# Presentation: 709002

## UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION (UPU) S42 INTERNATIONAL ADDRESSING STANDARD AND ADDRESS DATA INTERCHANGE SPECIFICATION (ADIS): OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS

- Joe Lubenow
- Lubenow and Associates
- Presented to MTAC
- 4 August 2004

## REPORT OF UPU INTERNATIONAL BUREAU TO UPU ADVISORY GROUP

- 	The POST*Code project team “is in the process of developing a standard for international postal address elements and structures, which identifies and describes all international address elements”.
- 	“Following a series of tests, the standard will be adapted as necessary, then gradually supplemented with descriptions of the address structures in natural language and XML of all UPU member countries.”
- 	October 14, 2002

## KEY PARTICIPANTS

- UPU POST*Code project team
- European CEN Technical Committee 331
- UPU DMAB Address Management Project Team
- USPS International Address Template Working Group (IATWG)
- IDEAlliance Address Data Interchange Specification (ADIS) working group

## PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES (TO DATE)

- Australia
- Brazil
- Chile
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Great Britain
- Japan
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Portugal
- Sweden
- United States of America
- Venezuela

## ADVANTAGES OF EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE  (XML) 

- XML is defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- XML is used on the Internet and for transferring data in computer systems
- XML incorporates UNICODE and supports many alphabets
- XML W3C schemas offer strong data typing and validation capabilities
- XML W3C schemas correlate well with programming language constructs

## ADDRESS ELEMENTS 

- 	A postal address element is a “basic entity of a postal address that has a well defined meaning, has significance for customer or postal processing purposes and cannot usefully be divided into smaller units for exchange or printing purposes”.
- 	from UPU document “International Postal Address Components and Templates”

## ADDRESS ELEMENTS 

- Basic units of postal addresses
- Standard based on element list and definitions provided by CEN TC 331
- Over fifty elements have been defined
- Includes name and address elements
- Does not include mail production elements
- POST*Code group considers amendments if needed

## EXAMPLE: UPU ADDRESS ELEMENTS 

- Street Number or Plot
- Thoroughfare Name
- Thoroughfare Type
- Delivery Service Type
- Delivery Service Indicator
- Town
- Region
- Postcode

## ADDRESS TEMPLATES 

- 	“An address template states how an address is to be written; in particular, it shows the order in which address elements are to appear, distinguishes between mandatory and optional elements and provides rendition instructions.”
- 	“Each country may have its own characteristic address templates.”
- 	from UPU document “International Postal Address Components and Templates”

## ADDRESS TEMPLATES

- Address templates reflect address types or patterns
- Country based templates will be defined
- Using natural language template (NLT) notation
- Postal Address Template Description Language (PATDL)
- Language(s) of presentation must be specified
- A template is a sequential ordering of lines and elements
- Address format varies if mailing is internal vs. external
- Usable for single country applications without external knowledge
- Templates need to support variations in formats
- Support “trigger conditions”
- Support user preferences

## POSTAL ADDRESS TEMPLATE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE (PATDL)

- PATDL Version 2.2 is included in UPU standard as a way to define templates in XML
- Does not define a format for address data, contains only address metadata
- Constitutes a link between the UPU standard and the IDEAlliance ADIS standard for business mail
- Includes integrated rendition instructions for final presentation of address
- Supports integrated tables for validation and abbreviation of element data

## POSTAL ADDRESS TEMPLATE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE (PATDL)

- Supports multiple code sets or natural language XML tags
- UPU elements, sub-types and codes
- ADIS elements and codes
- OASIS xNAL elements
- ECCMA codes
- Other formats from defined sources
- Supports user preferences and job variables
- Implements conditional logic for conditional selection and branching
- Enables multiple sub-templates to be combined into one master address template per country

## RENDITION INSTRUCTIONS 

- 	from UPU document “International Postal Address Components and Templates”

- RENDITION INSTRUCTIONS

## RENDITION INSTRUCTIONS EXAMPLE

- 	City = “Chicago” = S42 town
- 	State = “Illinois” = S42 region
- 	ZIP Code = “60625” = S42 Primary Postcode
- 	ZIP Code Addendum = “3806” = S42 Secondary Postcode
- 	State abbreviation should be used
- 	State abbreviation should be capitalized
- 	Two spaces recommended after State
- 	Hyphen needed between parts of ZIP Code
- 	Hyphen only permitted if both parts present
- 	Result: “Chicago IL  60625-3806”

## TEST PLAN

- 	Identify address types within each country
- 	Select 50 or more sample addresses of each type
- 	Identify the address elements individually
- 	Utilize all address elements found in the country
- 	Include name elements following privacy restrictions
- 	Define natural language and XML templates
- 	Specify trigger conditions when multiple branches defined
- 	Define result of passing data elements through templates
- 	If there is a delivery point database:
- 		Compare results to known delivery point formats
- 	Otherwise:
- 		Evaluation by subject matter experts
- 	Note that this procedure can be replicated as needed

## MILESTONES AND NEXT STEPS

- S42-3 “International Postal Address Components and Templates” approved 3 February 2004
- S42-4 to be submitted to UPU Standards Board on 6 July 2004
- Templates will be developed in natural language and XML for more UPU member countries
- IDEAlliance ADIS 04-1 to be published after final editorial modifications
- ADIS is an implementation of UPU S42 for domestic and international business mail
- ADIS defines an XML format for names and addresses as well as related information

## ADIS OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS

- Make UPU standard definition of address elements and templates available for all postal customers
- Single list of elements worldwide
- Useful for database design
- Useful for disassembly of addresses
- Templates for each country
- Mail formatted per specifications of each Post
- Useful as part of validation process
- This process has developed some momentum in Europe and North America

## ADIS OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS 

- Customer databases may be redesigned to permanently retain address elements
- Typically customers retain information line-by-line today
- This causes difficulty in validation and quality control
- Missing elements are hard to detect
- Elements must be parsed over and over again
- Information may be truncated during presentation
- Need for transfer of data to legacy systems

## ADIS OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS

- Address formatting will be directly derived from stored data, templates and rendition instructions for any needed format
- User may specify style preferences and label block size
- After that, formatting will be automatic
- Rendition will produce the most deliverable address subject to space constraints
- Larger companies have multiple ways to do this
- Smaller companies can use a turnkey solution

## ADIS OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS

- Economics of direct mail will be more advantageous
- Less work for the Posts delivering mail
- Better response rates from accurate addressing
- Leads to increased mail volume for Posts
- Fewer problems with return of items
- Posts will compete better vs. other modes of communication
- Need direct connection to address validation to make this advantage clear
- Cost-based rates for addressing will help

## ADIS OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS

- Reduction in undeliverable mail and returned mail will benefit the Posts
- Some erroneous mail will never be sent
- Fewer duplicates will be mailed
- Question remains: what if recipient has moved?
- Question remains: how to make returns more efficient?
- International electronic nixie and COA services need to be developed

## PERMANENT PARSING

- Address parsed into elements when first encountered
- Coding process is reduced from parsing and matching to matching only
- Simpler and more reliable de-duplication
- Can easily identify and exchange missing components
- Once coded, only need to refresh coding at intervals
- Parsing problems shown in earlier GCA study to account for two-thirds of coding failures

## AUTOMATIC FORMATTING

- Place full and uncompromisingly rich data into database
- Use UPU templates and trigger conditions
- Set up rendition instructions for output format
- Create output file in ADIS format
- Addresses will be the best possible for the specified conditions
- All defects can be measured as long as there is a delivery point database to define completeness and correctness

## MOVE UPDATE MANAGEMENT

- Validate against databases of delivery points to allow mailers to maintain complete and correct addresses
- Use change of address systems and procedures to the best effect since matching problems will be minimized
- Document move update performance and methods used on an address by address basis to secure USPS discounts
- Perform move update process as late as possible right up until the time of mailing
- Generate Mail.dat and ADIS files and go to production

## COMPOSITE MAIL PIECES

- Periodical “firm bundles” have reduced postage
- Standard Mail and Bound Printed Matter composite mail pieces have reduced postage
- The term “firm bundle” is misleading
- A more accurate term is “delivery point bundle”
- These bundles can be created when addresses are known to be complete and correct delivery point matches
- Multiple magazines can be polywrapped into a single piece if schedules match
- Several non-competing catalogs make one composite mail piece at reduced postage

## MAKING MAIL INTELLIGENT

- USPS developing plans for future mail to identify sender and receiver and include information about itself
- “Intelligent mail®” bar codes will not carry all relevant data
- Example: 31 characters in 4-state code
- Even two-dimensional codes need updated or amended data
- Some information in human readable form
- Some information in the barcode
- Some information accessible by unique key in barcode
- ADIS supports any variation of the above three scenarios

## HOW TO IMPROVE MERLIN

- MERLIN moving into address quality area but restricted to limited sample
- Like presort and barcode quality errors, address quality deficiencies are not randomly distributed
- MERLIN lets some errors through and by extrapolation, penalizes others too much
- Portable electronic standardized file sets are a solution
- Mail.dat in MERLIN would make presort evaluation more accurate and fair
- ADIS in MERLIN would make address quality evaluation more accurate and fair