Melissa Data Ltd

Address Verification

20% of addresses entered online contain errors: spelling mistakes; wrong house numbers; incorrect postal codes; formatting errors that don’t conform to postal regulations. Melissa Global Address verifies addresses for UK and 240+ countries in real-time, at point of entry or in batch, to ensure only valid addresses are captured

Features

  • Returns a complete and standardised address
  • Covers UK addresses & 240+ Countries worldwide
  • Corrects addresses by adding missing components such as postal codes
  • Standardise addresses for UK and Global Countries
  • Transliterate native character sets into Latin, and vice versa
  • Add precise lat/long coordinates - rooftop geocoding (optional)
  • REST/JSON Web service for easy integration
  • Easily combined with our other services: Email; Tel; Name; IP
  • Free integration and ongoing technical support
  • Works in batch or single record modes

Benefits

  • Highest quality & value for money
  • Captures correct addresses at point of entry
  • Reduces costs associated with mis-deliveries
  • Add geocodes for mapping, logistics, support planning etc
  • Single record or batch (volume) processing
  • Address data entry is consistent and standardised
  • Automatic global updates, without service interuption
  • Outputs include UPRN & UDPRN
  • Reference data includes RM Multi Res & Not Yet Built
  • Keeps held data up to date and compliant

Pricing

£0.01 to £0.04 a unit

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at info.uk@melissa.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

5 5 4 7 0 1 5 4 7 5 0 5 1 0 3

Contact

Melissa Data Ltd Barley Laing
Telephone: 020 7718 0070
Email: info.uk@melissa.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
Service constraints
The service licence can be adjusted to exact requirements of licencee
System requirements
  • Licenced dependent on use case
  • Can be licenced as: Public; Private or Hybrid Cloud

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Support response times are within 3 hours during week days, and by 12 noon for the following work day after a weekend.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
None or don’t know
How the web chat support is accessible
Our web chat enables customers/users to communicate with Melissa representatives in real time via a web link. Typically this is through text in a pop-up window, with audio prompts.
Web chat accessibility testing
N/A
Onsite support
Onsite support
Support levels
Standard support is 20 hrs a day Mon to Fri. This can be via email, phone or webex. This support is provided for free for the lifetime of the service licence, and includes service training and integration assistance. Standard support is based on a ticketed system and accesses all of our global support agents. SLA's - tailored support packages are available. These vary depending on requirement but can provide response times of within 3 hours 24/7, with named technical support engineers in a tiered escalation process. SLA costs are based on the individual requirements for uptime and support levels.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Full service start up guidance is available through our online wiki: technical documentation; sample code; service URLs; FAQs etc. Onsite, Telephone, Online webex, and Email training is also available.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
This is clarified at the beginning of individual contracts, and is covered in our service Licence and T&C's, Melissa Data conform to the relevant regulations and procedures.
Melissa do not store or retain any customer data, our systems are purged after a successful transaction has been completed
End-of-contract process
Contracts & T/C's detail the period for which a service is licenced and how it can be used. Licencee's can renew at the end of the agreed initial licence, or stop licencing the service without penalty - as long as no agreed conditions or contractual arrangements have been breached.

Using the service

Web browser interface
No
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Services can be delivered to any screen size resolution
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
None or don’t know
Description of service interface
Melissa web services are typically delivered as API's but can also be accessed via pre-built interfaces such as ETL tools such as SQL SSIS components, and CRM's such as SalesForce & MS Dynamics etc
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
Users access our web services via connected devices.
Melissa’s products are offered as APIs or Application Programming Interfaces used programmatically and do not have a User Interface.
Any data processed is returned as a set of getters for the on premises libraries or XML or JSON return elements for the Web APIs.
Thus, Melissa products have no accessibility concerns, as to the handling of how the data is represented because it is native to the calling application and not the product
Accessibility testing
N/A
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Users can consume the service through an API. As such it can be integrated anywhere in an organisations process flow. Users will use a Web Portal to determine transaction counts.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The format and integration of the service can be defined by the licence holder. As a cloud API the service can be integrated into any area of the users process flow.

Scaling

Independence of resources
The service feature a clustered approach so incoming requests are equally distributed on many nodes ensuring consistency and failover. Service monitors have On-Demand instances ready to spin up at a moment's notice in response to load. Globally distributed DNS architecture means there aren't any single points of failure.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
A count of transactions and the date submitted is kept. SNMP metrics, Server metrics and network protocol metrics are also kept for a six month duration. Licencees can access usage reports at any time through the Melissa dashboard provided.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
None

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach
Another external penetration testing organisation
Protecting data at rest
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Other
Other data at rest protection approach
Supplied data is never stored.
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
The service returns real-time JSON/JSONP responses using REST requests that are exported to the source system by program code (e.g. JQuery Autocomplete Plugin).
Data export formats
Other
Other data export formats
  • JSON
  • XML
  • JSONP
Data import formats
Other
Other data import formats
  • REST
  • JSON
  • XML
  • SOAP

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Services will be available during each calendar quarter at least 99.9% of the time, measured inside Melissa Data’s data centers. The measurement will be in 5 minute intervals, with each 5 minute interval of downtime counting as 3.5% (5/(60 * 24)) of the downtime for the day. The system is designed for full availability during routine maintenance.
Approach to resilience
The Melissa Data cloud is running Windows 2019 servers using Network Load Balancing cluster technology in multiple geographically distributed commercial data centre locations. DNS Load balancing and web service health monitoring are enabled so unhealthy servers are removed from rotation automatically. All incoming requests are sent immediately to available servers in the cluster. Melissa Data provides monitoring and real time testing of all servers, so that any problems will be flagged and technicians notified. This design eliminates single points of failure and helps ensure high availability for critical systems.
Outage reporting
Via email alerts, and followed up by account management teams

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
2-factor authentication
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Username and Password are required to access portals. Callers for support will need to provide an encrypted License key or have an email requesting support from an authorized person in the authorized distribution group for the requesting company.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
2-factor authentication

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
Between 6 months and 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information
You control when users can access audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
Between 6 months and 12 months
How long system logs are stored for
Between 6 months and 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
No
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
Yes
Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
Beyond Security
PCI DSS accreditation date
15/04/2022
What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
Melissa can attest to testing web service endpoints with the PCI-DSS standard penetration tests, however Melissa does not send or receive financial information.
Cyber essentials
No
Cyber essentials plus
No
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • SOC 2 type 1 & 2
  • HITECH

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
Other
Other security governance standards
SSAE16
SOC 2
PCI DSS
HITECH
Information security policies and processes
A. It is the policy of MELISSA that information, as defined hereinafter, in all its forms--written, spoken, recorded electronically or printed--will be protected from accidental or intentional unauthorized modification, destruction or disclosure throughout its life cycle. This protection includes an appropriate level of security over the equipment and software used to process, store, and transmit that information. B. All policies and procedures must be documented and made available to individuals responsible for their implementation and compliance. All activities identified by the policies and procedures must also be documented. Policies will be periodically reviewed for appropriateness and currency at least semi annually. C. At each department and/or department level, additional policies, standards and procedures will be developed detailing the implementation of this policy and set of standards, and addressing any additional information systems functionality in such department. All departmental policies must be consistent with this policy. All systems implemented after the effective date of these policies are expected to comply with the provisions of this policy where possible. At each department level periodic reporting will be made of adherence to policy to the Information Security Officer.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Configuration and change management approach
Web Service compatibility is maintained throughout the lifetime of the service. New versions are periodically rolled out but any deprecated elements are maintained to support existing client code. Changes are communicated well in advance and new URLs are sent out to facilitate a gradual migration to new service endpoints. All planned releases follow a security testing model that is OWASP compliant to ensure security.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
Periodic training is conducted to keep all information security personnel up to date with security bulletins and vendor patches. All services are tested using the OWASP framework to ensure security guidelines are followed. Patches are rolled after testing within a few hours to a few days time depending on severity. Information security personnel are briefed by Enterprise Vendors for equipment and antivirus software, Open Threat Exchange and misc. Security professional websites.
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
Because Melissa Data does not store client supplied data and encrypts transmissions to and from the servers, potential compromises are greatly reduced. However even in this hardened architecture digital fingerprinting and audit techniques can be carried out and email bulletins sent out within a few minutes of an intrusion.
Incident management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Incident management approach
Logging and audit trails are kept at every level and are reviewed continuously by company personnel. Users can report incidents directly to the IT staff and reports on outages and or intrusions will be sent out via a special web service bulletin email when an event is detected and when the postmortem is generated and the remedies identified.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Fighting climate change

Fighting climate change

Melissa launched its ‘Global Green Initiative’ in 2020, which is a cohesive programme of sustainable work practices implemented at corporate locations across UK, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and India.

Energy is sourced from green providers and power-saving equipment is programmed to turn off when not in use. The lights are on motion sensors, and the ventilation is only on when staff members are present. LED lights have replaced less efficient ones and all electrical appliances in the office are top rated for energy savings .

We have a ‘reduce, re-use, recycle policy’ which means business operations are near paper free and rely on digital signatures and data transmission.

Melissa employees worldwide will be the biggest asset when it comes to meeting the objectives set out in our Global Green Initiative. They have been educated on helping us achieve our objectives. We have also empowered them to make suggestions on how we can operate in an a more environmentally friendly way.

Melissa encourages staff to come to work on public transport, when they are required in the office. In fact, travel has been reduced universally with staff encouraged, where possible, to undertake meetings, whether with customers, prospects, suppliers or colleagues, via online video.

Melissa exists to help organisations to cut waste and improve sustainability via our data quality and ID verification services, and therefore lessen their impact on the environment.

Our identity verification services that check for fraudulent activity, which includes document scanning / verification and biometrics capabilities, not only prevents materials and time being wasted in dealing with potential criminals, but enables ID checks and user onboarding to take place remotely, which has significant environmental benefits.

Our Global Green Initiative is a big step in our mission to reduce emissions and carbon footprint, and deliver smarter, cleaner business operations.
Covid-19 recovery

Covid-19 recovery

Melissa is committed to ensuring staff work in a healthy and safe workplace. We continually assess and will react quickly to any escalation in the pandemic to ensure the safety of our staff, while at the same time ensuring clients are effectively served.

We offer staff mobile and flexible working terms outside of the office environment. As well as helping to reduce their risk of catching Covid-19 by working from home, it’s an approach which ensures clients always have access to a team member for support.

We consult staff on workplace safety plans and as part of our risk assessments, which all include Covid-19. We always encourage staff to flag concerns about unsafe processes at work.

When the team meet up in-person we take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our staff, such as meeting in a well ventilated area.

We have full employers’ liability insurance to not only protect the business, but that of our employees who experience illness.
Tackling economic inequality

Tackling economic inequality

Melissa is dedicated to tackling economic inequality, and playing our part in helping to lower the unequal distribution of income and opportunity between different groups in society.

This involves creating new business and employment opportunities, ensuring diversity of the amongst our workforce and supply chain, through to improving education and training for our staff members.
Equal opportunity

Equal opportunity

Melissa is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, colour, disability, ethnicity,
family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status,
and other characteristics that make our employees unique.
Melissa’s diversity initiatives are applicable to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; transfers; social and recreational programs; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a
work environment built on the premise of gender and diversity equity.
All Melissa employees have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. Any employee found to have exhibited any inappropriate conduct or behaviour against others may be
subject to disciplinary action.
Wellbeing

Wellbeing

The wellbeing of our staff is a top priority.

We foster a supportive and open working environment with employees encouraged to raise any issues related to their wellbeing.

We regularly engage with staff, who all work from home full time, to monitor their mental health, wellbeing and work-life balance, and act where support is needed, to ensure they remain healthy and assist them in reaching their potential.

Pricing

Price
£0.01 to £0.04 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Full access to API's for service testing. Testing is limited to a volume of transactions for throughput and/or time is limited to 3 weeks, but can be extended in certain circumstances
Link to free trial
http://bit.ly/Address-Verification

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at info.uk@melissa.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.