Address validation and geocoding both add value to geographical data, although they serve different purposes. As such geocoding must be considered as part of any data quality solution that must improve address data quality.
According to Location Intelligence leaders, Precisely.com, geocoding is the process of converting an address into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) that can be used to place markers on a map or a position on the map.
Address validation is the process of verifying and standardizing an address against reference data to confirm validity and deliverability, then standardizing it to local postal standards.
The value of geocoding and address validation
Poor quality address data costs businesses billions annually, whether due to errors in the "last mile" of delivery costing time and petrol for logistics businesses or poorly located stores or branches that do not service customers
As importantly, adding accurate longitude and latitude coordinates to a previously unstructured address enables accurate planning and additional cost-saving, as discussed in our post, What hidden insights can you drive from a simple address?
For example, customer intelligence requires an accurate understanding of a customer's location on a map to allow organisations to optimise the locations of service depots such as schools, bank branches or retail shops or accurately place infrastructure such as cell phone masts, electricity points or delivery depots.
The optimal placement of these resources can reduce the requirement in certain areas - cutting unnecessary costs while ensuring customer services are still delivered as required.
For logistics and service organisations, spatial data enables better route planning and reduced errors at the "last mile" of service - saving time and money, while address validation ensures that an address is deliverable.
Properties can be plotted on a map and overlaid with risk information such as flood or crime levels for the area. This helps to protect assets and can be used to manage credit or insurance risk.
Access the best geocoding in the market today to ensure high-quality address management, providing context, and driving better decisions throughout your business. Combine geo-enrichment with Precisely's Spatial Analytics solutions for a complete understanding of how location impacts your business.
South Africa Address Validation Guide
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of address data is paramount for businesses operating in South Africa.
The South Africa Address Data Quality Guide serves as a comprehensive resource, offering insights and best practices to enhance the quality of address data. From understanding local nuances to standardizing formats, this guide equips organizations dealing with South African locations with the tools needed to maintain high standards of data integrity and efficiency.
How to Improve Address Data Accuracy with Geocoding
Geocoding emerges as a powerful solution for enhancing address data accuracy and precision.
By leveraging spatial data and algorithms, organizations can improve address data accuracy with geocoding, ensuring pinpoint location information for each record. Whether for logistics optimization, targeted marketing, or regulatory compliance, geocoding offers unparalleled insights that drive informed decision-making and operational excellence.
How Geocoding and Address Validation Provides Competitive Edge
In today's competitive landscape, gaining a strategic advantage is crucial for business success. Geocoding presents a unique opportunity to provide a competitive edge by unlocking the potential of location intelligence.
From optimizing delivery routes to analyzing market demographics, geocoding empowers organizations to extract valuable insights and capitalize on opportunities with precision. By harnessing the power of spatial data, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and drive sustainable growth in an increasingly dynamic marketplace.
Why choose
Addresses alone do not convey immediately usable information. Instead, it is the “enriched” information about a specific address that provides value to business users.
While most people understand the importance of using a standardized and quality address, that address is simply the enabler for high-quality data management. Geocoding brings “context” through the process of geo-enrichment, allowing you to focus on the importance of a customer address or location.
- Where is this address?
- What is around it?
- Who lives here?
Precisely Locate combines data, technology and proprietary analytics models to unlock new insights about your customers, markets and locations. Use Precisely Locate to add geocodes and or for address validation, or leverage the typeahead APIs to speed up address capture and reduce errors during the data capture process.
Properties can be plotted on a map and overlaid with risk information such as flood or crime levels for the area. This helps to protect assets and can be used to manage credit or insurance risk.
Leverage our fifteen years' experience with hundreds of millions of South African name and address records
Our off-the-shelf South African data quality templates include:
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Full list of postal suburbs and towns with thousands of spelling variations and errors automatically corrected
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Data enrichment with postcode for valid postal addresses (box and street address types)
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Numerous business terms and phrases
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Standardisation of many terms to English variation
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Elementisation of unstructured name and address e..g House Number, Street Name, Street Type
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Geocodes (longitude and latitude points) for over 9 million South African street addresses and hundreds of other countries
- Address Validation and Type-Ahead
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Handles both English and Afrikaans address types of the shelf
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Identification and grouping of unique individuals and households
Example Data
| Key | Original Name | Address Line 1 | Address Line 2 |
| 1 | ABC Apteek (Edms) Bpk | ATKV Gebou 15delaan 42 Magaliesig | |
| 2 | ABC Pharmacy (pty) Ltd | 42 Fifteenth Avenue | Magalieview |
After processing, we generate new, improved, consistent data that can be geocoded
| Key | Business Name | Complex | House # | Street Name | Suburb | Post Code | Unique Key |
| 1 | ABC Pharmacy | ATKV Building | 42 | 15th | Magalies View | 2067 | 00000001 |
| 2 | ABC Pharmacy | 42 | 15th | Magalies View | 2067 | 00000001 |
Location is one of the data domains that can add value across multiple business processes. Explore opportunities to improve location data quality using MDM, data integration and data quality.
Migrating data into a new MDM platform? We share tips in our guide to data migrations.
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