Brevard County Clerk implements QAS to verify contact information
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Executive summary
Problem
Brevard County Clerk was receiving bins of returned mail on a daily basis, resulting in back end re-work that cost valuable time and money.
Solution
Address data is now verified as it is captured in real time with QAS Pro, ensuring that only verified contact information is entered into any of the four databases used by Brevard County Clerk to help with court proceedings.
Results
Court communication is now received on time, there has been a significant reduction in the amount of returned mail, and Brevard County Clerk has experienced time and cost savings.
Data Capture at the Court
County clerk offices are responsible for all record keeping, information and financial management for the entire county’s judicial system. One bad address can create a ripple effect that causes operational re-work through the entire system. For example, if a defendant does not appear for their proceeding, the court can say that the notice for the court date was not received and therefore continue the proceeding. This means that file clerks have to re-pull and deliver the files, data entry operators have to document additional paperwork, and court clerks have to attend another proceeding. This scenario also involves significant time and effort to find the accurate address to re-mail the notice.
The Brevard County Clerk of Courts, located in Florida, was having a problem with returned mail, particularly within their criminal division. This bad address data was costing manpower, time and money. Finding “good” addresses for the returned mail included searching the Internet and DMV records, which was not an optimal process. Ultimately, the clerk’s office determined that there was a data quality issue, and that the office was wasting too many resources processing returned mail.
Laurie Rice, Chief Deputy at Brevard County Clerk, is responsible for managing all projects associated with the court. She attributes Brevard County’s bad address data to litigates providing wrong address information, both purposely and accidentally, and to employee error in keying incorrect information into the database.
The Data Quality Solution: Experian QAS
The Brevard County Clerk engaged Experian QAS to put a real-time point-of-entry address verification system in place.
Once the Brevard County Clerk’s office identified their data quality problem, they researched vendors and liked that Experian QAS offered a wide range of data quality tools that could work in conjunction with one another. An RFP process or procurement was not needed. Experian QAS’ products capture, cleanse, standardize and enrich contact information and work with any application that accepts address data. The Brevard County Clerk’s office now uses QAS Pro to maintain address data for all court records within their court application, jury, official records, and value adjustment board databases.
Today, when all Brevard County Clerk’s office employees start their computers, QAS Pro automatically opens. This means that when address information is entered, the tool verifies that data in real-time against official postal authority records. The unique address capture technology expedites the entire data capture process and virtually eliminates the possibility of misspellings, typos, and other common human error. Employees can ask for missing or forgotten apartment or suite numbers, street directionals and other address information that can impact the deliverability of court notices. Address information is now accurate from the start.
When the Brevard County Clerk office purchased QAS Pro, Experian QAS provided on-site training to those who would train all other users of the tool. These trainers mastered QAS Pro within 10 minutes, and then rolled out the product to the entire staff through various 30 minute training sessions.
Diminished Returned Mail
Rice has seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of returned mail the clerk’s office receives. She states that 50% of returned mail has been eliminated. The only mail that is returned today is due to the fact that the person has moved or their forwarding address order has expired, rather than because of address errors.
Brevard County Clerk office will soon roll out QAS Batch, Experian QAS’ back-end maintenance tool, to work in conjunction with QAS Pro. Having a complete data quality strategy in place, including periodic data hygiene, helps eliminate almost all errors associated with bad address data. Brevard County Clerk seeing the benefits of this type of strategy across the organization.