Melissa Data and Tele Atlas Join Forces 
to Provide Geocoding Solutions

Software allows direct marketers to identify client clusters or append demographic data for targeted mailings. Retailers can pinpoint nearest store locations for customers on the Web.

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA (September 16, 2002) –Data quality services provider Melissa Data today announced a licensing agreement with Tele Atlas North America, a leading provider of digital mapping software. The agreement allows Melissa Data to incorporate Tele Atlas’ U.S. Postal Points data into Melissa’s MAILERS+4 GeoCoder, GeoData and GeoCoder Object. 

The GeoCoder product line returns the latitude and longitude coordinates from the center of a ZIP code or ZIP+4 code. This data can be used to identify client clusters, territories and nearest dealers. GeoCoder also provides county FIPS codes and new Census tract and block numbers that can be linked to 2000 Census data.

“The most compelling feature of the GeoCoder software is that it enables a business user to determine the distance and direction between two locations, a calculation that is useful for referral services, emergency medical dispatches, store location lookups, direct-mail marketing and other applications,” said John Nydam, product manager, Melissa Data.

In addition to incorporating the more accurate geo-spatial data files from Tele Atlas, the GeoCoder products will now be updated twice per year with new postal and positioning data.

GeoCoder is an add-on to Melissa Data’s best-selling MAILERS+4 postal automation software. GeoCoder Object is a developers’ component used for building custom PC or Web applications. GeoData is a stand-alone database available in text format.

About Melissa Data
Celebrating its 20th year in business, Melissa Data, the Data Superstore, helps companies manage and optimize their contact data. Melissa Data provides solutions for address and phone number validation, postal coding, data enhancements and sales leads. Every day more than 70,000 people visit the company’s Web site. A powerful line of software, databases, programming tools, and hygiene services has made Melissa Data a recognized leader in the data quality industry. For more information, or to request trial software, contact Melissa Data at 1-800-800-6245 or visit www.melissadata.com