Address specialist Postcode Anywhere is launching what it claims is “radically different” address cleansing software, Cleanse+, which uses a self-learning matrix, coupled with a complex mathematical model, to assign probabilities and scrub UK address records based on real user data.
The company is to launch the software at the Technology for Marketing & Advertising (TFM&A) exhibition, at London’s Earls Court on 1-2 March.
Traditional data cleansing software relies on hundreds of thousands of hard-coded rules to match and clean address records. In a departure from this model, Postcode Anywhere’s cleanser Lead developer Andy Bennett said: “For the technology buffs the self-learning matrix will be the big draw, because it simply hasn’t ever been done before with address cleansing. As consumers we’re used to this kind of process. Google, for instance, learns the likeliest search queries purely from past experience, and suggests as you type – no developer codes rules in directly. By taking a similar approach with address cleansing, we can achieve superior results based on real user behaviour, rather than the assumptions of one development team.
“So the technology is radically different. But for businesses, the real value is in usability. Data quality affects every organisation, yet it’s treated as a commodity service with little value – resulting in very little innovation in the area for over ten years. A significant amount of pre-processing work is needed to ‘straighten out’ data before the cleanse routine can even start. And when it does, from the time-consuming, clunky user interfaces to the outmoded technology behind them, the unfortunate truth is that most enterprise-level data cleansing software would look more at home on a BBC computer than today’s desktop.
“Postcode Anywhere’s new software is aimed squarely at solving these usability problems by finally dragging data cleansing into the twenty-first century. Unlike any other enterprise-level address cleanser, this software doesn’t need babysitting – and you won’t need a doctorate in data management to get results. We’ve made the user interface as clear as possible, and customisation options are pre-selected. Although there’s a lot of fine-tuning available to confident users, this is a piece of kit where you can simply push the button to get your cleanse job.”
Postcode Anywhere IT director Jamie Turner added: “The service also uses cloud technologies to speed up the process of data cleansing. Although there’s a client to download to your desktop, all the heavy lifting takes place on Postcode Anywhere’s servers, so cleanses that would previously have taken weeks can now be completed in hours. The other usual advantages of a cloud-based service apply too: all updates can be carried out automatically, without the need to load up CDs, and vast computations are easily possible without in-house server software.”
