Why we should capture good quality addresses at source

Addresses: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

examples of addresses of different quality

The impact of poor-quality addresses

• Returned mail.

• Potential to remove customer access to goods or services.

• Delays to the delivery of goods and services.

• Affects organisational efficiency.

• Creates bottlenecks.

• Creates flawed insights.

• Reduces confidence.

• Negatively impacts system implementation and migration.

• GDPR – Data breaches.

• Results in costly expenses.

What makes a good quality address?

• Complete (House Name / Number, Road Name & Postcode).

  Contains all the information required to find the property or post a letter to.

• Validated.

  It’s been through a quality control process.

• Up to date.

  It’s current.

• Links to a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN).

  Enables linking to other datasets.

• Contains co-ordinates. &#xNAN;Provides a geographical locator.

How to capture a good quality address?

An address lookup lets users specify a UK address by entering their postcode and selecting a valid address from a list.

It could also be configured to enter a street name or number.

In the background this can be configured to take advantage of the UPRN and other associated attribution depending on data source.

Considerations

When a need to capture addressing occurs the following questions should be considered:

How current does the data need to be?

How often does the data need to be updated? Daily, weekly, 6-weekly?

What geographical area does the data need to cover?

It is limited to your operational area or beyond?

How can the system access the address information?

What formats can it use?

Sources of a good quality address

• Your Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), if you have one

• AddressBase

• AddressBase Core

• AddressBase Plus

• AddressBase Premium

• OS Places API

• Other commercially available address products

Benefits of capturing a good quality address

• Consistency

• Enables the linking of disparate data

• Significant reduction in human error

• Time saving by reducing the need for address matching

• Increased efficiency through automation

• Reduce fraud

• Easier to share data with external organisations/partners

• Adheres to Government Digital Service style guide

An example of a well captured address: 10 Downing Street

Capture It Right, Once – Always Right!

---

This content has been developed from what was originally a Lightning Talk PowerPoint slide set. These slides are available to PSGA members to view and download from the PSGA members area of the OS website