Six billion is quite a number. It is bigger than the populations of Asia and the Americas combined. Six billion miles would take you around the world nearly a quarter-million times, or to the moon and back over 12,000 times. It is twice the number of trees on our planet.
Six billion is also a very significant number for Service Objects because it represents the number of Customer Data Validations we have processed for our clients since our founding in 2001. Today we process over 100,000 validations every single hour, 24 hours a day. More importantly, it says a lot about how business and society itself have changed over the past two decades, and how our company has adapted to serve both. Let’s look at the implications of this milestone, and where we are headed from here.
The Road to Six Billion
The single biggest trend driving our path to six billion validations is the massive growth of Customer Data Validation – the need to make sure that every customer and prospect record in your business database is genuine, accurate, and verified. First, let’s look at this in terms of the numbers alone:
- From our company’s founding in 2001, it took almost 17 years to reach our 3 billionth validation, in March 2018.
- From there, it took less than two years to process our next billionth validations in January 2020.
- A year and a half later, our 5 billionth validation was processed in June 2022.
- Now, barely a year later, we have exceeded our 6 billionth validation.
This trend speaks to much more than the growth of our product line – it also speaks to fundamental changes in the way businesses are now approaching their customer data. Here are some of the trends we have seen over time:
- Higher costs. Thanks to factors such as growth, inflation and the changes brought about by COVID, the preventable costs from bad customer data such as missed deliveries, inaccurate customer data and fraud have grown to become a serious competitive issue.
- Increased regulatory compliance. The past few years have seen a massive growth of global and national data privacy regulations, with stiff compliance penalties that reach into the millions. Businesses can no longer afford the luxury of not continuously validating their customer data.
- Improved technology. Before we opened our doors in 2001, the costs of verifying and correcting contact data were often seen as prohibitive and dealt with reactively. Today, using sophisticated AI, linked with authoritative data sources, we are able to securely validate and correct contact data in milliseconds, making it simple to integrate into business operations.
In short, our world today is very different from the one we faced six billion validations ago. Today we are an integral part of the leading companies’ day-to-day business operations and we have helped define an entire industry around the validation of customer contact data.
Dedicated to Our Mission and Culture
Some people don’t realize that Service Objects began in response to concerns over the environment – specifically, the waste stream generated by misaddressed direct mail. Our first product, DOTS Address Validation, provided an automated, cost-effective solution to identifying and correcting bad address data. This grew to a full suite of services that form the heart of our business, providing Customer Data Validation across the entire scope of contact data assets.
We are still dedicated to making a difference in the environment and are proud of our track record in our third decade of existence, from:
- Preserving over 3 million trees
- Saving 1.25 billion gallons of water
- Preventing over 100 million pounds of air pollution
- Conserving 700 million kWh of energy
- Reducing over a half million cubic yards of landfill space
Our own workplace policies, ranging from remote work opportunities to funding reforestation efforts, continue to reflect our environmental roots.
Twenty years (and six billion validations) later, we have evolved to solve critical customer data quality issues, helping our clients grow and protect their businesses. In the process, we have grown to lead an industry and partner with many of the world’s leading corporations.
We are excited to see where the next six billion validations will lead us and look forward to continuing to serve you.
