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| News & Updates from Merlin Information Services |
Fall 2009 |
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Merlin Data Center
by John Softich, Director of Information Technology |
Hundreds of customers log in to Merlin’s website each day, select a database from the Main Search Menu, input search criteria, and use Merlin’s results to support their investigative and skiptracing work. When a single search is run, the entire process, which includes sophisticated search and retrieval logic, is completed in just a few seconds. This simple and reliable process is one that Merlin customers have come to depend on and trust.
Behind the scenes, the technology that ensures a positive customer experience resides in Merlin’s state of the art data center. Constructed in 2005, this 1,600 square foot facility came with a hefty $3 million price tag plus several million more dollars in infrastructure costs. This level of investment was needed to ensure our data is available “24 x 7” and that results are returned as quickly as possible. On average, results from our new Link to America™ search are returned in just three seconds…pretty quick considering Link to America searches over five billion records!
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Archives
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Merlin Offers Premium Credit Headers from Experian
KALISPELL, MT – November 23, 2009 – Upon completing an in-depth audit and negotiation process, Merlin and Experian have agreed to a long-term licensing arrangement. Merlin now offers Experian credit header data to a variety of qualified industries, including collections, employment screeners, finance, government, law enforcement, legal, private investigation, and repossession. The monthly updated file includes names and AKAs, phone numbers, up to eight previous addresses, birthdates, and Social Security numbers (truncated in some applications). Access to the data is restricted based on the provisions of the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
The Experian credit header has long been considered the industry’s most current and complete skiptracing database and Merlin is proud to have passed Experian’s rigorous qualification requirements to become a distributor. For qualified customers, Merlin incorporates the Experian credit header data into its Link to America™ products, the Investigator Background Report, and also offers it as a standalone credit header search. The data is managed in Merlin’s state of the art data center, creating added control and flexibility. Customers enjoy faster search times and better results with no increase in price.
For those new to skiptracing, a credit header is the top portion of a credit bureau report. It does not contain any credit information and is therefore not restricted by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The data is searchable by any combination of name, address, SSN, or date of birth. Because each individual can have up to eight previous addresses, a search by name plus an old address will often produce a current address, making credit headers an excellent source for locating people.
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Product Focus: Experian Credit Header Data |
Merlin is pleased to announce that for qualified industries, the following products now include Experian credit header data. Access to products that contain Experian credit header data is restricted to certain Authorized Purposes based upon your Industry Classification.
- Link to America™ (LTA) is a 20 billion record national file and is the most comprehensive skiptracing tool on the market. By far the best compilation of historical data found anywhere, it is common to find addresses, Social Security numbers, maiden names, and AKAs dating back thirty years. At the same time, the database is updated monthly with new addresses and phone numbers from hundreds of sources.
- Link to America Pro (LTA Pro) is Merlin’s premier skiptracing database - the “professionals’ choice” for database searching. For qualified customers, LTA Pro includes full SSNs and full dates of birth in a high percentage of the results.
- Experian Credit Headers are the top portion of Experian credit reports that usually include a name, AKAs, Social Security number, at least three last known addresses and the date those addresses were reported, an age or date of birth, and a telephone number. Because each individual can have up to 8 previous addresses, a search by name plus an old address will often produce a current address, making Experian Credit Headers an excellent source for locating people.
- Investigator Background Report is a customizable comprehensive report about your subject that saves your time and money by not having to search individual databases and compile results.
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- Click on any underlined text in the Results List to run a secondary search. Example: Click an underlined SSN (truncated or not) in the Link to America Results List to search that SSN through Link to America or other specialty databases to see all records tied to that SSN.
- You will have better results by entering fewer fields in your search. Remember, LESS is MORE! The less information entered, the more information returned.
- If you have a Social Security number, begin your search using SSN only. Do not enter information in any other field when searching by SSN.
- If you have an address (and no SSN), begin your search by address only without a name. This way, your results may include alternate or misspellings of your subject’s name.
- To avoid “too many hits” when searching by name, it is best to supply a last known City and State, or a complete address if the name is very common.
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Katie Fries
Marketing Coordinator
Katie coordinates Merlin’s marketing campaigns and tradeshows - you will likely meet her at an industry tradeshow where she enjoys meeting customers face-to-face to help them determine the best data solutions for their business. Katie brings a Marketing degree from Montana State University and has worked at Merlin for two years. She “loves working at Merlin and couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with”.
In her free time, Katie takes advantage of living in the beautiful Flathead Valley – camping and fishing with her husband, waterskiing, and riding her horse.
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Kristin Hall
Account Manager
Kristin’s expertise is in sales and customer support. You name it, she can help – if she can’t, she will figure it out! She was born and raised in Montana and chose Merlin because of the great family atmosphere. She also loves to travel, and Merlin offers that opportunity for her as a tradeshow representative. Kristin enjoys the relationships she has built with her many customers. Although she admits working over the telephone creates some challenges, she "has great customers that are a pleasure to work with!"
Kristin likes to read, hike, and do all the things that living near the great outdoors offers. She also enjoys spending time with family and is looking forward to welcoming a new niece or nephew to her family very soon! |
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Upcoming Trade Shows and Conferences |
Merlin will be at the following trade shows and conferences. Please stop by our booth and meet the Merlin team!
February 9-11, 2010
13th Annual DBA International Conference
Las Vegas, NV
Booth #509
February 16, 2010
Expo 3.0 - Virtual Receivables Tradeshow
insideARM.com
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Community Support and Involvement |
Montana Kids Count
Merlin recently attended the Early Childhood Business Summit sponsored by University of Montana’s Montana Kids Count program. Merlin offers many of the recommended family friendly work policies such as flexible work schedules, PTO, children at work, and flexible benefit plan - dependent care reimbursement. Merlin will be a “Business Champion” for creating an effective statewide early childhood education system.
Merlin Supports Our Troops
Merlin employees donated boxes of household and food items for care packages shipped to our military men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The community goal was to send care packages to five units with men and women who have local roots.
Merlin Goes Green!
Merlin regularly participates in the “Trees to Paper to Trees" Recycling Drive, and this fall was no exception. Employees spent recent months gathering recyclable materials to contribute. More than three pickup loads of materials were taken to the fall drive. The funds from the recycling drive are used to purchase trees for streets in the community.
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Merlin Data Center - continued |
To support these types of speedy searches along with effective formatting and sorting of the results, Merlin’s data center features the following specifications:
- Connectivity is provided by three redundant Internet service providers, scalable to meet any demands.
- Network topology is architected for fault tolerance and disaster recovery with backup systems available for all mission critical needs.
- Network security is ensured via firewalls and all standard security protocols, and is tested externally weekly for vulnerabilities.
- Unlimited power is available via back-up batteries and an onsite diesel generator, and the center has a state of the art fire suppression system.
Many of Merlin’s high volume customers do not access data via www.merlindata.com, but instead search and retrieve data using XML gateways. In this environment, Merlin can customize search criteria and response times to meet customer requirements, and the data is delivered with 128 bit encryption. High volume XML customers help push the average number of searches supported by the Merlin data center to over 60,000 per hour!
Merlin’s data center architecture leverages Microsoft’s .net application development platform and the SQL language to retrieve the 60 terabytes of data that is hosted in the facility. A team of network engineers and application developers shoulder the responsibility of integrating these technologies with other Merlin systems and keeping the data current and available around the clock. “The ability to provide web based searching, high volume XML services, and dedicated hosting environments is really a testament to the sophistication of our data center and the folks that manage it,” comments Merlin’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Todd Twete. “These resources and capabilities were instrumental in the recent launch of the Experian data file.”
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Merlin is hiring! If you have the talent and motivation to excel in a dynamic environment, Merlin Information Services welcomes your inquiry. Send resumes to hr@merlindata.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
National Sales Executive
This senior level sales position is responsible for selling Merlin data products and solutions via our direct and indirect distribution channels. The National Sales Executive focuses heavily on business development with high volume customers and is also responsible for ongoing relationships and retention for key Merlin accounts. This position may be located at our main office in Kalispell or work out of a home-based office. READ MORE >>
Senior Developer in Test – Quality Assurance
This position is responsible to examine, validate and test large scale software development and deployment projects. READ MORE >>
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