Group 1 Software is expected to announce today that it has entered into a licensing agreement with the Universal Postal Union.
UPU is a Switzerland-based agency of the United Nations that oversees the postal services of 189 member countries.
With the agreement, Group 1 will incorporate postal data from the UPU's Universal POST*CODE DataBase in its data quality solutions.
The Universal POST*CODE DataBase contains post office and street-level data for more than 180 member countries. It was developed by the UPU to help customers address mail items correctly and eliminate addressing errors.
Group 1 Software, Lanham, MD, said the agreement would let the company increase the number of postal databases included in its address data products. With this additional data, Group 1 said, users will be able to improve the accuracy of direct marketing and data quality initiatives. For example, Group 1's CODE-1 Plus International address data quality software now will contain physical address data for more than 100 countries.
According to Group 1, many businesses have been reluctant to undertake international direct marketing campaigns because of the historically poor quality of international address data and the complexities in dealing with such data.
Group 1 is the first company to sign an agreement with the UPU on this matter.
