Address Management Policy (AMP)
In March 2009, the Western Australian Public Sector Commission (PSC) and Landgate invited 28 agencies to participate in an address data quality survey. The survey identified the critical nature of address information to public sector entities and also recognised that the allocation of resources to improve address management in end user agencies is generally of low priority.
Improving the quality of street address data will have measurable benefits to agencies and a focussed whole of government approach needs to be adopted to improve street address quality.
Subsequently the Address Management Policy (AMP) [PDF 0.5MB] was developed. Custodianship of the policy was transferred from the Public Sector Commission to Landgate in 2013. A Public Sector Circular [PDF 0.1MB] subsequently recommended that all public sector agencies adopt the AMP.
The AMP focuses on a number of key areas:
- Data Standards
- Three data sets were recognised as the authoritative source of address information:
- Street Address (Western Australia) – Landgate Address Data Set (ADR)
- Street Address (other States & Territories) – Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF)
- Postal Address (all jurisdictions) – Australia Post Postal Address File (PAF)
- Exchange of Data
- Australian Standard 4590:2006 (Section 5) – provides a standardised format for the storage and exchange of address data
- Data Cleansing
- Agencies are encouraged to utilise a batch AVS to check and cleanse their address data against the authoritative data sets at least annually for data that is less than five years old.
- Data Verification
- New or amended addresses provided to agencies should be verified against the authoritative address data set on their receipt.
- Agencies are encouraged to utilise a Point of Entry (PoE) AVS that verifies against the authoritative datasets. This approach is of particular importance once a bulk validation has been performed as it helps maintain a consistent data quality within a verified data set.
Improved quality and accuracy of agency address data enables agencies to benefit from a range of outcomes. For example:
- More efficient interchange of address information, notification and verification
- Reduced data duplication and returned correspondence
- Better informed government planning and decision-making
- Improved service delivery by emergency response agencies
- Simplified government processes for agencies and citizens.
Street Address Improvement Programme (SAIP)
In recognition of the cost and resource effort required for agencies to adopt the AMP, public sector agencies were advised to establish implementation plans by August 2015 and aim to comply with the AMP by August 2018. Landgate, recognising the value of address management, initiated the Street Address Improvement Program (SAIP) in 2013. The purpose of the SAIP was to enable Landgate to formally encourage, coordinate and assist with adoption and implementation of the AMP across State Government.
For further information regarding the Street Address Improvement Programme or the Address Management Policy please email: SAIP.AMP@landgate.wa.gov.au
Landgate AVS
As an outcome of the SAIP, Landgate have leveraged the PSMA AVS web service technology to deliver an authoritative Address Verification Service for Western Australia (Landgate AVS). The State’s authoritative Street Address dataset (ADR) is maintained by Landgate daily and delivered each night to PSMA’s GNAF-Live to ensure street addressing for WA delivered via the service is the most up-to-date available.
Landgate AVS comprises two distinct but complimentary offerings. From January 2015, we began offering a Batch Bureau AVS to assist with the AMP implementation. To further support the AMP, Landgate now provide a Point of Entry AVS. Both are now available as an enabler for public sector entities to comply with the AMP.
Batch Bureau Verification
Agencies can engage with Landgate and supply their address file which is then verified using the Batch Bureau service. The verified address output file will be returned to the agency along with documentation on how to interpret the results. Landgate provides expert advice and consultancy to assist with correct formatting and understanding the results.
Point of Entry (PoE) Verification
To enable consistent data quality within a verified dataset, Landgate now have a PoE (Point of Entry) Address Verification web service available under annual access subscription terms. This service enables simple address verification at the point of entry where a single address is entered, validated and the correct or closest addresses returned. Agencies will need to do some development work in their environment to integrate and call the PoE web service from their application(s) and business systems. As with the Batch Bureau service, Landgate provides expert advice and consultancy to assist with setting custom PoE workflow requirements if so desired.
To obtain further information about Landgate AVS please contact:
Customer Service on: +61 (0)8 9273 7373
Email: customerservice@landgate.wa.gov.au and ask to speak to our Service Managers.