NameSearch ® – Searching and Matching Features

The NameSearch ^® product is a software toolkit that enables systems to find and match records using any form of identity information. It can be customized in a number of ways, can be used in many different applications and provides a variety of features.

With NameSearch you can:

• Install and integrate within minutes
• Configure a variety of options for searching and comparison
• Search and match on any identity information such as personal name, address, company name, social security number, date of birth, account number etc.
• Perform very fast and accurate interactive online & batch matching
• Search and compare dates in different formats
• Match on multiple fields ( e.g. Name, Address, Company) and produce a combined score
• Use MerlinMerge ^® SpeedPro for text file deduping and merge-purge
• Predict the number of records returned from a search query without accessing the data

For example, a match on name and address OR name and company would, putput the following records in the same duplicate set:

How NameSearch Works:

The first aspect of NameSearch is intelligent key and range building. This facility is used for the retrieval of records regardless of variations caused by numerous types of human error accumulated through the data entry process.

For starters, spelling and keyboard errors account for many of the variations in a database. Through the use of intelligent key building and advanced comparison routines NameSearch successfully overcomes spelling errors including: multiple typos, letter transpositions, incomplete words, etc.

Many name variations are also caused by the use of nicknames. Names like Bill, William, Bob and Robert are used interchangeably to identify individuals. NameSearch uses rulebase expertise to solve this class of problem.

The NameSearch rulebase also contains rules for handling common prefixes. Names like McDaniel are confused with MacDaniel. Prefix recognition provides NameSearch with the ability to overcome this kind of problem.

The NameSearch rulebase is also used to identify noise words. Noise words are elements in a name which do not help in the identification of a candidate, for example, "Incorporated", "Corporation", "Limited", "Junior", "Senior", "Avenue" and "Street".

Another feature of the rule base is diminutive recognition. There are plenty of names which end in a diminutive such as "ie" or "y". In these cases, it is useful to identify the root and then apply the rule. For example, you would want Bill, Billie and Billy to find William or Willie.

With NameSearch the user can also benefit from its advanced Phonetic capabilities, acronym recognition, and its ability to overcome sequence variations in any given entry in the database being utilized.

NameSearch comes standard with an extensive predefined set of rules. These rules can be used right out of the box or modified to meet your specific needs. This is done through the NameSearch Generation Shell.

The Generation Shell is a graphical user interface (GUI) designed for the modification and tuning of your NameSearch subroutines. The Shell allows you to adjust frequency and rule base tables, set various parameters, modify key building routines and test changes. It is what you see when you plug NameSearch into your particular system.

The NameSearch software, in addition to key building, comes with advanced comparison functions. These functions use the strength of the key building routines to intelligently calculate numeric values which in turn indicate the likelihood of a match.

NameSearch integrates various strands of knowledge to form a cohesive fabric enabling successful retrieval of records based on any number of identifiers. By incorporating rules on common prefixes, suffixes, nicknames, noise words and other similar classes of variations, combined with Intelligent Search Technology's phonetics mechanism and it's user friendly Generation Shell, the complexities of NameSearch are made easy.

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