XML and JavaScript Address Validation at QualifiedAddress.com

It's finally available!

A lot of our customers have contacted us to find out when our Address Verification API would finally be ready to go. I'm excited to announce that the API is ready. You can learn more about it by visiting the Address Verification API product page on our website.

I'm impressed with how nice the JavaScript version of the API looks. Our designers really did a great job! I'm not really much of a programmer (I know HTML and that's about it), but I was able to figure out how to install it on one of my websites without any help. For those who are a little more savvy with programming, there is an XML web service that you can use (it doesn't come with the cool interface though).

Many people don't realize the benefits of validating addresses at the point of entry. If you're sending a lot of mail, the benfits are obvious - You can catch bad addresses before you spend the money to send out a mailpiece or product. There are other benefits also. For example, with credit card processing you might be able to get lower fees by submitting a +4 Code with an address. Also, you standardize the data in your database, which helps with data quality. Customers who validate addresses as they are collected also have much better results when CASS Certifying their mailing lists later.

If you're interested in finding out how address validation can help your business, visit QualifiedAddress.com or call 1 (877) 216-8883 ext 701.

QualifiedAddress.com Provides a "Green" Alternative to Mailing Software

The green color that dominates QualifiedAddress.com does more than just contribute to an attractive website. It represents the company’s commitment to developing “green” software that reduces environmental and economic waste by leveraging the improved speed and efficiency of the internet.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that product packaging, including software packaging, accounts for one-third of the trash thrown away in the United States. Businesses are responsible for an estimated 85% of this garbage. In its definition of product stewardship, the EPA urges businesses and consumers to "share responsibility for the environmental impact of products."

The internet has enabled many software companies to adopt a "zero waste" product model. Known as "on-demand software" or "software-as-a-service," this model eliminates all waste associated with creating disks for software, printing manuals and guides, packaging software, and shipping software to end users. Popular on-demand software companies include SalesForce.com, Omniture, and RightNow Technologies.

QualifiedAddress.com was launched in early 2007 to provide on-demand mailing software and address list services to businesses. In August 2007 it became the first on-demand software company to be CASS Certified by the USPS. Users are able to upload their mailing lists to a secure account on the internet and perform services such as data standardization, address verification, and CASS processing. Point-of-entry address verification software is also available, and additional on-demand services are currently in development.

The environmental benefits of on-demand mailing software are not limited to the elimination product packaging. Because of the address verification system at QualifiedAddress.com, users are able to remove invalid mailing addresses from their lists before printing a mail campaign. This reduces environmental and economic waste created by printing mail pieces that will be returned as undeliverable by the post office.

Businesses and consumers interested in learning more about how they can reduce waste by using on-demand mailing software and address verification can visit http://www.qualifiedaddress.com/Green/.

9-digit ZIP Codes for Medicare Claims

We've had a couple customers call us regarding some changes that Medicare has made regarding billing. I just wanted to post how the Qualified Address solutions can help providers with this billing change.

In the past, Medicare assigned the payment locality for services performed by looking up the county using a 5-digit ZIP Code. Unfortunately, quite a few ZIP Codes cross county lines. Medicare was running into problems with assigning the right county to an address using only the 5-digit ZIP Code and, starting October 1, 2007, has begun to require that some physicians and providers use a nine-digit ZIP Code when filing their claims.

Qualified Address has a few solutions that can help physicians with this problem.

First, we have a data cleansing service that will add the +4 Code to any valid address. This solution costs as little as $29.95. For more information, please visit QualifiedAddress.com. This will update all the addresses currently in your database with the +4 Code.

Second, we have a Address Validation API that can be used to add +4 Codes to addresses as they are entered into your database. This solution costs as little as $19.95/month. For more information, please visit the Address Verification API page at QualifiedAddress.com.

Please contact our sales department if you have any questions on these solutions - 1 (877) 216-8883 ext 701.

2007 US Postage Rates

We just added a page on our website with the latest USPS postage rates. This is an invaluable resource for anyone who does a lot of business mailings.

Latest USPS Postage Rates

Great Suggestions for Improving Your Mailings

Mr. Tooker, an expert in the Direct Mail Industry, gave some great advice in the May MAILCOM seminar "Quit Throwing Your Money Away." I didn't have a chance to attend the seminar, but, thankfully, MAIL Magazine did a writeup on it in the August/September 2007 Issue of their magazine. Here's an excerpt from the Mail Magazine article that has some great suggestions:

[Tooker] said, "Do you really want to mail to people who don't qualify for your offering? Do you want to mail to the wrong name at that address? How about dead people, prisoners, parolees on work release, people in nursing homes or people who "live" at Mail Boxes Etc? Of to the wrong gender? You need to have advanced data hygiene processes."

Mr. Tooker suggested that you edit and standardize your data. Reformat all sources to standardize, assign gender codes, compare quantities against expected volumes, edit incoming records based on client-specific business rules and document rejected records for possible later resolution. He added that Address Element Correction is key. It corrects or provides missing address elements (example: apartment numbers) that CASS-certification software cannot correct. It also makes problem/undeliverable addresses into deliverable ones that will take maximum advantage of USPS automation.

Mr. Tooker cited NCOA-link as a helpful tool. It is typically performed quarterly on client files and includes suppression files. It also includes USPS Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) which can convert renumbering rural routes to conform to city-style addresses. Delivery Point Validation (DPV) confirms, corrects, appends and standardizes address elements like ZIP and ZIP+4, carrier routes, and LOT codes. DPV also determines whether or not a secondary address element is missing or invalid and flags Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies.

"So is all this worth the effort?" Mr. Tooker asked. "Using advanced data hygiene can typically reduce undeliverable mail by 3 to 5 percent. The impact can be significant to large mailers."

Address Verification API Beta Testing Begins

For the past few months Qualified Address has been developing an Address Verification API that can be used on website forms. We have been testing the API on our websites and are ready to start opening the beta testing up to other companies.

If you'd like to participate in the test, please contact our sales department by calling 1 (877) 216-8883 ext 701. You need to have a website with a form in order to participate and you'll receive free access to the API during the beta period. This initial version uses JavaScript, but we will also be releasing an XML version in a few weeks. Make sure to let us know which version you're interested in using when you call.

To see how the API works, preview it on the ZIP Code Finder and ZIP+4 Lookup at ZIPCodeDownload.com. This API accesses our CASS-certified address scrubbing.

The Future of On-Demand Mailing Software

Qualified Address is excited to offer the first on-demand mailing software in its industry. We are convinced that this is the software model of the future and have found that mailing software translates very easily to an on-demand model.

I was just reading a 2005 Forbes article by Fahmida Y. Rashid on SaaS software. Although the article is a few years old, I thought that she gives a pretty good case for why it makes business sense to go with on demand software as opposed to corporate software.

First, she explains the difference between the older software and the newer on-demand software:

With software as a service, customers "rent" software for a set period of time, paying a subscription rather than buying the technology outright. Rather than spending millions to own technology, customers pay a small amount up front and a monthly or annual subscription fee based on usage, users or customers, leaving the provider to handle maintenance and performance concerns. The method is also called "software on demand."

She then continues explaining one of the main benefits of on-demand software - no annual maintenance fees.

...most corporate software is still installed and managed at the customer’s site the old fashioned way, with software licenses requiring a hefty annual maintenance fee. However, vendors are finding it increasingly difficult to convince customers to dole out millions (plus millions more in maintenance) for large and complex applications, especially amid a growing perception among customers that they are using only a fraction of the software’s capabilities.

Another benefit that customers enjoy is the constant addition of new features. At Qualified Address, we have added new feature upgrades to our software almost monthy. Most of these features come at the direct request of our customers. Rashid describes this as "leverage over the vendors." We like to call it good customer service.

The IDC report noted some reasons on-demand vendors have been successful in entering the software market. While long-term costs may add up, the up-front cost of a subscription is significantly less, and customers have leverage over the vendors, because the provider must constantly prove the value of its product.

You can read the complete article at Forbes.com.