Preparing Your Data

Before populating your data warehouse, you should ensure that your data is of good quality, and that it has all the attributes necessary to provide meaningful insights to business users. One common approach is to use an operational data store (ODS) for this purpose. An ODS is a database where you can perform data quality operations that prepare your data for loading into the data warehouse. Spectrum™ Technology Platform has a variety of features that can be implemented in an ODS to improve the quality of your data and also augment your data with spatial, demographic, or other data. If you currently do not have the following features licensed, contact Pitney Bowes for more information.

Parsing, Name Standardization, and Name Validation

To perform the most accurate standardization you may need to break up strings of data into multiple fields. Spectrum™ Technology Platform provides advanced parsing features that enable you to parse personal names, company names, and many other terms and abbreviations. In addition, you can create your own list of custom terms to use as the basis of scan/extract operations. The Universal Name Module provides this functionality.

Deduplication and Consolidation

Identifying unique entities enables you to consolidate records, eliminate duplicates and develop "best-of-breed" records. A "best-of-breed" record is a composite record that is built using data from other records. The Advanced Matching Module and Data Normalization Module provide this functionality.

Address Validation

Address validation applies rules from the appropriate postal authority to put an address into a standard form and even validate that the address is a deliverable address. Address validation can help you qualify for postal discounts and can improve the deliverability of your mail. The Universal Addressing Module and the Address Now Module provide this functionality.

Geocoding

Geocoding is the process of taking an address and determining its geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude). Geocoding can be used for map generation, but that is only one application. The underlying location data can help drive business decisions. Reversing the process, you can enter a geocode (a point represented by a latitude and longitude coordinate) and receive address information about the geocode. The Enterprise Geocoding Module provides this functionality.

Location Intelligence

Location intelligence creates new information about your data by assessing, evaluating, analyzing and modeling geographic relationships. Using location intelligence processing you can verify locations and transform information into valuable business intelligence. The Location Intelligence Module provides this functionality.

Tax Jurisdiction Assignment

Tax jurisdiction assignment takes an address and determines the tax jurisdictions that apply to the address's location. Assigning the most accurate tax jurisdictions can reduce financial risk and regulatory liability.

Spectrum™ Technology Platform software from Pitney Bowes integrates up-to-date jurisdictional boundaries with the exact street addresses of your customer records, enabling you to append the correct state, county, township, municipal, and special tax district information to your records. Some example uses of tax jurisdiction assignment are:

  • Sales and use tax
  • Personal property tax
  • Insurance premium tax

The Enterprise Tax Module provides this functionality.