AGIIS Annual Maintenance is Upon Us!

AGIIS Update

AGIIS Annual Maintenance is Upon Us!

By Chris Crutchfield, AgGateway Member Services

Subscribers to AgGateway’s Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS) depend on the accuracy of the demographics associated with the more than 5.4 million entities that are maintained in the database. For this reason, we perform a series of maintenance activities on an annual basis that help ensure data integrity. Over the next several weeks, we will standardize addresses according to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), apply Locatable Address Conversion System updates to rural route addresses, apply National Change of Addresses reported to the USPS, update telephone area codes that have changed, add eligible Global Location Numbers for reuse, and inactivate duplicate entities.

To help subscribers understand and plan for the updates, I’ve listed a description of each maintenance activity below along with the scheduled date for each activity.

December 3 - GLN Reuse Notification 

  • Global Location Numbers (GLNs) that are inactive for four years are eligible to be reassigned to a new entity. Each year, GLNs that are eligible for reuse are made available for download from the AGIIS directory. This is the first of a two-step process. We made the file available on December 3. Subscribers have until January 25, 2019, to exempt any GLNs from reuse. On January 25, we will introduce all remaining GLNs into the reuse pool.
  • Only users that have the "Manage Extracts" user privilege can access this file. We sent a communication to all subscribers alerting them that the list is available. The file can be accessed by clicking on the FILES MENU, DOWNLOAD FILES, then clicking on the "Current GLN Reuse Candidate File Download" link. 
  • Exempting GLNs is done using the web interface by checking the GLN REUSE EXEMPTION check box. Please remember that exemptions expire after one year and will need to be re-exempted annually as needed. 

December 8 - LACS/NCOA, Area Code Splits, City/State Review, Address Standardization 

  • Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) - LACS updates are made to rural route addresses, replacing them with a physical address.
  • National Change of Address (NCOA) - NCOA updates are applied to entities in AGIIS that have reported an address change to the U.S. Postal Service.
  • Area Code Splits - Updates are applied to phone numbers where an area code has changed.
  • City/State Review - Entities are reviewed to ensure the city and state validate with the postal code assigned.
  • Address Standardization Update - Addresses on AGIIS entities will be standardized according to USPS standards.    

December 15 - Annual De-Duplication 

  • The annual de-duplication process identifies duplicate entities in AGIIS and determines one surviving record based on a set of survivorship prioritization rules.

January 25, 2019 - GLN Reuse Implementation 

  • GLNs that are eligible for reuse are placed into the GLN Reuse Pool and will be eligible for reassignment to a new entity.

Member Services will send out communication one week in advance of each maintenance activity. Subscribers should be prepared to apply changes to their internal system to stay in sync with the AGIIS database. If you have questions, contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org, or call us at (866) 251-8618.