A Crucial Need
Gartner says it all: Over half of all CRM projects are doomed to major problems because of data quality issues. Name/address data cleansing is a crucial component for any CRM implementation. Name/address cleansing for CRM dramatically reduces wasted effort and cost by eliminating redundant data. In addition it facilitates strategic business goals such as cross-selling and up-selling existing customers.

Rapid Application Development (RAD) for Data Cleansing
Our name/address data cleansing solutions are based on our proprietary software, Applaud. Applaud is the only Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool designed for data cleansing. Applaud's unique tools dramatically speed the process of identifying and correcting data quality problems. Applaud solutions are delivered in less than half of the time and cost of other cleansing alternatives.

Applaud Offers the Comprehensive Solution
Applaud offers comprehensive tools to cleanse name and address data for customers, vendors, employees, etc. Among many other features, the tools include:

	CASS Certification - Correct addresses to U.S. postal standards and obtain CASS certification. (Note: Cleansing for addresses for 206 countries can be made available at an additional charge.)
	Address Verification - Verify that U.S. addresses actually exist.
	Compute Zip+4 - Compute zip+4 U.S. postal codes and fill in other missing address components.
	Geocode Address - Compute longitude and latitude for addresses.
	Compute County - Compute U.S. county name from the address.
	Identify Address Components - Analyze address components to determine which line(s) contain people names, company names, street name address, city/state/zip, etc.
	Parse Names - Parse names into separate fields for first, middle and last names (handles any input format - "Last, First Middle", "First Middle Last", "First Last", etc.). Also, the ability to distinguish first name from last name when it is not clearly known.
	Equate Names/Words - Equate names and other words spelled in different ways (examples: Bob = Robert = Rob = Robt, IBM = I.B.M. = International Business Machines = Intl Business Machines, North = No = N, etc.). (Offers flexible user-defined criteria)
	Ignore “Noise” Words - Ignore "noise words" when matching names/addresses to find duplicates (examples: Company, Co, Corp, Corporation, Inc, Ltd, Limited, etc.). (Offers flexible user-defined criteria)
	Parse Addresses - Parse address data into separate fields. For example, "123 South Main Street Suite 456" is parsed into separate components for street number (123), directional (South), street name (Main), street type (Street), unit type (Suite), and unit identifier (456).
	Parse City/State/Zip/Country - Parse city, state, & zip data into separate fields for city, state, zip code, and country name. For example, “Chicago, IL 60601 U.S.A.” is parsed into separate fields for city, state, zip code, and country name.
	Phonetic Encoding - Phonetically encode names (of people, streets, cities, companies, etc.) to find duplicates that may have misspellings (examples: Smith = Smythe = Smyth, Parsippany Wholesale = Parsipany Wholesalers , Allen = Allan = Alan, etc.).
	Identify Duplicates - Match names/addresses based on any number of flexible criteria. Applaud's rapid application development approach allows the name and address cleansing tools to be applied flexibly in any combination to solve any name/address cleansing requirement. Multiple criteria may be established. Weighting may be applied to results to obtain "most likely" match combinations. Negative criteria may be applied to reduce the possibility of "false positives".

Name/Address Cleansing Supports Unlimited Criteria
For example, Applaud can easily identify matches based on an unlimited number of flexible criteria such at those shown below:

Complete Flexibility
These are just examples. Applaud can match data based on any number of flexible criteria and can include any data, not just name and address data. Weighting can be applied to identify more probable matches. Matching can also identify additional conditions such as the number of matching words within each component (e.g., one word matches, two words match, three words match, all words match, etc.). An example of the output from a typical matching process is shown below. (Again, each client's process is unique, and is designed for their specific needs.)

Manual Correction or Automatic Update
In many cases the source system is used to combine or deactivate duplicate data based on the results of Applaud's analysis. When needed, Applaud’s rapid application development tools may be used to automatically update, consolidate, or deactivate duplicate data as needed.

User Confirmation
User interaction may be introduced at any step to allow users to dynamically confirm (or reject) match candidates identified during the processing. For example, a column can easily be added to the spreadsheet shown above to allow users to specify which items should be consolidated (or which should not be consolidated). The spreadsheet data can be extracted by Applaud and processed per the specifications. Batches of data may be processed with comprehensive batch control features to ensure that every batch is processed.

Getting Started
The easiest way to see the Applaud solution in your environment is to outsource part of (or all of) a live data cleansing project to our Applaud Professional Services Group. Our hourly rates are very reasonable and you should expect at least a 50% reduction in the time spent compared to every other alternative. (Note: There is no software cost if we outsource the project.)

Our Two-Week Pilot Project is designed to give you a no-risk way to see the Applaud solution at work in your environment. We will work on-site on your live data cleansing project for two weeks. If, at the end of two weeks, you are not absolutely amazed by our success, send us home and you will owe us nothing but our travel expenses.

However, if you are like every other firm that has accepted our Pilot project offer, you will ask us to stay and continue working at your direction to ensure the success of your data cleansing project.

Following your first project you can make the decision to continue to outsource projects to our staff or to license the software and build an in-house center of Applaud expertise. We assure you that either approach will yield excellent results.