Experian Australia Pty Ltd

QAS Pro Web

Technical overview
18 September 2012
Version 1.1

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

Table of Contents
1.

Change History .......................................................................................................... 3

2.

Product Brief .............................................................................................................. 3

3.

Engines ...................................................................................................................... 3

4.

Technology and Integration ...................................................................................... 6

5.

Architecture ............................................................................................................... 7

6.

System Requirements .............................................................................................. 10

7.

Performance ............................................................................................................ 10

8.

Maintenance ............................................................................................................ 14

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 2 of 14

QAS Professional Services

1.

2.

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

Change History
Date

Version

Author

Notes

27 May 2010

0.1

Andrew Nikolic

First draft

04 October 2010

0.2

Andrew Nikolic

Added performance stats

05 October 2010

1.0

Andrew Nikolic

Final

28 September 2011

1.1

Andrew Nikolic

Added On Demand solutions & diagrams

Product Brief
QAS Pro Web provides address capture functionality for web based applications.
As part of the capture process the input is validated against a postal or
geographical dataset to ensure the captured address is verified and standardised.
There are various country datasets available for Pro Web including Australia, New
Zealand and Singapore.
QAS Pro Web is available as On Premise (hosted by customer) as well as a
SaaS/On Demand deployment. It provides different engines which are tailored
for different address capture scenarios to improve efficiency and effectiveness of
the capture process. For example, the way a trained call centre operator
captures an address may differ from a customer visiting a publicly accessible
website. In section 3 below these engines are described.

3.

Engines
Intuitive:
Intuitive provides search functionality that allows users to type the address from
left to right in one line. It provides a list of results that is refined with each
keystroke. An item in the results can be selected at any time and the formatted
address retrieved.

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 3 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

This engine is useful for both customer facing web applications and also internal
applications as no training is required.
The On Premise version of Pro Web Intuitive is available for the Windows
operating system only.
The On Demand service provides this functionality through an iFrame for
optimum performance. The interface can be styled using CSS.
Step 1 (user search):

Step 2 (validate selection):

Singleline (Flattened Picklist):

Flattened Pick list is typically used on customer facing websites, where a user will
enter their address as part of a web form, such as a retail site for delivery
purposes. The QAS Pro Web engine requires the address information to be
passed to it as a comma separated string, and therefore the number of input
address fields is not limited to a specific set or maximum number. I.e. The form
may contain any number of address input fields.
When a search is complete a pick list of multiple matches is returned. The user
must select the correct address from the list. This list is flat and represents all
the available address options.

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 4 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

The selected address is formatted and can be returned to the host application. If
a single exact match is returned form a search, no pick list is displayed and the
address is automatically selected and formatted.
As this scenario is simple and results in efficient performance, it can also be
deployed for internal applications such as an intranet environment. If users are
trained, extra features such as wildcard characters (* and ?) can be utilized.
Generally, users on an external facing website may not have the training and
knowledge to effectively use these.
Typedown:
This scenario has been designed to capture an address with the least amount of
keystrokes possible. Trained users are able to capture an address by starting
with the highest level address information (E.g. Postcode or suburb) and drill
down to the final delivery point.

Typedown should only be used for internal applications, such as an intranet

environment. It should not be used for external facing websites as network
TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 5 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

traffic is generally increased due to refinements, and this methodology of address

capture is not considered intuitive for untrained customers.
Verification:
This scenario has been designed to verify a customers address once they have
typed it in full into a web form. This scenario is much like a Pass/Fail situation
where if an accurate match can be found the address is updated, but if no match
can be found the original input will be used.
The Verification engine is designed to streamline the data entry process and not
present options to a user. The amount of user interaction required is the choice of
the integrator. The user enters their whole address which is submitted to the
engine. The engine returns a verification level which corresponds to the degree
of confidence in the returned (and reformatted) match. For addresses that could
not be matched with confidence, it is up to the integrator whether to return a
prompt for more user interaction, or whether to return the address as it was
entered.

4.

Technology and Integration

Technology:
QAS Pro Web is built on SOAP/XML and web service technology. The QAS web service is
available as an On Premise application hosted by the customer or as SaaS variant hosted
by Experian QAS.
The Pro Web product runs as a Windows Service or UNIX daemon. It is generally deployed
on the web server hosting the calling application for optimum performance, but this is not a
prerequisite. The QAS endpoint is specified by a server name or IP address and listens over
a designated TCP/IP port for all incoming requests.
Service bindings: SOAP 1.1, XML 1.0, WSDL 1.1, Transport protocol = HTTP
Nb. Intuitive Engine is only available for Windows.
Integration:
Developers can access the Pro Web functionality via WSDL calls or by using common
classes provided by Experian QAS. These classes are programming interfaces that wrap
around the web service and are available in .NET, Java and PHP.
Pro Web is generally integrated in 5-7days although has been done in less time by other QAS
customers.

Loading Balancing/Fail Over:

There is no functionality or features to provide load balancing and failover from within the
QAS Pro Web service. Provisions for this will need to be addressed outside of QAS.
However, Pro Web is high availability aware and all communications are stateless. As a
result, Pro Web is compatible with any enterprise grade clustering technologies or load
balancing hardware. To achieve this, Pro Web is generally located behind a Load Balancing
switch and all requests are routed through the switch.

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 6 of 14

QAS Professional Services

5.

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

Architecture
On Premise:

QAS Pro Web

SOAP/XML

Defined by proweb.wsdl

Customer Web Server

(Generated) SOAP Client

Stubs

Provided with QAS Pro

Web

Customer & Third Party Code

Common Classes

Customer Web Pages

Browser

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 7 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

On Demand:

QAS Pro On Demand

(hosted by Experian)

SOAP/XML

Defined by Pro On Demand

WSDL

Username & Password

Customer Web Server

(Generated) SOAP Client

Stubs

Provided with Pro On

Demand

Customer & Third Party Code

Common Classes

Customer Web Pages

Browser

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 8 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

On Demand Intuitive Search (iFrame):

The diagram below illustrates the architecture of On Demand Intuitive Search using iFrame.
It shows the interactions between the customers browser, website and the Experian QAS
iFrame web service, split into three phases;

The interactions in phase 1 occur when the browser user first requests a web page
from the website

Phase 2 interactions occur when the user searches for an address using the iFrame
interface

Phase 3 interactions occur when the user selects an address in the iFrame. The
address is then pasted in the parent web page

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 9 of 14

QAS Professional Services

6.

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

System Requirements
Minimum Requirements
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600
Processor Speed: 2.40 GHz
RAM: 4.00 GB
Available Hard Disk: 40 GB
Note: The above are the minimum requirements to perform as closely as
possible to the performance statistics in the following section.
AUS PAF Dataset size is approximately 125 MB
AUS GNAF Dataset size is approximately 620 MB
AUS DataFusion Dataset size is approximately 1.78 GB
QAS Pro Web is approximately 35 MB

7.

Performance

Although every effort has been made to provide accurate information in this performance
review, neither QAS Limited (Experian QAS) nor any of its employees or suppliers make any
warranty, condition, undertaking or representation, express or implied, or assume any legal
liability ( to the extent permitted by law) or responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of
any information contained in this performance review including in relation to the condition,
accuracy, fitness for purpose, suitability and/or quality of the licensed product.
We further give no condition, warranty or undertaking as to the benefits which may accrue,
including profitability, revenue or pricing benefits, from your use or proposed use of the
licensed product.
Therefore, in no event, shall Experian QAS, or its employees or suppliers, be liable for any
special, indirect or consequential damages whatsoever, whether in contact, tort, negligence or
other action, arising out of or in connection with the performance of the licensed product or
use of the information available in this performance review, except to the extent permitted by
law.
You should therefore rely on your own independent tests, performance review and due
diligence prior to purchase of the licensed product.
Test Machine Specifications:

Windows Server Standard, Service Pack 1

Processor Model

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 10 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Processor Speed

2.40 GHz

Memory (RAM)

4.00 GB

Available Hard Disk

40 GB

Architecture

32 bit

Pro Web

Pro Web 6.55 Intuitive Engine

Tests Performed:
One thread
Searches performed character by character (~120,000 searches made).
Total threads

Total Number of addresses

5,000

Searches per minute

800

Average Search Time

80 ms

25 Threads
Searches performed character by character (~2.8 million searches made)
Total threads

25

Total number of addresses

5,000

Searches per minute

3,500 (120 per thread)

Average Search Time

440 ms

Notes:
1) A search was performed for every character in the address. This is not realistic in that we
recommend the integration should have a delay of around 1 second before submitting a
search to the server. There was no easy way to estimate an average typing speed, it was
decided not to try and second guess this and potentially affect the results.
2) The timeout setting was configured to 5,000 (5 seconds) in the Qawserve.ini file. An
individual thread will always wait until a search to finish before submitting the next.

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 11 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Pro Web

Pro Web 6.55 Singleline Engine

AUS DATA
RUN 1
Total threads:

Total searches analysed:

799255

Total errors found:

24

Minimum total search time (ms):

Maximum total search time (ms):

10,089.01

Average total search time (ms)

38.16

Standard deviation of total search time (ms)

47

Approx. searches/minute per thread:

1,572.25

Total harness time (s):

4,675.60

RUN 2
Total threads:

Total searches analysed:

797565

Total errors found:

24

Minimum total search time (ms):

Maximum total search time (ms):

11,293.87

Average total search time (ms)

38.07

Standard deviation of total search time (ms)

46.47

Approx. searches/minute per thread:

1,572.92

Total harness time (s):

4,667.15

RUN 3
Total threads:

Total searches analysed:

798309

Total errors found:

24

Minimum total search time (ms):

Maximum total search time (ms):

10,089.03

Average total search time (ms)

38.08

Standard deviation of total search time (ms)

46.82

Approx. searches/minute per thread:

1,575.78

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 12 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Total harness time (s):

Pro Web

4,666.97

NZL DATA
RUN 1
Total threads:

Total searches analysed:

799201

Total errors found:

Minimum total search time (ms):

Maximum total search time (ms):

272.03

Average total search time (ms)

32.19

Standard deviation of total search time (ms)

12.14

Approx. searches/minute per thread:

1,864.21

Total harness time (s):

4,073.49

RUN 2
Total threads:

Total searches analysed:

798377

Total errors found:

Minimum total search time (ms):

Maximum total search time (ms):

234

Average total search time (ms)

32.1

Standard deviation of total search time (ms)

12.04

Approx. searches/minute per thread:

1,869.16

Total harness time (s):

4,060.78

RUN 3
Total threads:

Total searches analysed:

798848

Total errors found:

Minimum total search time (ms):

Maximum total search time (ms):

275.03

Average total search time (ms)

32.1

Standard deviation of total search time (ms)

12.1

Approx. searches/minute per thread:

1,869.01

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 13 of 14

QAS Professional Services

Commercial in Confidence

Total harness time (s):

8.

Pro Web

4,063.74

Maintenance
Once implemented QAS Pro Web only requires that maintenance is performed on
a quarterly basis.

Physical media:
Every 3 months Experian QAS will provide an updated Postal Address File (PAF),
Geocoded National Address File (GNAF), DataFusion (AUE) or New Zealand PAF
(NZL) on CD/DVD via post to a nominated contact.

This data update is

mandatory and ensures that data is current and includes the most up to date
address information.
The process of updating data takes approximately 5-10 minutes.
Electronic Updates:
QAS Electronic Update is a client side program that runs as a Windows service. It
downloads data over the Internet using HTTPS and updates your QAS applications
with the data as and when you specify.
This product provides automatic data updates that will not require user
interaction, whilst ensuring the data being used is the most up-to-date.

TOD_ProWeb.doc

Last Updated: 18 September 2012

Page 14 of 14