Released on: April 3, 2008, 7:23 am

Press Release Author: Apatar

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Apatar's new data quality service allows users to instantly
validate and enhance any US address before it enters CRM/ERP systems, databases,
flat files, and RSS feeds, all without coding

Press Release Body: April 2, 2008, Chicopee, MA - Apatar, Inc., the leading provider
of open source software tools for the data integration market, announced the
official release of its new StrikeIron US Address Verification connector for the
Apatar Open Source Data Integration toolset. Using StrikeIron's US Address
Verification Web service, the new feature relies on United States Postal
Service-certified technology to verify, correct, and enhance any address in the
United States with live data. It cleans customer data before it gets into CRM/ERP
systems, databases, flat files, and RSS feeds by correcting extracted addresses,
adding ZIP+4 data, specifying congressional districts, carrier routes, etc.

Improving customer data quality without coding

According to Aberdeen Group, 52 percent of organizations consider the "verification
of data accuracy or completeness" to be one of the biggest customer data management
challenges. Apatar is the first company to release open source tools for
non-technical staff and customers to access the application data they need to make
their work efforts more efficient. With Apatar's visual toolset, your average users
can perform even complex data integration without having to write a single line of a
code. The new data quality connector was created as a result of a partnership
agreement with StrikeIron, Inc., the worldwide leader of Web services
commercialization through the StrikeIron Web Services MarketplaceT, signed in
November 2007.

The StrikeIron US Address Verification connector closely inspects each address to
ensure its validity and, using sophisticated matching and data synchronization
technology, updates incorrect addresses according to the postal standards. On top of
that, it inspects house numbers, street directions, street names, street types,
apartment numbers, and P.O. boxes to ensure the accuracy of each value. StrikeIron's
Web service processes and returns a valid quality dataset with all possible mistakes
(misspellings, wrong street type extensions, city and state names) eliminated. Using
StrikeIron's US Address Verification Web service, Apatar allows users to increase
productivity, improve sales strategies, and take customer service to a new level by
providing faster transaction processing and higher accuracy. This solution can be
used to verify both a single address and a large set of addresses in batch mode.

Featured quotes

"Quality data is the life blood of all business processes," said Renat Khasanshyn,
CEO and founder of Apatar. "Every organization depends on reliable customer
information. But, too often the quality of data doesn't keep pace with the
development of business processes and doesn't live up to corporate requirements for
effective, reliable, and controlled data. The StrikeIron US Address Verification
connector can assist you in the process, creating a competitive working
environment."

"US Address Verification Web service reduces the time wasted on checking and
correcting wrong addresses before your managers get to work with them," said Bob
Brauer, CEO and President of StrikeIron. "Delivered directly into visual Apatar's
interface, StrikeIron's verification Web service enables users to easily integrate
customer data into corporate CRM/ERP applications, Web sites, databases, files, and
interactive services without any coding. It updates customer information, performing
adequate data enrichment, and makes your data relevant and easy to work with."

Apatar Open Source Data Integration features and benefits:

- Improve data quality
- Reduce integration and maintenance costs, shorten implementation time
- No coding! Visual job designer and mapping enable non-developers to design and
perform transformations
- The ability to create, publish, share, and re-use data transformations and output
to RSS feeds by monitoring keywords and URLs for both internal and external systems
- Connectivity to Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL, Sybase, Microsoft Access, PostgreSQL,
InstantDB, BorlandJDataStore, Csv, Qed, HSQL, Compiere ERP, SalesForce.Com,
SugarCRM, GoldMine, Microsoft Excel, XML, RSS, ATOM, FTP, POP3, LDAP, WebDav,
Autodesk Buzzsaw, any JDBC data sources, Amazon S3, and Flickr
- Job scheduler and synchronization
- Platform-independent, runs from Windows, Linux; 100% Java- based

StrikeIron US Address Verification features and benefits:

- Applicable with a single address or as a batch process
- Validates and corrects addresses and adds ZIP+4 data
- Appends carrier routes
- Standardizes city and state names
- Gives location latitude and longitude
- Provides means to validate any shipment's address before it is sent to avoid
costly returns and late delivery
Related links

StrikeIron US Address Verification user guide:
http://www.apatarforge.org/wiki/display/DQS/StrikeIron+US+Address+Verification

Pre-created DataMap:
http://www.apatarforge.org/remository/apatar-data-mashup-contest/us-address-verification.html

Pricing

Apatar Open Source is available for free download at www.apatar.com. Commercial
support and maintenance subscription packages start at $1,900 per year. StrikeIron
Email Verification and US Address Verification Web services are available for
subscription from StrikeIron.

About Apatar

Apatar is the leading provider of open source software tools for the data
integration market. With powerful Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) capabilities,
Apatar enables its users to easily link information between databases (such as
MySQL, Microsoft SQL, Oracle), applications (Salesforce.com, SugarCRM), and the top
Web 2.0 destinations (Flickr, Amazon S3). Apatar provides support, training, and
consulting services for its integration solutions. Headquartered in Western
Massachusetts, Apatar operates a development center in Minsk, Belarus. Apatar is
currently used by 250 organizations and individuals worldwide. For more on Apatar,
please visit www.apatar.com and www.apatarforge.org. More information is available
at Apatar's Online Press Room, found at http://www.apatar.com/newsroom/.

About StrikeIron

StrikeIron is the leader in Data as a Service (DaaS), facilitating the consumption
and distribution of live data and business functionality over the Web. The company's
innovative Web Services Marketplace provides a technology platform,
micro-transaction management, and a consistent interface across many XML-based Web
services from multiple, diverse sources. This allows business users, application
developers, and enterprise IT professionals to customize and integrate external data
sources and additional external functionality into enterprise, Web, and composite
applications. Currently, StrikeIron provides over 100 live data sources and business
functions from organizations such as D&B, Zacks, MapQuest, Cdyne, Xignite, YP.com,
and IDExec. StrikeIron also offers a set of products and tools to simplify and
accelerate the consumption of data, such as its SOA Express for Excel, enabling
business users to access live data via front office applications. StrikeIron
delivers value to over 1,000 customers and partners such as BEA, Delivery.com, IBM,
Honda Europe, D&B, Time Warner, Siemens, Nike, Kenwood, and Exclusive Resorts. For
more information, visit www.strikeiron.com.

###
Media Contacts:
Alena Semeshko
Apatar Evangelist, Apatar, Inc.
(213) 784-4915
alena.s@apatar.com

Jane Foreman
StrikeIron, Inc.
(919) 405-7010 x112
jane.foreman@strikeiron.com

Kristi Lee
Crossroads Public Relations
(919) 270-8054
klee@crossroadspr.com


Web Site: http://www.apatar.com

Contact Details: Alex Pipko
Apatar Media Specialist
(213) 784-4915
alex.p@apatar.com