Sample Standardization and Matching Sequence

The following steps illustrate one possible processing sequence that occurs when data is received from an external system and processed by the master index application.

1. A record is received from an external system.

2. The local ID does not yet exist in the master index application; initiate the standardization and matching process.

3. Standardize the record to a common format.

4. Standardize free-form text.

5. Normalize fields that need to be converted to a common format.

6. Phonetically encode fields that are commonly misspelled or spelled in different ways.

7. Match the record against entries in the database.

8. Use the selected blocking query (specified in master.xml) to retrieve a block of records that might match the new record.

9. Build and execute the query according to the input record.

10. Calculate match scores comparing the incoming record against existing records (this is done by the match engine).

11. Determine whether to repeat the matching process with another block of records, based on the MEFAConfig element in mefa.xml.

12. Return match scores for further processing.

13. Determine whether to add the system record to an existing EUID record or to insert the system record as a new EUID record (based on the parameters defined in the DecisionMaker element of master.xml).