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25 Random Things About Melissa Data

 

Melissa Data celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. To honor this milestone, Melissa Data’s sharing 25 (get it, 25) fun factoids about its rich history, how the firm got its start, and how it evolved from being a simple mailing software provider to becoming a leader in the data quality and data enrichment spectrum.

Here are 25 fascinating facts about Melissa Data:

  1. In 1985, from his home, Ray Melissa founded Melissa Data with one mission in mind – to sell data.
  2. Melissa Data’s first product was a database of ZIP™ Codes on a floppy disk. That product, ZIP Data, is still sold today, and updated monthly with new ZIP Code™, geographic and demographic data.
  3. CEO Ray Melissa founded several tech-oriented firms in the 70s, including Printronix Inc., one of the first companies to develop line impact printing technology.
  4. Melissa Data’s corporate headquarters is in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., with satellite offices in Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington.
  5. As demand for its mailing-based products grew, Melissa Data expanded from Ray Melissa’s home to small office in San Juan Capistrano in 1992, then to a larger office in San Clemente in 1993, and finally to a 30,000 s.f. office in Rancho Santa Margarita in 1999.
  6. Melissa Data developed MAILERS+4 – a USPS® CASS™ and PAVE™ Certified mailing preparation software in 1993. The software helps mailers verify, correct addresses and presort to save on postage and printing.
  7. In order to closely associate the company’s brand with its popular mailing software products, Melissa Data adopted the name of MAILERS Software in the mid-90s before reverting to Melissa Data in 2002.
  8. Melissa Data’s MAILERS+4 software was named one of the Top 100 Collection Technology Products by Collection Advisor magazine in 2006.
  9. The company began selling mailing lists and launched a data enhancement services bureau in the 1990s.
  10. In 2007, Melissa Data became a non-exclusive NCOALink® Full Service Provider Licensee of USPS.
  11. The company acquired M1 Data and Analytics in 2009, gaining access to a premier telco database that powers the firm’s Telco SmartSearch verification and data append Web service.
  12. If there were a major power outage in Rancho Santa Margarita, the company’s data quality Web services would not be affected at all because Melissa Data operates fully redundant server farms in Texas and Virginia to ensure 99.99 percent reliability.
  13. The company closed out 2009 with record sales for its data quality tools product line.
  14. Melissa Data’s Free Lookups was named a Top 10 Search Engine in 2008 by Entrepeneur.com.
  15. Melissa Data was named a Top 100 Company by Information Management Magazine (formerly DM Review) in 2003.
  16. Over 60,000 people use the Free Lookups services every day.
  17. Melissa Data’s Free Lookups offers users access to over 40 different search queries to verify addresses, find IP location, get property info, validate contractor’s background, discover email address information and many more.
  18. In 2007, registered users of Melissa Data’s Free Lookups passed 500,000 people.
  19. Melissa Data’s Web site (www.MelissaData.com) fuels an average of 60,000 visitors a day.
  20. In 2009, the company was ranked #1 in Customer Satisfaction ahead of 40 other data quality vendors in the Information Difference’s Data Quality Landscape Report.
  21. The company offers multiple solutions for U.S., Canadian, and International address verification; and published a book on International Address Formats in 2009.
  22. Melissa Data introduced a Total Data Quality Solution for Microsoft SQL Services Integration Services in 2009, to provide customers with components that satisfy all six requirements of data quality as defined by Gartner.
  23. The company partnered with UAA Clearinghouse to help prevent undeliverable as addressed mail, which costs businesses over $6 billion each year and wastes over 300 million pounds of paper.
  24. In 2007, Melissa Data acquired Peoplesmith Software and its top-of-the-line deduplication software – now called MatchUp.
  25. Melissa Data offers free trials of most of its products, and a unique 120-day ROI Guarantee on certain data quality products.