Address Collection - How to Make Sense of Your Data
Address collection can be a daunting task. If you're collecting addresses for weddings, parties or holiday cards, it's essential to have clean data.
Valid addresses help businesses save time and money. Incorrect addresses can result in returned mails, extra fees and missed opportunities. Address verification tools can help cut costs by ensuring addresses are entered correctly.
ArcGIS Solutions for State and Local Government
Address collection is crucial for local government. It is also an essential element in geospatial management. However, many governments face challenges in managing authoritative address repositories. They need simple workflows that allow for the capture of the physical location of an address early in the process of developing it, standard map products to inform decision-makers and the general public about the quality of their addresses, as well as tools to share authoritative addresses with other agencies.
To meet these requirements local government employees are employing Esri solutions. These pre-built applications and maps are designed to work with specific workflows. This makes it easy for local government personnel of all sizes and levels geospatial knowledge to use them.
Scott Oppmann is the State and Local Government Solutions Team Leader at Esri. According to him, solutions are organized into categories that reflect "the common requirements of state and local government agencies." To view the complete list of capabilities available go here.
For example, a solution called Maintaining an Authoritative Address Repository includes a series of tasks that allow you to create a site address layer from an inventory of verified sites that you have collected via an online form or in the field with Address Field Inventory. These feature layers can be used to generate USNG Coordinates and a mailing address. The solution lets you divide a street at a particular point, calculate the municipal boundaries, and then update address attributes in the master road table.
Another example of an Esri solution is Managing Address Field Operations, designed to help address authority personnel collect missing or inaccurate address information from both external and internal stakeholders. It lets office staff assign tasks to their field workers to utilize the address crowdsourcing application on their mobile devices. They can then verify the addresses they submit and take note of any new ones they observe while in the field. 주소모음 is automatically entered into appropriate databases tables to be processed and then published.
The solution also enables office personnel to assign a task the option of validating an existing set of address data with a specific accuracy threshold, which helps them spot mistakes, such as duplicates or incorrect addresses in the database. The data can then be imported into the master database to improve the quality of the data and ensure it is more accurate.
Reverse Geocode Geoprocessing Tool
Reverse geocoding is a method to interpret data when you're trying find the location of a business or just want to know which areas are most profitable. Many mobile apps such as Uber and Lyft depend on reverse geocoding to convert raw GPS coordinates into information that drivers can comprehend. Retail chains employ reverse geocoding to better understand their customers' habits of shopping. Urban planners can also link address information to population density to determine where to construct public facilities.
The Reverse Geocode tool turns point locations within a feature class into addresses by searching for the nearest intersection or address based upon the distance to search. It can be used to reverse-geocode a single or multiple points. Its output is organized and ready to be integrated into other tools and systems.
It allows both standard and custom formats for address data, including the standard attributes X and Y of the Point Address feature, as well as the identifiers for POIs (Point of Interest). You can also specify which kind of geometries the location is. It can be a routing location (a side-of street location that can be used to route) or the parcel centroid or rooftop of an address.
In addition you can also make use of the tool to create a composite locator by linking two or more existing locators together. If it fails to find the address with your local data, then the resulting locator will rely on ArcGIS World Geocoding.
Reverse geocoding is costly, particularly when you're working on large amounts of coordinates. You'll have to keep within Esri's free usage level--which is approximately 200 thousand requests each month--or you'll incur costs. Another option is to purchase an application that converts coordinates into addresses en masse for you.
In conclusion it's crucial to confirm the accuracy of any address information you get from customers via reverse geocoding. This can be done using an address verification API that's CASS certified, like PostGrid. This will ensure that the addresses you use for direct mail campaigns can be delivered to your customers.
Data Assistant Add-in
The Data Assistant addin contains a set of tools that will aid you in moving data between different datasets using different data structures. These tools can be used for many different tasks, including concatenating several sources into a single target field or splitting up the string into multiple fields of target.
The installation of the Data Assistant is required before you can use it. To do this you need to select Start then select Control Panel, and then select Add or Remove Programs. Uninstall Microsoft Data Assistant 1.0 by following the instructions on the screen.
Once the Data Assistant addin is installed it can be set up to create the source/target configuration files. You can then load or replace data using the file. The Data Mapping tool also includes a set of methods that you can employ to convert data between various formats and to handle special characters.
Learn about the Data Assistant Add-in to learn more about how it can help you in meeting your address collection needs. This solution provides information on how to use the Data Assistant add-in and how to perform workflows to collect and update data on parcels and populate layers of community.
Data Validation Tool
A trusted tool for validation of addresses is a powerful tool that helps businesses maintain the integrity of their data and increase operational efficiency. It ensures that mail goes to the right place, invoices are delivered to the correct person and marketing campaigns are delivered to their intended target audience, thereby driving precision in delivery systems and increasing overall satisfaction of users. When choosing a validation tool be sure to choose one with broad coverage across all countries and seamless integration into business processes. Consider the pricing structure and select tools that offer a high return on investment.
It is crucial to make sure that the initial entry of addresses is correct whether it's written on handwritten forms at the retail store, or electronically at the time of online checkout or the integration of data from CRM systems. This will help reduce shipping errors and returns, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This is more than the simple postal code or ZIP lookup. It requires a thorough method of address collection and validation.
The process starts with an advanced data parsing program that breaks the address into its individual parts, such as street name, city and postal code. The tool then compares these pieces with commercial databases to ensure their accuracy. The tool then standardizes the address to conform with international postal standards. For instance, it converts extended forms into standard abbreviations or capitalization.
The address is then geocoded in order to confirm its location. This step is particularly important for companies operating globally. It allows them calculate shipping costs accurately and also to provide transparency to customers. This decreases the chance of costly delays caused by inaccurate or incomplete data. Additionally, a robust geocoding API can help businesses adhere to international shipping regulations and avoid issues related to customs.
After the address has been verified, it's automatically updated in CRM and enterprise resource planning software to ensure that each customer contact, shipment or delivery is based on accurate information. The precise information about addresses can also speed up logistics operations by reducing the logistics, procurement and service delivery processes.