Master Index Standardization Engine Configuration

The Master Index Standardization Engine uses two frameworks to define standardization logic. One framework is based on a finite state machine (FSM) model and the other is based on rules programmed in Java. In the current implementation, the person names and telephone numbers are processed using the FSM framework, and addresses and business names are processed using the rules-based framework. Both frameworks can be customized as needed.

A finite state machine (FSM) is composed of one or more states and the transitions between those states. In this case, a state is a value within a text field, such as a street address, that needs to be parsed from the text. The Master Index Standardization Engine FSM framework is designed to be highly configurable and can be easily extended. Standardization is defined using a simple markup language and no Java coding is required.

The Master Index Standardization Engine rules-based framework defines the standardization process for addresses and business names in Java classes. This framework can be extended by creating additional Java packages to define processing.

Both frameworks rely on sets of text files that help identify field values and to determine how to parse and normalize the values.