It can be very tempting to view third party data as a silver bullet to all your data quality woes. take for instance the PAF (Postcode Address File), produced by the Royal Mail in the UK. They describe it as "the most up-to-date and complete address database in the UK, containing over 27 million addresses." I'm not going to take issue with their claim and I regularly recommend that organisations make use of PAF data.
However, I think it's also worth pointing out a few things about PAF data:
1. PAF is produced by Royal Mail to aid with the effective and efficient delivery of postal items - therefore, it is only concerned with postal addresses, not all addressable locations (telecommunication and utility providers deliver services to many other addressable objects, such as streetlamps, traffic lights and road signs).
2. Contrary to popular belief, PAF does not contain a record for every business and residential unit in the UK. Indeed, Royal Mail has actually removed some records for flats where they share a single mailbox.
3. PAF is updated regularly - but the changes can take months to be completely rolled out. Many organisations fail to update their computer systems with PAF changes in a timely manner.
4. PAF is not infallible - it contains errors, omissions and duplicates. Business addresses, particularly those in business parks and those that rely on the business name are particularly prone to inaccuracies.
Authorative sources of data are indeed useful - just don't count on them to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
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