Abstract:
Methods and systems are provided for automated verification and entry of customer facility location data. The customer facility location data is subsequently used for the computer-based dispatching of service technicians in a resource-efficient fashion.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     United States Utility Patent Application by C. Reddick et. al., filed on the same date as this application and entitled “Methods and Systems for a Default Mapping Mechanization,” is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to the field of automated dispatching of personnel. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for implementing a latitude/longitude update mechanism. 
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
     A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Telephone company service technicians are dispatched to customer sites for a variety of reasons. For instance, technicians may be dispatched because a new service connection may need to be established, the cause of a power outage may need to be isolated, or a communications line may need to be located. 
     Conventionally, telephone company service technicians are dispatched to a customer site to perform the repair or service as indicated by a work order. When a technician completes this work, the technician calls for instructions as to the next task. A dispatcher then provides the service technician with the next work order, which specifies a customer location and the service required. A dispatcher may be a person or a computer system. An important goal of the dispatching process is to provide quality customer service. 
     Quality customer service requires a balancing of response times and priorities. Thus technicians need to be dispatched such that they are responsive to customer needs in a timely fashion. Additionally, the dispatch must allow for flexibility, so that a technician can be dispatched to high priority repair events. 
     One problem encountered with conventional dispatching processes is that the resulting dispatched work order can cause technicians to waste time driving. For example, a technician may first work at a site on Smith Road, then be dispatched to Jones Street, and subsequently dispatched to a different customer site on Smith Road. That technician&#39;s time would be more efficiently utilized by dispatching the technician to the two Smith Road sites just before or just after addressing the Jones Street work order. The additional driving time incurred by the technician is time that could have been used in servicing other customers. Thus a resource (i.e., a technician&#39;s time) is wasted and the resolution of a customer site telephone problem or service issue is unnecessarily delayed. 
     Automated systems for dispatching technicians have been developed by various companies. For example, some conventional systems provide technicians with work orders for customer sites that are within the vicinity of each other. Such conventional systems accept work order requests from technicians in the field. The system then looks at all of the pending work orders. From the locations of pending work orders and the current location of the technician, the system determines which customer site is closest to the technician&#39;s current locale. The system makes this determination using locational data, based upon latitude and longitude coordinates, to produce the tightest possible dispatch for the technician. 
     Common problems encountered, though, include instances in which latitude and longitude locational information is unavailable for the work site in question (e.g., a new sub-division), and instances in which the address of the work site is erroneous. In such cases, no latitude and longitude location information would be discovered within a commercial database. 
     In a conventional method, a computer system (such as Locatelt, which is distributed by Telcordia Technologies) accesses a commercial database that contains location information, such as latitude and longitude coordinates, for many businesses and residences. An example of such a commercial data base is one provided by Geographical Data Technology and known as the GDT database. 
     Using such a conventional method, a conventional automatic dispatching system queries the Locatelt system whenever latitude and longitude information is needed to identify a customer location. Locatelt, in turn, queries the geographical database. LocateIt subsequently returns to the system the requested locational information for the customer site in question. 
     Correct location information using this conventional system is obtained in only 68% of the queries. Thus, using conventional techniques, a technician is still very likely to have unnecessary drive times. A correct location determination rate above 90% is desirable. 
     One method to increase the likelihood that correct location information would be found requires personnel to drive to customer sites, determine the site latitude and longitude information via a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver, and then log this location information. Although such a back up method produces accurate information regarding customer locations, driving to each customer site is a very time consuming, and thus costly, process. 
     What is needed are methods and systems that overcome the shortcomings of conventional systems. Such methods and systems should provide additional advantages, including cost effectiveness and ease of implementation. 
     SUMMARY 
     An embodiment of the present invention provides methods and systems for the efficient acquisition and conversion of customer site address and telephone network interface information to customer site locational information, such as latitude and longitude data. Implementations of the present invention comprise at least one of a method, a process, a system, an apparatus, a computer readable medium, and a data stream. 
     Embodiments of the present invention provide for receiving, via a receiver, a file containing a first record type having customer site address and location fields. The first record is extracted, using an extractor, from the file, and the site address and location field values are subsequently parsed from the first record via first and second parser components, respectively. A second record comprising the site address and location values parsed from the first record is formatted using a formatter. The second record is then copied (or inserted) into a data repository using an insertion means, such as a file write( ) utility function. 
     In one embodiment, the location field utilized in the first and second records comprises latitude and longitude values. In an additional embodiment, the data repository into which the second record is copied is a database. 
     In embodiments of the present invention, a graphical user interface (GUI) is displayed, comprising text fields for accepting customer site address and location information. Customer site address and location information from one record is extracted from a file and is subsequently formatted into a second record type and stored in a data repository. This mechanism is automated by scripts in one embodiment. In another embodiment, the scripts are executed via a terminal emulator. 
     Embodiments of the present invention offer many advantages, including substantially increasing the hit rate of latitude and longitude determinations for customer site location records stored within a data repository. By increasing the hit rate, the present invention provides more accurate customer site location results for use in the automatic dispatching of service technicians. Furthermore, by providing more accurate location information, technicians may be dispatched to service customer sites that are more centrally located. Service technicians spend less time driving between work sites, and therefore are able to respond to customers&#39; requirements in a more timely fashion. 
     Embodiments of the present invention also enable a supervisor to decrease the number of workers that need to be assigned to location data look up and entry tasks. These workers are then made available to perform other tasks. 
     Additional objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional automated dispatch system. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates an embodiment of the present invention for providing a default mapping conversion service. 
         FIG. 3  comprises a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention for producing match and nonmatch files. 
         FIG. 4  comprises an embodiment of the present invention for converting nonmatch records to match file records. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an embodiment of the present invention for providing latitude and longitude updates. 
         FIG. 6  comprises a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention for producing latitude and longitude updates. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following discussion of embodiments of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process operations have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional (prior art) technique for providing customer location data for use in the dispatching of service technicians. In  FIG. 1 , a technician using a communications device  100 , such as a mobile computer, contacts an automated dispatcher  120  to request the technician&#39;s next work order. Communication between the mobile computer  100  and the automated dispatcher system  120  takes place via a radio frequency (RF) link  105 . The automated dispatcher  120  shown is referred to as the Integrated Dispatch System (IDS). The IDS searches a list of pending work orders for a work order for the customer site nearest the technician&#39;s current location by comparing latitude and longitude values of “pending” work sites to that of the current site. 
     The automated dispatcher  120  comprises a computer system that determines which work order should be assigned to the technician. Since the technician&#39;s current location is stored on the automated dispatcher  120 , when a work order request from the technician arrives at the automated dispatcher  120 , the automated dispatcher  120  can compare the technician&#39;s current location to the locations of all customers with pending work orders. Pending work orders are records that contain customer site location fields and are stored in a work order database  130 . Customer site locations are based upon latitude and longitude coordinates. The pending work order of the customer site determined by the automated dispatcher  120  to be the closest to the technician&#39;s current location is assigned to the service technician. The automated dispatcher  120  then dispatches the technician by forwarding the work order via the RF link  105  to the requesting technician. 
     A front-end system  110 , such as the BellSouth Loop Maintenance Operating System (LMOS), forwards work requests from upstream trouble reporting and service order systems to an automated dispatcher  120 . The front-end system  110  constructs a work order for the automated dispatcher  120  by first querying a customer database  115  for the addresses of customer sites that require service. The customer database  115  contains records having customer site address, allocation area, and wire center information fields. In one embodiment, a commercial database is utilized as a customer (records) database  115 . 
     The automated dispatcher  120  constructs a list of pending work orders by first querying an address geocoding system  140 . Automated dispatcher  120  provides a street address of a customer site to the geocoding system  140 , which subsequently queries a commercial geographical database  150 . An example geocoding system  140  is known as LocateIt, which is a Telcordia provided computer system that executes software for accessing a commercial geographical database  150 , and from that database determines a latitude and longitude for a customer site. One such commercial geographical database  150 , called the GDT database, is provided by Geographical Data Technology. The GDT database contains locational data (i.e., latitude and longitude coordinates) for customer addresses throughout the region covered by the service technicians. 
     The query response from the geographical database  150  contains locational information for a customer site address. The locational data is propagated back from the geographical database  150  through the geocoding system  140  to the automated dispatcher  120 . At this point, the automated dispatcher  120  adds the locational data to the work order record associated with that customer site and contained within the pending work order list. The resulting work order record is added to the work order database  130 . 
     By accessing the commercial geographical database  150 , a higher percentage of work orders can be provided with customer site locational data. Without this location data, the automated dispatcher  120  cannot automatically dispatch service technicians. The fallback position is to manually dispatch technicians, if the automated dispatcher  120  cannot perform an automated dispatch. This is a slow and personnel-intensive task, that often results in technicians being inefficiently assigned to work orders. 
     For a variety of reasons, such location information is not available in commercial databases for all possible sites. For instance, new construction of both commercial and residential sites renders a tremendous amount of geographical data in commercial databases obsolete. As a consequence, periodic reports of sites with unknown geographic coordinates (i.e., latitude and longitude values) must be generated and manually edited. 
     An embodiment of the present invention carries out various functions, including automating the process of providing latitude and longitude values for a Default Mapping Report (DMR)  205 . The DMR  205  comprises an electronic report or file which is produced via report generation facilities within the automated dispatcher  120 . The DMR  205  contains customer site addresses for which no associated locational data has been found within any of the commercial databases, such as the GDT database. One such embodiment is illustrated in  FIG. 2 . 
     In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention shown in  FIG. 2 , a Default Mapping Conversion (DMC) computer  200  hosts software for reading an electronic copy of a Default Mapping Report (DMR)  205 . The DMC computer  200  also queries data repositories  210 ,  220  in order to supply the missing customer site locational data for the DMR  205  records. 
     In the embodiment shown, the DMC computer  200  receives a softcopy version of the DMR  205  from automated dispatcher  120 . The DMR  205  comprises incomplete) records that contain fields such as a task number (or work order number), customer street address, a wire center identifier, and a cross-connect identifier. The record is incomplete because it contains an empty or null field for customer site geographical location data. An example of customer site geographical location data includes latitude and longitude coordinates. A wire center identifier is an alphanumeric that is associated with a wire center facility. A cross-connect identifier is an alphanumeric that is associated with a particular communications switch such as an AT&amp;T DACS (Digital Access Cross-connect Switch). In alternate embodiments, a DMR  205  further comprises an allocation area identifier. An allocation area is a geographical region that roughly corresponds to one thousand phone numbers. The identifier of an allocation area is also an alphanumeric value. 
     In the embodiment shown, a DMC computer  200  communicates with a local database  210  and a wire center database  220 . The local database  210  stores information comprising street addresses, block addresses (which are numbers associated with a group of buildings), and latitude and longitude location values for customer sites. The wire center database  220  stores information comprising street addresses, wire center identifiers, and latitude and longitude location values for customer sites. The databases  210  and  220  may be remotely located. Other embodiments include interfacing the DMC computer  200  to a data repository comprising at least two databases (or flat files). In other words, additional internal, external and remotely located databases (and/or flat files), comprising customer and telecommunications network information, such as allocation areas, may be interfaced to the DMC computer  200 . In another embodiment, the DMC computer  200  may be interfaced to a data repository, comprising at least one database (and/or flat file). 
     Continuing with the description of an embodiment shown in  FIG. 2 , the DMC computer  200  also interfaces to a database server  230 . An example database server  230  is a BellSouth system known as the Internet Geocoder. The database server  230  interfaces to a cross-connect database  235 , which contains information records on customer site addresses and associated cross-connect identifiers. Cross-connect identifiers reference telephone system network elements (i.e., switches). The DMC computer  200  queries the database server  230  for latitude and longitude values associated with a task number and cross-connect identifier. The database server  230 , in turn, queries a cross-connect database  235 , and returns the response (containing the latitude and longitude coordinates associated with the task and cross-connect values) to the DMC computer  200 . 
     For those queries in which a locational value (comprising latitude and longitude coordinates) is found for the customer site in question, the DMC computer  200  stores the complete customer information, which at this point includes the missing customer site location values. Once the entire electronic DMR  205  is processed, the DMC  200  forwards a file containing the complete customer information, including the customer site location information, to a follow-on processor for further processing. The Lat/Long Update computer  250  shown in  FIG. 2  is an example follow-on processor, which takes the completed customer information file, known as a match file, and subsequently reformats the match file records and merges them into a work order database  130 , such as the Telcordia Force database. 
     The work order database  130  stores work order records, which comprise fields such as a customer site address field, a customer site geographical location field, a work order number field and a field for a description of the service issue. The automated dispatcher  120  uses the values from a customer site geographic location field of a work order record to determine the customer site nearest a technician&#39;s current work site and then automatically dispatches the technician to the nearest customer site (i.e., the automated dispatcher  120  then assigns the technician&#39;s next work assignment to be the work order associated with the nearest customer site). 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a transfer mechanism in which the complete customer information file is forwarded as a floppy disk or diskette  240  to a Lat/Long Update computer  250 . Such a mechanism is an option in an environment with network security concerns in which physical connectivity is not permitted between the Local Area Network (LAN) segments that host the DMC  200  and Lat/Long Update  250  computers. Alternate embodiments, in which such stringent security requirements are not mandated, allow for implementations using file transfer techniques, such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or using data collaboration techniques, such as using a shared disk to which the DMC computer  200  writes and from which the Lat/Long Update computer  250  reads. 
     An exemplary method of implementing an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in the flow chart of  FIG. 3 . This method is executed on the DMC computer  200 , which was previously described in reference to  FIG. 2 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , at step  310  the DMC computer  200 , via a receiver component, receives an electronic report, the DMR  205 , from automated dispatcher  120 . At step  315 , the DMC computer  200 , via an extractor component, extracts and parses the current record, which at this point is the first record (i.e., line) of the DMR  205 , and then extracts or parses, via a parser component, the customer address from the current record in step  320 . In one embodiment, the customer address is a street address. Note that each record in the DMR  205  is an incomplete record in that each record includes a customer site location field containing a null value. 
     DMC computer  200 , at step  325 , uses the extracted service address as a key to search a data repository, the local data base  210 , for a record containing the customer service address and corresponding (non-null) locational information comprising latitude and longitude values. The local database  210  is populated with customer site location data that was acquired from GPS readings taken during previous customer site visits. This data often corresponds to newly constructed residential or commercial facilities. 
     In additional embodiments, at least two of a street address, a wire center identifier, a cross-connect identifier and an allocation area may be parsed/extracted from the current DMR  205  in step  320  and utilized as a key in searching the appropriate database in step  325 . The “appropriate” database is a database that contains records having all of the search key fields. 
     Referring again to  FIG. 3 , if a hit or match is found in the local database  210  at step  330 , then a copy of the local database record match (i.e., the match record) is written or inserted at step  335  into a match file that is stored on the DMC computer  200 . The match file is a file which contains copies of records from the local database  210  which were found at step  330 . An insertion means, such as a write( ) utility function, is utilized to perform step  335 . Records are also added to the match file in steps  440  and  463  of  FIG. 4 , which is discussed later. The match file will ultimately contain completed records constructed from the incomplete customer site location records of the DMR  205 . After the DMC computer  200  executes step  335 , processing continues at step  360 , which will be discussed later. 
     If a hit or match is not found at step  330 , then the DMC computer  200 , via a parser component, parses the current record of the DMR  205  to obtain a wire center identifier value from the current DMR  205  record at step  340 . The DMC  200  in step  345  searches a data repository (in this embodiment, the wire center database  220 ) for a record having the same wire center identifier and street address as the current record of the DMR  205 . 
     Regarding steps  340  and  345 , in alternative embodiments, a cross-connect identifier or an allocation area identifier may be parsed/extracted, via a parser component, from the current DMR  205  record in step  340  and used as a key in searching an appropriate database in step  345 . Further embodiments of steps  320  and  325  include implementations in which multiple fields may be parsed/extracted and used as a search key for the appropriate database. The “appropriate” database is a database that contains records having all of the search key fields. 
     If a hit or matching wire center database record is found at step  350 , then the DMC computer  200  writes a copy of that record to the match file in step  335 . Processing then continues at step  360 , which is discussed later. 
     Referring again to the embodiment shown in  FIG. 3 , if a hit or match is not found at step  350 , then in step  355  the DMC computer  200  writes the current DMR  205  record to a nonmatch file. The nonmatch file is stored on the DMC computer  200  and contains DMR  205  records for which no customer site location information was found. Processing then continues at step  360 , which is discussed next. 
     After executing step  335  or step  355 , the DMC computer  200  determines whether more records exist in the DMR  205  at step  360 . If more records exist in the DMR  205 , then the DMC computer  200  increments the current record pointer in step  365  and returns to the processing loop which begins at step  315 . Execution will continue within this processing loop until all records of the DMR  205  have been processed. If no further records exist in the DMR  205 , as determined by the DMC computer  200  at step  360 , then the DMC computer  200  saves the match file in step  370  and saves the nonmatch file in step  375 . The DMC computer  200  exits processing at step  395 . 
     Note that in an alternative embodiment, steps  340  through  355  are unnecessary. In such a case, if there were no “HIT” at step  330 , processing would merely continue at step  360 . And in other embodiments, different search keys may be extracted in step  340  and used to search an appropriate database in step  345 . 
     The DMC computer  200  applies an additional level of processing to the nonmatch file created during the processing described in  FIG. 3 . This additional processing is the subject of  FIG. 4 , which shows a flow chart of an exemplary mechanism for further processing of the nonmatch file. The extra processing levels include accessing an additional database containing customer site location information and, as a last resort, affording a user the opportunity to manually supply missing location information. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the DMC computer  200  receives the nonmatch file at step  410 . The nonmatch file comprises records in which latitude and longitude location values for a customer site were not found during the process described in  FIG. 3 , above. Note that if customer site location values cannot be supplied at this stage, then technicians must be manually dispatched to address work orders for service issues at these customer sites. 
     The DMC computer  200  presents in a graphical user interface the records contained in the nonmatch file to a user at step  415 , and allows the user to edit those records at step  420 . At this point, the user edits these records either to correct erroneous customer addresses or to supply missing customer addresses. Nonmatch records that have a complete address are formatted and written to a batch file by the DMC computer  200  in step  425 . In one embodiment, these records are formatted in a specific format used by the commercial geographic database company, but any format may be used. The DMC computer  200  subsequently forwards the batch file to the database server  230  at step  430  for a determination of latitude and longitude location values of the customer site corresponding to each nonmatch record within the batch file. 
     The DMC computer  200  receives the results from the database server  230  at step  435 . Each resultant record returned from the database server  230  comprises a customer site address and a non-null location value (i.e., a latitude and longitude value). At step  440 , the DMC computer  200  adds a copy of each resultant record to the match file, which was previously described in the discussion of  FIG. 3 . 
     If there are any customer work order records at this stage that still do not have latitude and longitude values (i.e., remaining nonmatch records), the DMC computer  200  will display those records on the DMC computer  200  at step  450 . The user is again afforded the option of editing the remaining nonmatch records at step  455 . The edits supplied here, however, are customer site location data i.e., latitude and longitude values), if known by the user. Remaining nonmatch records that are successfully edited at this point, such that the record contains a correct street address and a non-null location value, are also added by the DMC computer  200  to the match file at step  460 . Additionally, the DMC computer  200  at step  463  adds a copy of each match file record to the local database  210 . Thus these records will not appear in a future DMR  205 . 
     At this point, the DMC computer  200  writes the match file to a diskette  240  in step  465 . In other embodiments, the match file may be written to a different media type, such as a magnetic tape or a CD-RW. The DMC computer  200  exits processing at step  495  of  FIG. 4 . 
     The storing of the final match file allows for the transfer of this file to follow-on processing systems, such as a Lat/Long Update computer  250 , which provides subsequent or “follow-on” processing of the match file. A transfer mechanism utilizing media such as a diskette  240  (i.e., a floppy disk) is advantageous in an environment which requires the physical separation of the LANs on which a DMC computer  200  and a Lat/Long Update computer  250  reside. In embodiments having less stringent security requirements, the DMC computer  200  electronically transfers a final match file to at least one follow-on processor, such as a Lat/Long Update computer  250 , or writes a final match file to a shared directory that may be accessed by follow-on processors. Follow-on processors apply subsequent or “follow-on” processing to the match file data. 
     A Lat/Long Update computer  250  utilizes the diskette  240 , which contains a file of customer site addresses and non-null location value records (i.e., the match file). The diskette  240  is used to update a work order database  130  that includes customer site location information. As previously discussed, an example work order database  130  is the Force database, which is provided by Telcordia Technologies. 
     As shown in  FIG. 5 , the DMC computer  200  stores a match file on a diskette  240 , which is subsequently transferred to a Lat/Long Update computer  250 . The Lat/Long Update computer  250  executes a terminal emulation package that is configured to automatically execute the work order database  130  graphical user interface (GUI). In one embodiment, a commercial software package, SilkTest, which was developed by Segue Software, Inc., is used for terminal emulation. 
     From within the terminal emulator, the Lat/Long Update computer  250  invokes scripts to automatically read records from the match file provided by floppy disk or diskette  240  and populate the appropriate input (text) fields of the customer database GUI. The Lat/Long Update computer  250  then invokes scripts which result in the input field values being formatted into customer site location records and added via the automated dispatcher  120  to the work order database  130 . 
     Other systems that are co-located or networked with the Lat/Long Update computer  250  in  FIG. 5  were discussed in regards to the prior art facility of  FIG. 1 . These systems include the automated dispatcher  120  and work order database  130 , which are primarily responsible for providing a technician using a mobile computer  100  with the technician&#39;s next service assignment via the RF link  105 . The geocoding system  140  and associated commercial geographical database  150  provide an additional source for customer geographical location information, beyond the customer database  115 . The Lat/Long Update computer  250  receives a match file created by the Default Mapping Conversion process that is implemented on the DMC computer  200 . This match file is stored on a diskette  240  in one embodiment. 
       FIG. 6  comprises a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention for producing latitude and longitude updates. This flow chart is implemented in computer software executed on the Lat/Long Update computer  250  shown in  FIG. 5 . 
     In  FIG. 6 , the Lat/Long Update computer  250  receives, via a receiver component, customer site location records from the DMC computer  200  at step  610 . In the embodiment shown, customer site location records comprise customer street address and location (i.e., latitude and longitude) values. In one embodiment, records are received from a match file stored on a diskette  240 . Other embodiments are available in which the match file is stored on a different medium or electronically transferred from the DMC computer  200  to the Lat/Long Update computer  250 . 
     At step  612  the Lat/Long Update computer  250  invokes at terminal emulation application, which in turn logs into a data repository, the work order database  130 , and executes the customer GUI and scripts for adding customer site location records to the work order database  130  at step  615 . The customer site location records are output to a GUI display device for a user to monitor the terminal emulation application&#39;s status. In alternative embodiments, other data repositories are utilized. Common data repositories include databases and flat files. 
     After receiving, via a receiver component, the customer site location records (i.e., “first” records) in step  610 , the Lat/Long Update computer  250  extracts, via an extractor component, the current record in step  617 . The Lat/Long Update computer  250  then parses the current record for street address value, using a first parser component, and a location value, using a second parser component in step  620 . In one embodiment, location values comprise a latitude and a longitude. 
     In step  625 , the Lat/Long Update computer  250  populates the work order database  130  GUI input fields with the parsed data value results of step  620 . In an embodiment, the GUI input fields comprise a first text field for receiving a customer site address and a second text field for receiving a location. The work order database  130  “add record routine” then formats, via a formatter component, the parsed data values, comprising a site address and location, into a work order database record (i.e., a “second” record) at step  630  and adds or copies the formatted record to the work order database  130  at step  635 , using an insertion means such as a write( ) utility function. 
     The Lat/Long Update computer  250  determines whether more records are present in the match file stored on diskette  240  at step  640 . If more records are present, then the Lat/Long Update computer  250  increments a record pointer in step  645  and continues executing within the processing loop starting at step  620 . When the Lat/Long Update computer  250  determines that no more records are present at step  640 , the Lat/Long Update computer  250  exits processing at step  695 . 
     In an embodiment, the match file contains completed records constructed from the incomplete customer site location records of the DMR  205 . A follow-on processor provides subsequent processing of the match file data. For instance, in one embodiment the match file is used by a Lat/Long Update computer  250  to update records stored in a work order database  130 . 
     These updates provide missing geographical location (i.e., latitude and longitude) values for customer sites that are associated with pending work orders. By supplying these missing latitude and longitude values for work order records in the work order database  130 , the Lat/Long Update computer  250  enables an automated dispatcher  120  to automatically dispatch a technician to the customer site associated with the work order. 
     Various embodiments of the present invention have been described in fulfillment of the various objects of the invention. It should be recognized that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles of the present invention. Numerous modifications and adaptations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.