Like a good baseball team, Melissa Data likes to cover all four bases in multi-channel marketing. The company operates four divisions: The Mailers Software division, which provides software programs such as MAILERS+4 for bulk mailers; the Data Quality Tools division, which develops and markets programming tools for custom programs and web sites; Data Enhancement Services; and the Sales Leads unit, which markets residential, occupant and business mailing lists at wholesale prices. The company's newest software release, SmartMover, is an add-on to its MAILERS+4 presort software.

SmartMover was designed to support NCOALink, the new change-of-address technology from the U.S. Postal Service. In May, Melissa Data also introduced a SOAP interface for its Data Quality Web Service.

"Simple Object Access Protocol has become the industry standard for web services" says John Nydam, Melissa Data product manager. "With a SOAP interface, we can offer easier integration with .Net programming languages and compatibility across operating platforms such as Windows, Solaris, Linux, and Unix."

DQWS is a data-entry verification service capable of validating and correcting postal addresses; updating phone area codes; parsing names and appending gender; and spotting fraudulent entries such as vulgar words. A common application is to verify customer leads generated from web sites or call centers. The DQWS gives business users confidence in the integrity of their databases by ensuring that new address entries are free or errors and complete.