Address Update Overview
The SAS® Address Update add-on enables you to use the United States Postal Service (USPS) NCOALink® system to identify and update customer address information. Accurate and up-to-date address information is critical for location-based marketing efforts, direct mail marketing, and similar activities for businesses and organizations with very large North America-based customer information databases.
Licensing the Address Update add-on does not confer NCOALINK support. It merely enables you to use NCOA data within SAS software. The customer must also license the use of NCOA information from the USPS, independently of SAS. Note the following:
- The customer is responsible for reporting requirements.
- This feature is only supported for US-based addresses.
The Address Update add-on includes the following components:
- a data job node, Address Update Lookup
- an administration dialog, Address Update: NCOALINK PAF Administration
- three process job nodes, Address Update Audit Report, Address Update Monthly Reports, and Address Update Process Summary Report
The Address Update Lookup data job node enables you to use NCOALINK data to identify and update customer address information. This node can be called at any point within a data job where you need to process address information. The node generates no output when the input address is correct. It generates an updated address if the input is not correct. A minimum of 100 unique addresses can be run at one time with this node. This restriction prevents you from processing only one address at a time.
The Address Update: NCOALINK PAF Administration dialog enables you to perform the following tasks:
- create and manage one or more address update repositories, which are used to store information that is required by the Address Update add-on
- create, edit, and renew the Processing Acknowledgment Form (PAF) that is required to process change of address data
- create and list owners, brokers, and licensees in the system
- review summary information and execution statistics
The USPS requires users to submit monthly reports that detail each mailing list that was processed and for whom it was processed. The Address Update Monthly Reports process job node supports the following reports:
- customer service log
- PAF information report
- broker/agent/list administrator information report
The USPS also requires an audit report and a process summary report. These reports are handled by the Address Update Audit Report and Address Update Process Summary Report process job nodes.
The address update workflow requires that you perform the following tasks in this order:
- Satisfying Change of Address Prerequisites
- Performing Change of Address Administration
- Processing Change of Address Data
- Performing Change of Address Reporting
- Running the Process Summary Report
If you will run address update jobs on a SAS Data Management Server, see Using the Address Update Add-On with Data Management Server.