"Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS)"
The Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) is a service offered to all mailers, service bureaus, and software vendors who want to evaluate their address-matching software and improve the quality of their ZIP+4, CRIS, and five-digit coding accuracy. The CASS system improves the accuracy of carrier route, five-digit ZIP, ZIP+4, and delivery point codes that appear on mailpieces. CASS provides a common platform to measure the quality of address matching software and to diagnose and correct software problems.
The CASS service is graded by the United States Postal Service’s® (USPS® ), National Customer Support Center (NCSC), and the results are returned to mailers to provide useful diagnostics for correcting deficiencies.
CASS enables the USPS to evaluate the accuracy of address-matching software programs in the following areas:
- Five-digit coding
- ZIP+4/ delivery point (DP) coding
- Carrier route coding
- DPV™
- DSF2™
- LACSLink™
- eLOT™
- RDI™
CASS allows vendors/mailers the opportunity to test their address-matching software packages and, after achieving a certain percentage of compliance, to be certified by the Postal Service. CASS does not measure the accuracy of ZIP+4 delivery point, five-digit ZIP, or carrier route codes in a mailer’s existing files. CASS enables mailers to measure and diagnose internally written, commercially-available, address-matching software packages. The effectiveness of service bureaus’ matching software can also be measured.
There are two stages in the CASS process: Stage I, which is optional, and Stage II, which is required for certification.
CASS Stage I is a self-test that helps developers measure and diagnose the performance of their address-matching software when it is applied to a CASS test address file. The Stage I results assist developers with software debugging and troubleshooting in preparation for Stage II of the CASS certification process.
CASS Stage II is graded by NCSC and is used to evaluate address-matching software performance by processing a test address file. To obtain CASS certification, participants must pass with a minimum score set forth by the Postal Service.