The Business Value of Geo Addressing and Data Enrichment

Location intelligence presents a valuable opportunity for data-driven businesses. The process of unlocking that value starts with geocoding. The business value of geo addressing combines industry-leading geocoding capabilities with address verification and data enrichment to provide scalable, enterprise-grade location geospatial intelligence capabilities for global organizations.

More accurate location information

The process by which businesses ingest location information usually involves, at some point, humans transcribing street addresses and postal codes, and adding them to data records. Because of that essential human element, it is not uncommon for such entries to contain errors. In addition, location information that includes street addresses can become invalid or inaccurate when, for example, an urban road network changes or a rural area begins to be built up.

Inaccurate location information can translate directly into increased operational confusion, higher product delivery costs, and decreased customer satisfaction. But geo addressing minimizes such disruptions. One of the first things a good geo addressing application will do is to validate street-level location records using a comprehensive address reference database, and correct (or at least flag) any inconsistencies or inaccuracies.

The next step, geocoding, is the process of associating a data record with a specific point on the surface of the earth using latitude and longitude (“lat/long”) coordinates. In today’s global economy, having accurate and reliable location information regarding both customers and logistics has become vitally important for many enterprises.

Better business insights using location intelligence

The use of big data/cloud native analytics to uncover business opportunities and risks is growing rapidly. In many cases, a critical element of such analyses is the inclusion of relevant location information, so that significant geospatial relationships are taken into account. However, raw street addresses and postal codes do not provide sufficient information for analytics or machine learning applications to discern the geospatial relationships between entities. For example, the way in which “123 Elm Street” and “456 Oak Street” relate to one another geographically is not readily apparent, even if both addresses are in the same postal zone.

By converting street-level address information into standard lat/long coordinates and attaching a unique and persistent identifier, such as the PreciselyID, geo addressing provides all the information needed to allow a business analytics system to directly factor geography and additional attributes into the analytical process.

More targeted customer marketing

Geo addressing produces location information that is ready to be integrated into business processes and when needed, mappable. The accuracy and reliability of this geo addressed data, along with additional attributes such as consumer data and demographics, facilitates targeted marketing to potential customers in designated geographical areas.

For example, borderlines based on postal codes (such as USPS ZIP Codes) are unlikely to correlate with target demographic areas. So, a campaign that aims at delivering marketing materials to certain ZIP Codes to reach a particular demographic population is likely to result in a lot of wasted effort and expense. But when geo addressing and existing customer information, the outlines of the target area can be precisely delineated to create a catchment area and conform to the actual living patterns of the desired population.

Precisely provides a comprehensive geo addressing solutions

Precisely’s geo addressing solutions allow you to organize, locate, and enrich address data for over 250 countries and territories. We’ve accomplished this by consolidating the capabilities from our world-class geocoding and address verification software into a single, powerhouse solution that provides the flexibility to meet your own unique needs including availability for solutions on-premises, on-demand, natively in cloud native environments, APIs, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, or software developer kits (SDKs).

Whether it’s extracting location-based business planning insights through cloud native/big data analytics, formulating an appropriate marketing strategy based on the demographics of a target area, or determining the most efficient routes for product deliveries, having the kind of accurate and precise location information that Precisely’s geo addressing solutions provide can give your company a real competitive advantage.

To learn more about the business value of geo addressing, read our eBook The 6 Capabilities You Need in a Geo Addressing Solution to explore the considerations for selecting a geo addressing solution that supports a winning location intelligence business strategy.