Address Matching and Geocoding

Our address matching and geocoding tools are closely related and use the same powerful comparison algorithms to relate different lists of addresses together.

The algorithms that we use to compare addresses have the following benefits:

• Very high match rates, often as much as 97% *.
• Use any address list as the address list to match to.
• Compatible with virtually any address structure including BS7666, Royal Mail's Postal Address File, Ordnance Survey's MasterMap Address Layer 2 and AddressPoint.
• The process is open and auditable. The reasons for matches (or the lack of matches) are given, with supporting descriptions.
• Highly configurable. It is possible to enable or disable aspects of the matching such as the use of fuzzy matching, detailed data structures and partial matching. In addition, the user can specify the accuracy of the spatial location required (e.g. postcode, building or address level).

* It should be noted that even if address data is really high quality, there are still likely to be addresses that are different or described differently between address lists from separate organisations. This is why there is never likely to be an exact 100% match.

We use powerful address matching algorithms to help add a spatial reference or location (geocode) to address and postcode information. The algorithm provides spatial references for between 60-90% of the addresses provided, given a reasonable address quality. It is possible to use any nationally available address dataset to generate the geocodes.

The spatial reference can be provided in any suitable coordinate system and we support all major GIS data formats as standard. We can also provide the unique reference number of the dataset being matched to (e.g. TOID or UPRN) to support future data integration projects.

We will soon be launching an address matching tool and currently use the same core algorithms to provide the address matching and geocoding as services.

Please contact Ed Scrase for more information.