Learn what a Web Service is and how it works, the advantages of using a Data Quality Web Service, the technology assessment for implementation, and several case studies (Saab and other real world case studies) to demonstrate real life successes.
A M e l i s s a D a t a W h i t e P a p e r
Is a Data Quality Web Service
the Right Solution for You?Is a Data Quality Web Service the Right Solution for You? 2
Is a Data Quality Web Service the Right Solution for You?
INTRODUCTION
Real-time Web services have become an industry buzzword. The ability to purchase and access address veri? cation and data quality solutions in real-time 24/7 is very appealing to companies because additional IT resources are not needed to integrate and maintain the service, and there is no software to buy or large upfront capital outlays.
What is a Web Service?
Software applications written in various programming languages and running on various machine platforms can use Web Services to easily exchange data over computer networks like the Internet. A Web Service is an application that uses open standards for exchanging data between applications or systems.
Sending your data to the Web Service to be validated, veri? ed, cleansed, standardized, and appended with additional information is the next step in the data quality process. The data to be validated is formatted and sent to the Web Service. Once the Web Service processes the request, the data is then returned to you in the same format in which it was sent
Real-Time communication between your Web Services provider and your systems is independent of the programming language or operating system you use. This is usually made possible by using two open standards that are platform independent and vendor neutral, XML and SOAP:
. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a ? exible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the Internet, intranets, and elsewhere.
. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a standard protocol for exchanging messages over a computer network built on top of a standard XML format. It is an extensible foundation where complex structures can be used.
Advantages of using a Web Service
Using a Web service has two major advantages: it may be a less expensive option if you process a relatively low number of records; and it eliminates the effort associated with maintaining and updating - it's handled by the Web Service vendor.
Web services, such as a data quality Web service, allow a company to protect their database behind a data quality ? rewall. Data coming in via call center or online shopping cart is veri? ed and corrected at point of entry - before it enters your CRM system.
Data quality Web services also protect your data from inadvertent errors made by your own data entry personnel. The ability to check, correct and standardize an address "on the ? y," before it is even stored, will serve to minimize bad contact data including inaccurate street and email addresses, vulgar names and incorrect phone numbers.
www.MelissaData.comIs a Data Quality Web Service the Right Solution for You? 3
Keeping your data clean, complete and up-to-date will bene? t you by helping to:
. Reduce Costs. Using a Web Service to verify information instantly will save you time and money and provide immediate ROI. Your sales team can avoid the cost and effort in calling wrong numbers. You will also reduce returned mail and undeliverable shipments as well as wast ed postage, packaging and labor.
. Increase Sales. Undeliverable mail, bounced emails and invalid phone numbers are missed opportunities to reach new customers. Your lead quality will improve by validating contact data in realtime which will help make your sales team happier and all your sales and marketing efforts more effective.
. Better Targeting. You can parse and genderize clean contact data, breaking down the contact's name into pre? x, ? rst, middle, last, suf? x and then assigning a gender which is useful for segmentation and target marketing. Additional types of data, like demographic and geographic information, can be appended to the contact name, address and telephone number as it is captured and warehoused in the database so that sales and marketing have a wealth of action able information at their ? ngertips.
SELECTING THE RIGHT APPROACH TO DATA QUALITY
Selecting the right method for ensuring data quality depends on many factors: how the data is... [download for more]
