Broadata - FAQs

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FAQs

What is Broadata?
Broadata is the new online data enhancement and cleansing service from Broadsystem. Combining speed with ease of use it is arguably the most efficient and effective solution of it’s kind on the market today!

Why does it take so long to upload my file? When I send a file on an email, it's goes straight away!
If you access your email through an exchange server or similar, when you attach a large file to an email and click send, even though it seems like it's been sent, it's just been passed to the exchange server. From here, the file will take roughly the same amount of time to transfer, t's just that the server is sending the file, rather than your PC.

How can I reduce the time it takes to upload my file?
The smaller the file, the quicker the upload. If you want to reduce the upload time, then remove fields from the file that contain extra information that is not relevant for the cleansing. We reccomend that you supply a URN so you can match any returned data back to your database, the name, address and postcode fields, and the phone number if you require it TPS screening. Any other fields are not used in the processing, so can be left out. It's also worth remembering that fixed width records have spaces padding out each field, and so are much bigger than the same data in a delimited format, so tab or comma delimited files will be quicker.

In what format will the processed data be?
The processed data will be in the same format as you supplied the data in. If you uploaded a delimited file, and there wasn't a header record on the data, then we will add one to help identify the extra detail.

What fields will be present in the processed data?
We add a serial number to the beginning of each record. If you have requested that suppression matches are flagged, or have asked for phone numbers to be appended, then there will be extra fields on the end of each record.

Field - Length
Serial Number - 12
E-Roll Verified - 1
NCOA - 4
Match Type - 15
Duplicate - 10
Client TPS 1 - 1
Client TPS 2 - 1
Client TPS 3 - 1
Client TPS 4 - 1
Client TPS 5 - 1
MPS - 1
PAF/New Address 1 - 60
PAF/New Address 2 - 60
PAF/New Address 3 - 60
PAF/New Address 4 - 60
PAF/New Address 5 - 30
PAF/New Address 6 - 30
PAF/New Postcode - 8
Contact Name - 50
Salutation - 50
Salacious - 1
Email Valid - 1

How do I pay for the Broadata service?
You can pay by credit card or receive a monthly invoice this will be discussed with you by one of the team after you register.

What credit cards do you accept?
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Switch/Maestro, Solo, Visa-Delta and Amex

Are my credit card details secure?
We will not store any of your credit card details. Any information that is passed from your browser, to us, and from us to our payment servers is encrypted using 128-bit encryption.

Is there a minimum charge for each job?
Yes. This is currently £50.

I process a lot of data, will I receive a discount?
After registration, a member of the sales team will be able to discuss the discounts that we can apply to your account

I can't log in. What am I doing wrong?
The password is case sensitive. Please ensure that you haven't got caps-lock on. Your account may not have been activated. Have you received an email confirming this? Your account may have been locked for some reason. Please click here for details of how to contact us if you are still having problems.

Is my data secure?
Yes, information transferred from your PC to our service is encrypted using 128bit SSL.

Is there a monthly charge to use the Broadata service?
No.

Am I under any obligation to use the Broadata service?
No.

My phone numbers are missing the leading zero. What's happened to them?
If you have opened the file in Excel, it may have interpreted the telephone numbers as a numeric value - and removed the leading zero. If you open the file in a text editor, such as notepad, you should see the zeros are still there. One way to get around Excel stripping off the zero is this: rename the file from '.csv' to '.txt'. Open the file via the file menu in Excel rather than duoble clicking on the file's icon. A 'text import wizard' should start - this will allow you to specify that the phone number field is 'text' rather than 'general'. Please see the help within Excel if you require further information.

How many records can I process in one job?
Theoretically, there is no limit. However, we would recommend, that if you want to process more than 1,000,000 records, you should speak to someone at Broadata, who can provide a more dedicated service. Also, a file of 1m records could be as large as 150MB which may take a while to upload. We would suggest splitting the file into more managable chunks and processing them individually. Alternatively, you may wish to send the data to us on a CD, and we can handle the processing for you in our bureau.

How fast is the Broadata service?
This depends on the number of records you upload, how many other jobs we are processing and also the number of services that you have requested.

Up to 1m records, we can gurantee to process your data within 48 hours, however you will generally find that it will take a lot less.

What is a 'field delimiter'?
This is the letter or 'character' that separates the fields in your data. If a file is named '.csv' then this will be a comma) Quite often if the file is named '.txt' it will be a 'tab'.

What does 'fixed width' mean?
Fixed width records do not have a comma or a tab to separate each field. Instead, each field is padded out with spaces to a certain length, which means that all the fields are in line with each other if you view the data in a text editor such as 'notepad'. This makes the file much larger than a delimited file, as there is lots of extra space 'characters' in the file.

I only have a 56k dialup connection. Will I still be able to use the Broadata service?
Yes, but depending on the size of the file, it may take a while to upload the data to our servers.

How do I 'map' the fields?
Each field on your file needs to be pointed to a field in the Broadata system. Select a field from each the drop-down list next to your data. Broadata will try to map the fields automatically, but you will need to check these are correct, and alter if necessary.

I have more than 1 phone number in my file. Can I screen all of them against the TPS?
Yes, you can screen up to 5 phone numbers against the TPS and cTPS.

What levels of de-duplication are available?
Household
Surname
Initial-Surname
Forename-Surname

What level of matching is used for the various reference files?
Broadata will match using all the information you provide. If you provide the name 'J Bloggs', this will match to Jane Bloggs, Mr Joe Bloggs.
If you provide 'Mr Smith', this will match to John Smith, J Smith, but not Julie Smith.

I don't have a postcode field in my file, so I can't map to the 'Postcode' field. What should I do?
Don't worry. Ideally, these should be in a specific field, and the process will be more effective if this is the case, however, the Broadata system will try to find the postcode in the other address lines if it's not present in the postcode field.

I have more than 7 address lines, what should I do?
Broadata will only accept 6 address lines and a postcode. If the county or country are in specific fields, then you can ignore these by selecting '- Do not map this field -'

The name information in my records is in a single field. What should I do?
Ideally, you should provide the name in it's separate parts, however we appreciate this is not always available. If you only have a 'full name' field, this should be mapped to the 'Surname' field. Broadata will split the name in order to carry out the processing.

Can the Broadata service append a salutation field to my record?
Yes, a salutation field e.g. "Dear Mr Smith" and contact field e.g. "Mr J Smith" can be generated and appended to the output data.

I select the same options every time I use the Broadata service. Is there a way to save my options?
Yes. At the bottom of the 'required services' page, there is a 'save template' checkbox. Tick this and you can save the services under a name of your choosing, for future use. Next time you visit, these templates will be available for selection at the top of the same screen.

Do you offer technical support via email?
Yes, you can email support@broadata.com this is free of charge, and we will endeaour to reply to your query within 24 hours.

I don't understand all this Jargon! Do you have a glossary that will explain it all?
Yes. Please visit the glossary page.

What reference files are offered in the Broadata service?
The services available in the Broadata system are listed on the 'Services' page.

How many matches will there be to the suppression files?
The simple answer is we don't know! It depends on the data - the quality of the names & addresses, how recently was it captured, what are the demographics of the people on your file, is it a prospect or a customer file?

How many phone numbers can you append to my data?
Again, this depends entirely on the data. If the file is of people on your database who you don't have a phone number for, then this is probably for a good reason. Either they are Ex-Directory, only have a mobile and not a land line. Or the phone could be in someone elses name - perhaps a housemate or partner. Or maybe the data is old, and they've moved on or died.

Why are so many of the phone numbers on the TPS?
There are currently over 11 million phone numbers on the TPS. This figure is rising daily. The proportion of phone numbers on your file, that are on the TPS can depend on the type of person on the file, or whether the list has been sceened before.

Why can't I get an accurate cost when I submit a job?
It's not possible to know how many suppression matches there will be before the processing is performed. There are many factors that can affect this. (see above)

How long is my data available for download?
2 weeks. You will receive a notification when your data is available to download, reminders on the 7th & 10th days, and then a final reminder on the 14th day. After this, the data will be deleted and will need to be processed again.

I've lost the file I downloaded the other day. Can I download it again, or do I have to pay for another job?
Don't worry. You can download the data as often as you like with 14 days of receiving the 'job complete' email.

I can't find my job in the 'previous jobs' list. Where is it?
After 14 days, jobs are archived, and the data is deleted. Perhaps a colleague processed the data using their user account? These jobs can only be viewed by that person

How do I get my processed data?
After receiving the 'job complete' email, you need to log back in, then view accept the final cos (depeding on your payment method, you may also have to enter you credit card details). After this, the link labelled 'download data' will become active. Click this then choose 'Save' and you can download the data to your computer or network.

Can I check on the progress of my job?
Click on 'previous jobs' and any jobs within the last 14 days are listed, along with the status.

Can I process my Access or Excel files?
Not currrently, you will need to export the data into an ASCII text file.