Improving customer data quality without coding

According to Aberdeen Group, 52 percent of organizations consider the “verification of data accuracy or completeness” to be one of the biggest customer data management challenges. Apatar is the first company to release open source tools for non-technical staff and customers to access the application data they need to make their work efforts more efficient. With Apatar’s visual toolset, your average users can perform even complex data integration without having to write a single line of a code. The new data quality connector was created as a result of a partnership agreement with StrikeIron, Inc., the worldwide leader of Web services commercialization through the StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace™, signed in November 2007.

The StrikeIron US Address Verification connector closely inspects each address to ensure its validity and, using sophisticated matching and data synchronization technology, updates incorrect addresses according to the postal standards. On top of that, it inspects house numbers, street directions, street names, street types, apartment numbers, and P.O. boxes to ensure the accuracy of each value. StrikeIron’s Web service processes and returns a valid quality dataset with all possible mistakes (misspellings, wrong street type extensions, city and state names) eliminated. Using StrikeIron’s US Address Verification Web service, Apatar allows users to increase productivity, improve sales strategies, and take customer service to a new level by providing faster transaction processing and higher accuracy. This solution can be used to verify both a single address and a large set of addresses in batch mode.

Featured quotes

“Quality data is the life blood of all business processes,” said Renat Khasanshyn, CEO and founder of Apatar. “Every organization depends on reliable customer information. But, too often the quality of data doesn’t keep pace with the development of business processes and doesn’t live up to corporate requirements for effective, reliable, and controlled data. The StrikeIron US Address Verification connector can assist you in the process, creating a competitive working environment.”

“US Address Verification Web service reduces the time wasted on checking and correcting wrong addresses before your managers get to work with them,” said Bob Brauer, CEO and President of StrikeIron. “Delivered directly into visual Apatar’s interface, StrikeIron’s verification Web service enables users to easily integrate customer data into corporate CRM/ERP applications, Web sites, databases, files, and interactive services without any coding. It updates customer information, performing adequate data enrichment, and makes your data relevant and easy to work with.”

Apatar Open Source Data Integration features and benefits:

- Improve data quality - Reduce integration and maintenance costs, shorten implementation time - No coding! Visual job designer and mapping enable non-developers to design and perform transformations - The ability to create, publish, share, and re-use data transformations and output to RSS feeds by monitoring keywords and URLs for both internal and external systems - Connectivity to Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL, Sybase, Microsoft Access, PostgreSQL, InstantDB, BorlandJDataStore, Csv, Qed, HSQL, Compiere ERP, SalesForce.Com, SugarCRM, GoldMine, Microsoft Excel, XML, RSS, ATOM, FTP, POP3, LDAP, WebDav, Autodesk Buzzsaw, any JDBC data sources, Amazon S3, and Flickr - Job scheduler and synchronization - Platform-independent, runs from Windows, Linux; 100% Java- based

StrikeIron US Address Verification features and benefits:

- Applicable with a single address or as a batch process - Validates and corrects addresses and adds ZIP+4 data - Appends carrier routes - Standardizes city and state names - Gives location latitude and longitude - Provides means to validate any shipment’s address before it is sent to avoid costly returns and late delivery Related links

StrikeIron US Address Verification user guide: http://www.apatarforge.org/wiki/display/DQS/StrikeIron+US+Address+Verification

Pre-created DataMap: http://www.apatarforge.org/remository/apatar-data-mashup-contest/us-address-verification.html

Pricing

Apatar Open Source is available for free download at www.apatar.com. Commercial support and maintenance subscription packages start at $1,900 per year. StrikeIron Email Verification and US Address Verification Web services are available for subscription from StrikeIron.

About Apatar

Apatar is the leading provider of open source software tools for the data integration market. With powerful Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) capabilities, Apatar enables its users to easily link information between databases (such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL, Oracle), applications (Salesforce.com, SugarCRM), and the top Web 2.0 destinations (Flickr, Amazon S3). Apatar provides support, training, and consulting services for its integration solutions. Headquartered in Western Massachusetts, Apatar operates a development center in Minsk, Belarus. Apatar is currently used by 250 organizations and individuals worldwide. For more on Apatar, please visit www.apatar.com and www.apatarforge.org. More information is available at Apatar’s Online Press Room, found at http://www.apatar.com/newsroom/.

About StrikeIron

StrikeIron is the leader in Data as a Service (DaaS), facilitating the consumption and distribution of live data and business functionality over the Web. The company’s innovative Web Services Marketplace provides a technology platform, micro-transaction management, and a consistent interface across many XML-based Web services from multiple, diverse sources.

This allows business users, application developers, and enterprise IT professionals to customize and integrate external data sources and additional external functionality into enterprise, Web, and composite applications. Currently, StrikeIron provides over 100 live data sources and business functions from organizations such as D&B, Zacks, MapQuest, Cdyne, Xignite, YP.com, and IDExec.

StrikeIron also offers a set of products and tools to simplify and accelerate the consumption of data, such as its SOA Express for Excel, enabling business users to access live data via front office applications. StrikeIron delivers value to over 1,000 customers and partners such as BEA, Delivery.com, IBM, Honda Europe, D&B, Time Warner, Siemens, Nike, Kenwood, and Exclusive Resorts. For more information, visit www.strikeiron.com .