Task 1: Defining a Matching Policy

In this task, you create a matching policy with one rule in it. The rule will have one prerequisite: Supplier ID, which means that the Supplier IDs must match before using the other domains in the rule. The rule uses two other domains: Supplier Name with Similarity value set to 70% and Contact Email with Similarity value set to 30%.

  1. In the main page of DQS Client, click right-arrow next to Suppliers knowledge base, and select Matching Policy.

    Matching Policy Menu on Main Page

  2. On the Map page, select Excel File for Data Source.

  3. Click Browse, ensure that filter is set to Excel Workbook, and select Cleansed Supplier List.xls file that you exported after you perform the cleansing activity.

    Note

    At the end of this activity, you cannot export results because this activity is primarily focused on defining a matching policy. You will create a Data Quality Project for the Matching activity and run it to remove duplicates from the supplier list by using this matching policy in the next lesson.

  4. Map SupplierID column to Supplier ID domain, Supplier Name column to Supplier Name domain, ContactEmailAddress column to Contact Email domain. You only need to map source columns to domains that you want to use in defining the matching policy. In this case, you are making the Supplier ID, Supplier Name, and Contact Email domains available for the matching policy activity.

    Map Page of Matching Policy Definition Process

  5. Click Next to move to the Matching Policy page where you will be defining a matching policy with one rule in it.

  6. Click Create a matching rule button on the toolbar to create a rule in the policy.

    Create a Matching Rule Toolbar Button

  7. In the Rule Details pane on the right, enter Remove Duplicate Suppliers for the Rule name.

  8. Click Add a new domain element in the toolbar in the right pane.

    Rule Details - Add a New Domain Element Button

  9. Select Supplier ID for the domain and select the Prerequisite check box. Notice that Similarity is automatically set to Exact. By setting Supplier ID as the Prerequisite, you specify that the values for this field in the two records must return a 100% match, else the records are not considered a match and the other clauses in the rule are disregarded.

    Remove Duplicate Suppliers Rule Definition

  10. Click Add a new domain element from the toolbar again.

  11. Select Supplier Name domain, select Similar for Similarity, and Type 70 for the Weight. Here, you are specifying that supplier names do not need to be identical but can be similar for the records to be considered as a match. The weight indicates the contribution of this field’s score to the overall matching score.

  12. Repeat previous two steps to add Contact Email domain with 30 for the Weight.

  13. Notice that the min matching score is set to 80%, which is the value you see in the General tab of the Configuration page of DQS Administration. You can only increase this score above this threshold value here.

  14. Notice that Overlapping Clusters option is selected. With this option, a record can show up in multiple clusters. If you change the setting to Non-Overlapping Clusters, the clusters that have common records are combined into one single cluster.

  15. The Start button on this page allows you to test each rule in the policy separately, whereas, the Start button in the next page allows you to test entire policy (all the rules in the policy).

  16. Click Next to switch to the Matching Results page.

Next Step

Task 2: Testing and Publishing the Matching Policy