Address Lookup and Indicative LM3 Case Study

The Business Problem

Supplier lists arrive with addresses in every format, from full postal addresses to a town name or a postcode. Looking each one up by hand was out of the question for projects with hundreds of suppliers, and doing it while the user waited would slow the Hub down. Until a supplier replied, there was also no figure for its own local spend, which left gaps in the result.

The Solution

wildesoft.net built two background services that run alongside the LM3 Hub. The address lookup service picks up new or changed supplier addresses, resolves them through postcode and mapping lookups, and stores their exact location. It runs on a timer, works in batches, and was refined to handle awkward cases such as an address given only as a city.

The indicative LM3 service then works out an estimated local spend for each supplier that has not yet responded, based on where it is and whether it falls inside the project's local or regional area. Both services log their work, cache results to avoid repeated lookups, and can be switched off independently.

The Result

Organisations upload a supplier list and, moments later, see their suppliers on the map with an indicative LM3 result, without anyone checking addresses by hand. The result then sharpens as real supplier responses arrive.

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