The Corporate Address File (CAF) is the Government of Jersey’s central and definitive list of all known homes in the Island. The accuracy and currency on the address data is guaranteed by the virtue that vital information is supplied by key contributors including, DVS, Parishes, Government of Jersey Departments and Utility Companies.

CAF is designed as a ‘server to server’ system, so that Government Departments can use their legacy systems in the normal way, without the end user necessarily knowing that they are using CAF.

The system allows fast searching of addresses, whether by Post Code, road name or house name, and this assists with the quick and accurate entry of data.

Should an address be missing or be incorrect, then the user is able to submit an update in their system, and this will feed through to the Address Validation Unit (AVU) on a real time basis. The Address Validation Unit will then consider the address update against a rule base, validate whether the change is accurate and accept or reject the amended address. Accepted updates are then fed to all other systems so they can consider whether to update their records.
The Corporate Address File is updated on a real time basis, and the large number of users helps to ensure it is as accurate and up to date as possible.

The Corporate Address File contains Addresses only. It does NOT contain any personal information.

Searching

CAF allows you to search portions of an address, whether it is the house name, or Post Code, the CAF will return an appropriate set of results based on your search criteria. Its support for metaphones allows fuzzy matching of addresses by their pronunciation instead which is particularly suitable for someone whom may not know the exact spelling of an address.

Address Submission

The CAF allows for addresses to be submitted to the Address Validation Unit (AVU) for either new or updated addresses. These are called Candidate addresses.

Address Matching

Digimap Limited has produced sophisticated Automatic and Manual Address matching software in order to assist with the aligning of an existing Address Database with CAF. Usually this is a one off process, and will result in matching (aligning) all the department’s legacy address databases to the Corporate Address File. Where the address match is not certain, users can review the matching manually using the same software.

The system is designed for use by all Government Departments, but may also be available to commercial users subject to with special licensing.