Loqate validations can occur at three different points when dealing with customer records:
- During Import of Source Records
- After surviving attribute values have been determined for a newly created Golden Record
- When updating existing Golden Records (ad hoc or within a workflow)
Note: It is recommended to validate address values upon Import and after Survivorship.
For more general information on Loqate, refer to the Loqate Integration section of the Data Integration documentation here.
Validate on Import
By calling Loqate during Import, each Source Record will have its address values standardized before matching takes place. Raw values taken from Source Systems commonly include typos or inconsistent formatting. By standardizing these values beforehand, the matching algorithm can match records more accurately.
Validate on Survivorship
Validating addresses after survivorship ensures that the surviving address values are standardized. However, because address matching is less reliable when matching raw values taken from Source Systems, it is recommended to validate on Import as well.
Validate Updates to Existing Records
A Data Steward can trigger Loqate for single records or when running a bulk update for a collection. By using either of the maintenance methods listed below, address values can be standardized when records are updated.
Maintenance Validation Methods:
- A 'Run Business Rule' button on a Node Details screen
- Running a Bulk Update configuration (an Address Validation business rule can be configured for bulk updates)
- An Event processor can monitor for changes to the address inputs. When changes are detected, an event is generated to have Loqate re-standardize the updated address.
By using Bulk Update, existing records can have their address values standardized whenever their data is updated.
Validate via Web Service Request
Address standardization can be triggered from an external system which will generate a request and receive a response containing the standardized address information. This requires no direct interaction with STEP and provides a better user experience in allowing external systems to use Loqate's address standardization feature. In exposing address validation to external applications, address data points may be standardized prior to flowing into Customer MDM, which further ensures that data is trusted and verified.
Note: All customers that have purchased a Loqate Local license will have access to this service.
Validate in Workflow
In addition to the aforementioned areas where address validation may take place, it is common to also require address validation within the context of a defined business or operational workflow. Depending on the nature and complexity of the workflow, the Standardize Address business action may be executed on exit of a particular workflow state in which address information may be altered.
Validate for Match Tuning
The match tuning process uses input address values while the import allows for matching to run against standardized values.
Unexpected match results can occur since an algorithm that was tuned using the input address comparison scores is then used to evaluate standardized values. Instead, use the Loqate Command Line Tool to output standardized address via Excel, which can then be used within match tuning.
For more information, refer to the Loqate Local Command Line Tool topic in the Data Integration documentation (here) and refer to the Match Tuning topic (here) of the Matching, Linking, and Merging documentation.