Data Collection

[tstarkie]

Hi - I'm not sure if I've posted this in the right area, or if it's even possible, but I'm trying to find an "easy" way of completing a task, and wondering whether there is a way to do it in Access...

I currently have an Access db of about 60K records of existing customer data. As part of a recent update to how we send information to our customers I now need to basically fill in the blanks of our customer information.

So basically, if the customer doesn't have a postcode, telephone number, or website/email listed against their account, I need to update it... My current process has been to manually Google each company individually and using either their own website (where applicable) or else places like Yell/192 to pull the information and update accordingly...

Obviously this is a VERY long-winded and monotonous task, and someone mentioned to me that I may be able to do this via Access??

If anyone has any ideas, or could even tell me if this is possible, that would be really appreciated!! I currently feel like I will be here forever finishing this task! :banghead:

 

[Rx_]

It is very difficult to automatically obtain information from a web page. There are just too many standards (or lack of standards) for a web page format. For the small amount of records, it would not be efficient to try and program something for each and every style of listing a phone number, address, ...
Part of the hype of "its on the web" is the lack of standards. Your task is to take no standards and assemble them into a highly standard format.

This is why there are sites and services, perhaps paid services, that provide industry information in XML format.
Lets say that you find a XML service for your industry.
There are several postings on bringing XML data into an Access database on this site. I posted a couple myself.

I am in the regulatory industry for specific sectors. For example, I need all of the US County Tax locations. My preference would be to go to a government site and find a XML listing. For Federal, State, County, and Local governments, there is a FIPS code (Federal ID) unique identifier.

In some other industries, there might be a $200 USD list. The cost of paying for a list can be offset against the manual cost of looking up thousands of companies. These can get expensive. One service that provided daily information for thousands of locations wanted $60,000 a year for the service. I found a way to automate that service. As a part-time consultant there with many task, they practally considered my consulting was free.
Companies that do create these list often don't consider it to be a Corporate Asset on the accounting. If they did, they wouldn't have such a heartache about creating them.

In the old days (about 20 years ago), a degree in computer science included an economics class. The Total Cost of Ownership included the Maintenance. Once you complete the list, it is already obsolete.
What is the actual cost to a company of maintaining that list?
The new generation of Nike' Management (just do it.... with no plan) rarely consider this cost. My point is, if you found a service for your industry that provided an updated list for $200 a year, it would probably save the company money over the life-cycle of the product.