation of radical rethinking vital to digital transformation is intelligent management of the proliferation of data throughout the enterprise”[1]. AVI’s focus is to help solve challenges with location data, specifically addresses, geocodes, and reverse geocode data attributes, across the enterprise. Data Quality and MDM have never been more important as a foundation to any digital-minded business intent on cost and operational efficiency.
As it relates to addresses in particular, no business record is complete without an accurate description of location. High-quality addresses lead to cost savings with quick ROI by supporting Data and AI initiatives including Customer 360, Know Your Customer, DQ & MDM, Householding, Fraud Detection, and many others. Addresses are a key demographic attribute that are part of many records across the enterprise:
- Customer records need shipping and identification indicators
- ID workflow matches addresses given to documents and government records
- Delivery points need accurate geocodes to solve the last mile problem
- Analytics and data visualization projects often use location to create context or to match information to cohorts
- Supply chain management needs location information for shipping, logistics, and economic efficiencies
- Reverse geocoding and geofencing solutions need an accurate description of location to determine relevance of locations visited
With this latest release, AVI now includes the following capability and function:
- CASS Certification - Returns certified addresses in adherence to USPS format and standards for CASS Certification. Available in the U.S. only.
- Reverse Geocoding - Identifies addresses nearest to a latitude and longitude coordinate
- Interactive Test Client - Command-line feature to test addresses outside of the AVI environment
- Parameter Override - Add options to control and manipulate processes and outputs per AVI run
- New Region Packs - Realigned region data packs provide a more consistent user experience
Existing AVI capability also includes:
- Parsing - Performs a lexicon analysis of the address without validation against reference data
- Validation, Correction, and Suggestion - Validates and if possible corrects (or enhances) an address
- Transliteration - Transliterates an address character set from Native to Latin to Native
- Geocoding - Provides latitude and longitude based on an address
To learn more about getting started with AVI today, please contact your IBM Representative.
FAQs
Q: If I am a current USAC Customer, what effect does this change have?
A: AVI 10.6 is intended to be a replacement for the current IBM InfoSphere QualityStage Module for U.S. Address Certification (USAC) product. The new version of AVI 10.6 now includes the CASS Certification capability that used to be provided by our USAC product, and there is a new reference data set, IBM InfoSphere QualityStage AVI Reference Data - For U.S. Address Certification, that can be used with the AVI product to provide the same capability that was previously offered by the USAC product.
There is a small migration required for USAC customers to start leveraging the capability offered by AVI 10.6. Detailed migration instructions can be found here.
Q: Are reference data updates still on quarterly basis?
A: To ensure that customers are operating with the most up-to-date data, we continue to ship a quarterly update of reference data sets and a monthly update for the new AVI Reference Data for U.S. Address Certification.
Q: Why are reference data updates made quarterly?
A: Each quarter IBM releases address reference data updates for some or all of the supported countries and territories to give our AVI customers access to the latest available updates, corrections and additions in addresses and geocoding. Our technology partner, Loqate, is constantly reviewing country specific data suppliers to ensure our IBM customers have access to the best and most accurate address data that can be curated. One big improvement area is we are adding additional data for China which will allow us to provide town, street and premise/house number level data not previously available.
About Loqate
IBM and Loqate have been strategic partners since 2009 with Loqate powering IBM’s InfoSphere QualityStage Address Verification Interface (AVI) solution with coverage for all countries and territories in the world.
Loqate is the leading developer of global Address Verification and Geocoding solutions. Loqate curates and develops premium global location reference data and verification technology engines, enabling their partners and their customers to verify, standardize and enrich address and geocode data across their applications. To learn more about Loqate and its partner program click HERE.
[1] Source: Forbes, The Role of Data In The Age of Digital Transformation, 17 January 2019
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