MapInfo Pro

I am evaluating MapInfo Pro for our Australian business and am trying to geocode a well structured excel database. When I run the Geocode module only 3 out of about 530 records are a success. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I have attached the file for those interested.

Attachment(s)

Australian Web Distributors Sep 2018.xlsx   55 KB 1 version

Hi Darren, I'm working on an answer for you. It might be the need to format postcodes as text with the maximum number of characters. I'm not familiar with AU postcodes, so I'm checking with those who know.

@Darren Ferber?  thanks for sharing the data, I had a look through the file & initially was getting the same results as you. There are a number of options to control the geocode behaviour that will improve the geocode rate:

• Use the "Street/Rooftop Level" geocode server (not the "City/Postal" which is the default)
• Allow fallback for Postal Code/Geographic Centroid (as appropriate)
• Ensure that the postcode field is treated as a character type (MapInfo Pro may assume this is an integer as the data is in Excel format, you can control this when opening the table)

After doing this the geocode rate was over 90%.

There are a number of addresses that have descriptions in the "address" field that will be very challenging to parse due to the format of the input data.

Hi Darren. Similar to Ashley, I took a look at the data you provided and there are some issues with the content in the Addess field in the main, and some minor issues in the other key fields (Suburb/Postcode/State). Initially I just looked at the Address field and you will see what I have updated it to in the attached Excel file (Address2). First pass using Address2 plus Suburb/State/Postcode got 498/530 at some form of Street level. Next I took Suburb out and ran it again and picked up 21/32. Then removed Postcode (put Suburb back in) and picked up 6/11. End result was 525 out of 530 geocoded to some level of Street address. In the Excel file I have included columns at the R/H side of the file which show the Address/Suburb/State/Postcode that the record matched to. Hope this is of some assistance. Feel free to reach out to me at tony.maber@pb.com or through this forum if you need more information.

Attachment(s)

OZ Web Sept 2018 geocoded.xlsx   84 KB 1 version

Thanks for your help I see in geocoding that it is really important to get quality data or try different combinations of fields and servers, etc. Thanks again...

You're right Darren. Sometimes it is worth a little bit of time doing DQ on any data before geocoding. Also, developing a geocoding process that you are comfortable delivers the best results to meet your business needs is important. Happy to help anytime.

Just to pickup on the comment about process from Tony - the appropriate process will depend upon the business requirements. Sometimes the business requirements might only need geocoding to Zipcode/Postcode level because the subsequent analysis won't drill down below this aggregated level, other times Street level will be mandatory. These requirements can then be used to drive the appropriate process - for example doing multiple geocode passes to cascade from accepting only street level > geographic centroid > zipcode centroid.

Great comments Guys we will consider this moving forward as we are currently evaluating Map Info for our business requirements.