ACTON clients can take advantage of a wide variety of data hygiene, data appending and data matching services across the globe. Different levels of service are available in different countries. The U.S., Japan, Germany, UK and Australia have the most effective data hygiene services available. In nearly 100 other countries, a variety of service is available, and data standardization and file layout verification can be undertaken for nearly any country in the world.

Data hygiene saves money for mailers. In the U.S., ACTON is a non-exclusive licensee for NCOA®, the United States Postal Service's address cleaning system. Virtually any U.S. mailing list maintained within the U.S. can be cleaned quickly and on a very cost-effective basis. Quantities from 5,000 to 50,000,000 can be efficiently processed, helping mailers eliminate undeliverable addresses and finding addresses for those customers who have moved. Please inquire for sample reports. In addition to the cost savings of eliminating undeliverable addresses, a mailer may qualify for lower postage rates. With an advance reservation, quantities under 500,000 can be processed within 24 hours! ACTON's NDMS^TM (Nippon Data Maintenance Service^TM) is the most comprehensive data cleanup service available for Japanese consumer mailing lists and Japanese business mailing lists! The service is offered on a monthly coop run for lists of less than 50,000 and custom runs on quantities of 50,000 or larger. Contact ndms@acton.com for schedule information and pricing.

Data appending and data matching offers a great way to enhance an existing prospect and/or house file mailing list! ACTON has offered data appending for more than 25 years.

In the U.S., ACTON's masterfile contains more than 200 data variables on nearly 100,000,000 addresses covering nearly 250,000,000 individuals! Age, length of residence, dwelling type, income level, as well as mail order propensity by many categories, is available. Check the On-line Counts section of the ACTON Direct web site to get an idea of attributes available by zip code, state or county.

ACTON has been compiling and enhancing data in Japan since the late 1980's. ACTON's Japan Consumer List (JCL) covers nearly every deliverable business and consumer address and contains information on nearly 120,000,000 individuals.

Japan Mosaic is a newly released product which is a service available as a joint venture between Experian (the world's leading provider of consumer information) and ACTON. Japanese or global Mosaic codes can be utilized for a variety of retail and conventional direct marketing purposes.

ACTON also offers Kanji/Katakana/Romaji conversion, merge/purge, and other database services. With processing capacity available in nearly every complex language set, mailing lists from all over the world can be efficiently processed, cleaned and mailed.

ACTON recommends quarterly NCOA® processing for every U.S. file or before each mailing for those mailing lists which are mailed on a periodic basis. Typically, because of the costs, it is most efficient to do annual or semi-annual in Japan, Germany, UK and Australia. First class mailings with address correction services in countries where available, offers an additional effective method for house file cleaning. Contact your closest ACTON location for additional information.