Data Services

Note the first hybrid sanitation truck on the market.

Sanitation Service

   Files arrive at APT almost every day, in any number of formats and conditions. Whether they are sent to us as part of a voter file building project, or for a telephone match, or for some other file enhancement, we lead the files through a series of five preliminary processing steps that standardize name and address fields and assign postal data, replace essential missing data such as gender codes and apartment numbers, convert into our standard internal operating format, household the files and process them through an NCOA match. After leading any file through these sanitation steps, we can be sure of the quality and consistency of the resulting file, and in the success of all subsequent matches, overlays or enhancements to the file - no matter how foul the situation was when the file arrived.

APT's Basic Sanitation Service Bundle

1. Name and Address Clean-up

       The essential first step after we load any file is to make sure that the names and addresses are clean and consistent, properly fielded and rid of extraneous comments, punctuation, misspellings and abbreviations. This is a job that can be largely addressed by good sanitation programs and procedures, but in order to achieve the kind of quality and standardization, it involves human interaction - spot checking, rooting out thorny problems, fixing and re-checking and re-fixing. At APT, we know voter files, and we know what we are looking for when we clean them up. This name and address clean-up step represents the "value added" you get from APT - work that goes on behind the scenes involving personnel who know voter files, know where the problems pop up and know how to fix them quickly and effectively.

2. Address Standardization and Postal Coding

       As we become confident that the name and address fields in an incoming file are properly fielded and complete, we begin to standardize the addresses so that they conform to the prescribed postal format and receive complete postal coding when we process the files through postal coding software. At APT, this is another highly interactive step, because the programs are great but they need help from human beings trained and experienced in direct mail in order to achieve maximum success. So, when addresses come back with incomplete postal coding or error codes, we peel them out and fix them by hand, sometimes over and over again until the job is done. The result of our work stands out due to the higher postal coding rates our files get, information which is trackable in postage reports and meaningful because better standardization rates at this step=lower postage bills for our customers when they drop their mailings at the post office. Our extra efforts here also result in improved householding, and better matches of all kinds down the road.

3. File Conversion

       APT's oldest and most successful program is our file conversion program, which imports files of almost any nature or structure and converts them into our standard internal operating format which is comprised of consistent key fields and coding. All files are translated into this format by our conversion program, no matter how differently the data is presented in the incoming file. This is an extremely robust program that solves most tricky conversion issues. We inherited it from our predecessor company, Below, Tobe & Associates, Inc., which first devised the program in 1971, and used it over the course of the next two decades in its work with Democratic campaigns. We have updated it several times since then to bring it up to date with the way data is organized for modern campaigns. All of our file enhancement and production programs were written to interact with files in our standard internal operating format, and we have programs that export from this format into almost any format our customers request.

4. Householding

       Once a file has been converted, it will be householded. Householding in our process involves applying household ID numbers onto a voter file, flagging a head of household and assigning household positions to facilitate mail titling. As we household a file, we also derive and code certain characteristics about each household which facilitate selection later on... how many voters in the household... what is the partisan make up of the household - is it pure Democratic, pure Republican, mixed in some way... is it a single family home or apartment address... these are all questions that are answered and coded when we household a file.

       Our householding system presents a sometimes-overlooked opportunity for campaigns to gain extra strategic advantage. Our clients are able to run household counts on-line, and also make selections based on household information and on individual information from other  members of a household. If you select based on one individual's data only, and then household your selections on the fly or maybe even leave the householding step to a mail shop to handle on the back end, you not only lose out on targeting capabilities, but you can unknowingly reduce your householding accuracy.

       Another benefit of APT's householding process is that it allows you to devise titling that more accurately reflects the make-up of the household - in other words, you don't always have to fall back to "The Smith Family" type titling when you address mailings that were derived from files we built or processed.

5. NCOA Matches

       The final step in our Baic Sanitation Service is an NCOA match. NCOA is an acronym for National Change of Address, which is the Postal Service ever-evolving data base of address changes created from the forwarding orders you fill out when you move and from postal carrier reports. When a file is NCOA matched, it comes back with records flagged as having moved, with the date of the move and, in most but not all cases, with the actual forwarding addresses.

       APT's extra efforts to clean up and standardize files before submitting them for NCOA processing yields more accurate NCOA matches and higher match rates. The match routines utilized by NCOA processors are dictated by the Postal Service, and so in addition to the value our extra work adds to the process, We subscribe to an NCOA data base consisting of four years of forwarding and nixie information. The more years the NCOA data bases go back, the more successful the match will be and the more helpful it is to bring your file up to date.

       You can also request LACS and DSF coding when you order an NCOA match. LACS converts old-style rural route addresses to 911-compliant addresses. DSF coding is an added level of postal coding that allows you to mail at lower postage rates when your mailings meet high density levels in postal areas. As a rule, most targeted political mail will not generate the discount but it is worth consideration in some cases. NCOA match turn-around time is fast and it is, without doubt, the most cost-effective enhancement you can apply to your file. Recent postal rules changes mandate that your political mail files be NCOA matched before the mailings are dropped, so it is a madatory step if you plan to mail from your file.

Other File Enhancements

Consumer Data Overlays

       Consumers data includes a vast array of mostly non-political data, some of which has or may have political value. Some of the elements that are most commonly ordered from us are estimated household income, neighborhood wealth ratings, homeowner/renter status and household make up (number of adults and children) but we offer a wide range of consumer data elements way beyond the widely-used ones. We can overlay onto your voter file, select from our voter file (to which consumers data has been attached) and provide the file to you, or even select directly from a national consumers file (for political purposes) so that you can use the names and addresses from the consumers file itself. This data is available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, although some elements have broader coverage in some states or regions of states. If you would like to read more about consumers data overlays, click here. If you would like to see a complete list of the consumers data elements offered by APT, or to inquire about a specific overlay project, you may click here.

Modeling

       Our modeling projects involve evaluating and weighting a variety of information either to predict how voters will behave or to target voters for certain activities. Some campaigns and consultants develop models to predict partisan affiliation when it is not available, or voting likelihood in a specific election. Others use it to target donors or persuadable voters for a variety of campaign efforts. Since APT has all of the tools, including vast data bases of voters linked to consumer data, we can manage all phases of predictive modeling, including the telephone calls required for the model. Or, we can contribute most or all the data you need to do run your own modeling project and then apply your models to a voter file.

Race and Ethnic Coding

       APT offers a proprietary race and ethnic coding system that has had widespread success in our campaigns. Our race coding involves a complex coding routine that considers and weights neighborhood-level data, names and other household level demographic data to score people on a scale of 0-100% likelihood of being African-American. Our coding system also recognizes and codes people who are of Hispanics/Latino, southeast Asian, south Asian, Islamic/Muslim heritage, as well as some white ethnic groups.

       APT offers 41 ethnic surname tables which categorize voters into ethnic groups according to their surnames only. Our strongest ethnic surname tables are those for Jewish, Hispanic and various Asian surnames (Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese). We race and ethnic code all of the voter files we maintain and offer this service to clients for their files as well. If you are interested in a broad segmentation of your file, or in specific ethnic group coding, we can help you.

Telephone Matches

       APT's telephone match services are based upon a four-part telephone match approach more fully described here. We process hundreds of telephone matches every year, with many of our clients being party organizations, unions and political telemarketing professionals who are demanding users with the highest expectations. Our repeat client list is long. Our matches run fast, our match rates are strong and the numbers we apply are from multiple sources, fresh and accurate.

Keypunching and Data Entry

       Keypunching is a method of transferring paper records to magnetic format. In years past, most voter files included large numbers of keypunched records. Now, most of the source voter files are already computerized. Keypunching projects tend to come up when information is available on paper that needs computerization so that it can be matched to an existing voter file. For example, maybe you have sign-in sheets at an event and you want to code them on your voter file. Keypunching these sign-in sheets may be a good solution, but it is not always the most efficient or cost-effective option. There are a variety of alternative methods, including digitally photographing, scanning or hand-matching data that may make a better solution. If a project like this comes up, we will work with you to devise your project and offer you the options that would be the fastest, most accurate and least expensive.

Matches

       When projects involve record matches from file to file, we offer an amazing match system involving a series of programs guaranteed to achieve results that accurately outperform other matches. We get better results because we standardize the files, implement a multi-level match program, spot check all results and carefully review the close calls. Our matches run fast and their accuracy is unchallenged. If you are familiar with our telephone matches and like the results, you will be equally impressed with our individual matches.

Merge/Purge and De-duplication

       Our merge/purge programs integrate duplicate or overlapping information contained with a single or multiple files according to client-defined project goals. For example, maybe you have three files of campaign donors with overlapping names on them, and you want to sort down to one file without duplicate records, with coding on the surviving record reflecting all the sources of the record. This is when a merge/purge is called for. Our methodology is well-developed and we enjoy the challenge of applying our programs to difficult or tricky jobs, so if you have files laying around full of duplicates and overlapping information, please don't hesitate to call on us to help.