Dear Customers and Business Partners,

Many of us begin the New Year with New Year's Resolutions. We've made a big one for ourselves and our customers. We will, once again, be sending out our Newsletter. We resolve to keep you up-to-date on all of our new products and services and all developments in the world of International Addresses.

Last year there were many improvements in the AddressDoctor family of products - support for new platforms like HP/UX or AIX, just to name a few. You will now again be kept abreast of new developments like these and more with our Product News and Updates. Furthermore, we are very proud to announce that, as of January 2006, we now offer geocoding in our Data Quality Center as well as in the AddressDoctor Web Services. Don't miss the informative article about geocoding that begins this month's edition.

We're also proud to announce that we will be demonstrating new AddressDoctor products at ITB Berlin (the international tourism exchange convention), which will soon be upon us again. At ITB we will feature special integrations for the hospitality industry. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Berlin at this exhibition.

Finally, remember that your feedback is always welcome and valuable. Please write to us with comments and suggestions for future newsletters. Now, without any further adieus, please enjoy reading Address Doctor's opening newsletter for 2006.

Yours truly,

Sven Schreiber
Managing Director
 

Customers have asked if we could provide geo-coordinates – the actual latitude and longitude of a given address – in addition to address corrections. Now, the result of great efforts to enhance our service, Geocoding is here and it is yours to use. Today, you will find geocoding an option offered alongside the address verification process, available to all users of our Web Service. Coordinates are provided in WGS84 format.

Geo-coordinates enhance your address database, for example, facilitating your ability to sensibly divide sales regions or to analyze distribution areas or to identify new target areas. In addition, we have tried to obtain the maximum level of detail possible so that the system will always geo code to the finest accessible level. For example, information can be retrieved starting with the rooftop level. Rooftop level not available? AddressDoctor's Geocoding system automatically switches to the next available level of detail – for example, the street, the postal code, or the city.

Before the Geocoding information – also available in the Data Quality Center – is output, the address must first be verified, ensuring that you get accurate coordinates for correct or corrected addresses. We have expanded our User Guide for those of you who use our Web Service. There you will find complete information for using Geocoding. Also, you will find answers to many of your questions regarding Geocoding on our FAQ page, which we continually update.

Coordinate Data for a multitude of European countries is available now, and we will continue building additional geocoding data into our system. Talk with an AddressDoctor representative and get detailed professional assistance with your questions about this new service and its applications in your business.

Speak with a Sales Rep to set up your account with a trial set of 100 Geocoding transactions at no additional cost.

In the mass of information sent in various forms everyday, printed information remains the most prevalent. In that context, consider that travel information is still sent primarily by traditional mail.

Switzerland, a favorite travel destination – and not only for skiing – exemplifies mailing practice as the primary reach to its tourism markets. MySwitzerland.com, the marketing agency promoting Swiss travel and tourism, sends out more than 2.6 million brochures a year upon request from potential guests of the country. Call centers around the world retrieve and record inquiries and then organize mailings for one of the largest mailers in Switzerland.

mySwitzerland.com uses the Web Service from AddressDoctor to simplify the address capturing process. In the call centers, as well as on the website, the AddressDoctor Web Service ensures quick and reliable gathering of accurate addresses. Accurate and current information is of extreme importance (and no small accomplishment) for this massive mailer of valuable marketing pieces. Due to the accuracy of corrected and verified addresses, Swiss travel brochures are rarely delivered to the wrong destination anymore – improving efficiency and results.

Summed up by Luis Brauer from mySwitzerland.com. "Thanks to AddressDoctor the quality of our address database has noticeably improved."

Implementation of AddressDoctor products and services by mySwitzerland.com ran in record time and was quickly accomplished in a Linux, Oracle and ColdFusion environment. Read the full account of this success story on our website, available now for download.

Address Format

ADDRESSEE
THOROUGHFARE_NAME NUMBER
POSTAL_CODE CITY
ICELAND

Postal addresses in Iceland stand out first and foremost because of their 3-digit postal codes. This short postal code results from a vast landmass area in conjunction with population density. Three digits only: The first digit indicates the postal zone, the second and third the delivery area.

• Example:
  
  Hr. Guðmundur Árnasson
  Þrúðvangur 5
  220 Hafnarfirði
  ICELAND
  

Note that a post office box is called "Pósthólf" in Icelandic.

• Example:
  
  Jón Sigurðsson
  Pósthólf 1550
  121 Reykjavík
  ICELAND
  

But also note that the term "P.O. Box" is acceptable.

Use AddressDoctor to automatically output Icelandic addresses in the proper format. The "FormattedAddressLine" property automatically provides a properly structured output.

A final observation: Iceland consists of 8 geographic regions – Austurland, Hofudhborgarsvaedhi, Nordhurland Eystra, Nordhurland Vestra, Sudhurland, Sudhurnes, Vestfirdhir, Vesturland, none of which are required in addresses. The 3-digit postal code takes care of it all.

AddressDoctor at the ITB Berlin

Visit us from March 8th to March 12th at the ITB Convention and Exhibition in Berlin. You will find your friends and associates from AddressDoctor in Hall 8.1, Booth 136. Come visit with us. Learn more about AddressDoctor solutions for the tourism Industry like for example, direct integration with Micros Fidelio's OPERA System.

AddressDoctor Web Service availability exceeds 99.99% in 2005

The AddressDoctor Web Service availability surpassed 99.99% in the year 2005. We continue to upgrade our infrastructure in 2006 to keep up with the increasing demand for the AddressDoctor services.

Updated Reference Data

AddressDoctor constantly grows and updates its postal reference databases. In 2005 we updated and expanded our address data for many countries. Additional efforts have also enabled us to expand our character sets/alphabets for your use. Two examples from Europe: We now support both Greek and Polish characters in our databases and, of course, in the AddressDoctor Enterprise engine.

Our databases are updated monthly and are available to customers for download. As always, we provide more detailed information concerning the databases in our Country List. Users of our Web Services can check the status of the data being used on the Service Homepage on the right hand side at the bottom.

AddressDoctor Data Quality Center (DQC) – New Version

Correct your addresses quickly and easily via the Internet. You will gain immediate benefit from an improved user interface in the Data Quality Center at www.AddressDoctor.com/dqc. A newly added detailed quality report – similar to the Report by AddressDoctor for Excel – shows you at a glance the condition of your address data.

Check for Duplicates in the Data Quality Center

AddressDoctor now checks for duplicates. Whether businesses or individuals, double entries in your address list are readily identified. Checking for duplicates is an integral component of the processing sequence. The results of this check are included as part of the output file.

Possible duplicates are marked with cluster identifiers. The report shows the number of identified duplicates and any other pertinent information.

DQC – Change of address Check for Germany (NCOA)

AddressDoctor's Data Quality Center has come up with yet another improvement. Forwarding addresses. The DQC can now check forwarding addresses left by mail recipients who have moved. The system checks the change of address information from the Deutsche Post Adress and determines if there is a forwarding address on file. If this is the case, the new address replaces the former one.

Ask an AddressDoctor sales representative to learn more about this feature.

AddressDoctor for Excel – New Version

Version 2.1.6 of AddressDoctor for Excel Add-In is now available for download. Please update your Excel Add-In.

Additional Platforms

The AddressDoctor Enterprise engine is now available on additional platforms. It is now compatible with HP/UX and AIX. Add those to Solaris, Linux and Windows, and you now have seven supported platforms. The C++, C and Java interfaces are available for all platforms.

Support for ZIP+4 Codes in the United States

The AddressDoctor Engine now offers ZIP+4 support in the USA. In addition to the 5 digit postal code in the USA, the 4-digit extension (following and separated by a hyphen) helps refine accuracy of a particular delivery location in a given area. The ZIP+4 is not actually required for standard mail, but when used, allows for discounts for large bulk mailing campaigns within the States.

The AddressDoctor Web Services automatically provides these codes for addresses marked with status "V" and "C" where appropriate.

New Matching Library for Addresses

The Matching Library, which has been available for use in the AddressDoctor Data Quality Center, is now available separately. This effective and powerful tool is based on long standing, proven technology and is available for Windows and Linux.