Updating People Addresses Through NCOA

The U.S. Postal Service's National Change of Address (NCOA) program makes change-of-address (COA) information available to help reduce the amount of undeliverable mail. Address records in your IQ People database can be updated by the Mailing Services office, using the USPS FASTforward system, which contains up-to-date COA records and address-matching software.

The FASTforward system standardizes addresses to conform to USPS requirements, including the ZIP+4 Code. It then attempts to match the address against the NCOA file, which contains address change information derived from the Change-of-Address Order filed by relocating postal customers. If an exact match is made with the old address information in the NCOA file, HIR is permitted to return the new address information. Included with the new address information is a deliverability code indicating why the address has changed.

You can work with your Leidos IT Consultant or Technical Support to send your IQ People address records to the Mailing Services office (under the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives) for NCOA updating. They will update the addresses of people who have filed a Change of Address (COA) card with the U.S. Postal Service. The addresses in your IQ database will be updated to a new address based on National Change of Address (NCOA) records for the last 18 months. NCOA will also flag addresses of people who have moved between 19-48 months ago, however, no new addresses are available.

Because NCOA updating alters records in your database, you should work closely with your IT Consultant when using this process. This function is restricted to those users with security access rights to it.

Exporting Records

The NCOA export can include your entire database or a subset (select list) for address updating. HIR limits you to two database updates per calendar year. Most offices prefer to export the entire database for updating.  Leidos will contact HIR to let them know the NCOA export for your office is ready for updating. HIR then performs the NCOA updates and contacts Leidos when it is completed.

Note:  If you plan to run this process on the same night as your weekly backup, contact your IT Consultant to reschedule the backup. Because the weekly backup shuts down Oracle, the export process will be interrupted if the backup starts before the export finishes.

To export records for NCOA updating:

  1. Click the People module tab and select the NCOA submenu link.

  2. Select the Add NCOA action.

  3. Complete the fields on the Export NCOA Data dialog.

  4. Click the Export button. IQ creates a background job for the scheduled date and time.

  5. Click the Close button to close the Export NCOA Data dialog.

Note: IQ will send the user who initiated the export an alert message when the export is completed.  

Export NCOA Data Fields

Schedule Date and Time – To delay the export of records from your database, select the date and time at which you want the export to begin. As this process may slow down your system, you should delay it until a time when there are no or few users on the system. To begin the export without delay, leave the current date and time in their respective fields.

Vendor Click in this field and select the third-party vendor to whom you will be sending your records. House offices should select HIR - Fast Forward.

State and District – Type the two-letter postal abbreviation for your state along with your two-digit district number in this field, for example, GA03. This field appears only if you've selected HIR - Fast Forward as your vendor.

Address Type – When exporting to HIR, the only option in this field is Primary Home and Primary Business, which exports both the primary home and primary business address for review and updating.

Select List – Most third-party address updating will involve your entire database. If that is the case, select Entire Database. If you want to update a subset of the database, you can do so by selecting a list from the drop-down.

Importing Records with Updated Addresses

HIR will notify Leidos when your records have been updated. Leidos will then import the updated records back into your IQ database and contact you so that you can review the People records that were updated (or not updated) based on the following possible NCOA Deliverability Codes. Note: IQ adds an affiliation code for each deliverability code that exists in the imported address records. For example, if an address in the import contains a deliverablity code of M, then IQ will add the affiliation code NCOA_M to the People record. The affiliation code remains in the People records until the next NCOA Import.

Deliverability Codes

A Change Rural Route Address or Postal Service update of address information. Address information is changed in the appropriate People records in IQ.

C Undeliverable - The carrier filed an action indicating that delivery to this person at this address cannot be accomplished.

F Foreign Move - The customer has moved to a foreign address. Foreign address information is not maintained by the Postal Service.

G Box Closed - The customer’s PO Box has been closed and no forwarding address was filed.

K No Forwarding Address - The customer has moved and left no forwarding address.

M Forwardable Move - The customer has moved and left a forwarding address. The People record is updated with the forwarding address and a note is entered in the People Comments field that indicates the date and time of update (i.e. NCOA 9/16/2010 11:32:09 AM). You may wish to review these records for those people who have moved out of your Congressional District or state.

P Error in Primary - The new primary address did not match to the USPS Delivery Sequence File.

S Error in Secondary - The new primary address matched to the USPS Delivery Sequence File, but the second address line could not be verified.

W Temporarily Away - The mailpiece was matched with a COA order for a temporary change of address.

 

Note: Address updates are made to the People records in IQ that are coded with A or M. No updates are made to the People records that are coded with C, F, G, K, P, however, you may want to create and assign an Affiliation Code to indicate mail should no longer be sent to these People records.