USA credit data (DataArc 360™)

DataArc 360™ (DA360) powered by Aperture Data Studio is designed to help North American credit data furnishers meet their obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by identifying issues within their Metro 2® files prior to submitting the information to the credit reporting agencies like Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

Data submitted electronically to the credit bureaus should follow the Metro 2® standard, which is documented in the Credit Reporting Resource Guide (CRRG). Aperture Data Studio can import and parse Metro 2® files containing hundreds of columns and millions of records. These files are evaluated against over 100 checks and rules that help identify non-conforming data in the base segment.

The results of the assessment are populated into an interactive Dashboard that highlights key statistics and allows users to drill down into specific records with data issues.

Deploy/upgrade the Solution

The DA360 Solution contains pre-built objects (including Spaces, Datasets, Functions and Dashboards) that must be deployed to your Data Studio environment before your Metro 2® data can be evaluated.

Go to System > Solution Deployments then Deploy or Upgrade the latest version of the DA360 Solution. This can take a few minutes while everything is set up.

DA360 user groups

There are two user groups that your administrator or the user deploying the Solution should add users to:

• DA360 Administrators: have access to both Reference and Portfolio Spaces.
• DA360 Users: have access to the Portfolio Space only.

Spaces

• DA360 Portfolio - is the Space to load Metro 2® files. It contains the Dashboard and the Workflows that process your data.
• DA360 Reference - contains reference data and over 100 Functions used to assess your Metro 2® data for inconsistencies, with the definitions outlined in the CRRG.

Functions

DA360 includes over 100 rules that check for inconsistencies with the definitions outlined in the CRRG. There are additional supporting functions for dates, regular expressions, and basic formatting.

Workflows

The DA360 Portfolio Space contains these 3 Workflows:

1. Map to Target Metro2 Sequence – the input Metro 2® data is mapped to the standard fields expected by DA360. This mapping must be configured.
2. DataArc 360 Rules – the rules are configured, and Snapshots of the results are generated.
3. DataArc 360 Dashboard – the results are organized for display in the Dashboard.

Dashboard

The DA360 Dashboard displays the following:

• Average (Passing) Score: total number of rules passed per record over the total number of rules processed per record, averaged across all records.
• Accounts Processed: total number of records assessed in the most recent run of DA360.
• Accounts Passing All Rules: total number of records that passed each of the DA360 rules.
• Accounts Failing Rules: total number of records that failed at least one of the DA360 rules.

Ingesting Metro2® files

After DA360 has been deployed, the preferred method of ingesting Metro 2® files is through a Dataset dropzone, which automatically polls a specific directory and transfers any uploads from that directory to Data Studio.

New Metro 2® files can also be uploaded directly through the user interface by adding a Dataset but you may experience slower performance.

A professional services consultant will assist with the following dropzone configuration:

1. Create an External system connection to Experian Secure File Transfer System.
2. Test the connection.
3. Go to Datasets > Add Dataset.
4. Select External System.
5. Select the Metro 2® Parser and proceed with file and tag settings.
6. On the Edit Details page, make sure the following is set:

• Overwrite (single batch)
• Allow auto-refresh
• Enable server dropzone
  To upload a new Metro 2® file, use an SFTP enabled application to connect to the upload directory specified above and transfer the new file.

Mapping Metro2® fields

After data has been ingested, the fields in the Dataset must be mapped to the base segment fields configured for DA360, which lists the fields in alphabetical sequence.

Only perform these steps when setting up the Dataset for the first time or if the schema in the Metro 2® file changes:

1. In the DA360 Portfolio Space find the Workflow 0. Map to Target Metro2 Sequence, right-click then Copy.
2. Open the copied Workflow 0.Map to Target Metro2 Sequence_1 and click Edit. Rename as required.
3. In the Workflow step Source (Dataset), update the Source field by selecting your Dataset containing the ingested Metro 2® Dataset. You should be prompted to map each column in the Metro 2® file to the standard expected columns.

   All the base segment fields must be mapped for DA360. Additional segments (e.g. J1, J2) are not evaluated by DA360, so can be left unmapped.

4. Review the mapping to make sure that each Metro 2® field is correctly mapped to the DA360 represented field.

   The DA360 fields are in alphabetical order, rather than the order listed in the CRRG.

5. Click Finish editing and Publish the Workflow.

Refreshing Dashboard data

Once your file has been loaded and Mapped successfully, you can refresh your Dashboard data by running these Workflows:

• To analyze your data against the pre-built rules, Run the 1.0 DataArc 360 Rules Workflow.
• To populate the Dashboard with the new results, Run the 1.1 DataArc 360 Dashboard Workflow.

Each stage can be run manually for testing or troubleshooting purposes, but longer term it is more efficient to set things up to process automatically.

Running Workflows and Automations

The recommended approach to running DA360 is to connect the three Workflows in a single automated process. Each step can be run manually for testing or troubleshooting purposes.

A professional services consultant can assist with the following configuration to automate DA360:

1. Create an Automation to run the Map to Target Workflow after the data has been loaded:
   • Name: Run Map to Target
   • Event: Dataset loaded
   • Filter Properties: Dataset is equal to {Name of the Metro 2® file Dataset}
   • Action: Run Workflows
   • Published Workflows: 0.Map to Target Metro2 Sequence_1
2. Create an Automation to run the DA360 Rules Workflow after the Map to Target Workflow is complete:
   • Name: Run Rules
   • Event: Workflow completed
   • Filter Properties: Workflow is equal to: 0.Map to Target Metro2 Sequence_1
   • Action: Run Workflows
   • Published Workflows: 1.0 DataArc 360 Rules
3. Create an Automation to run the Dashboard Workflow after the DA360 Rules Workflow is complete:
   • Name: Populate Dashboard
   • Event: Workflow completed
   • Filter Properties: Workflow is equal to: 1.0 DataArc 360 Rules
   • Action: Run Workflows
   • Published Workflows: 1.1 DataArc 360 Dashboard

Investigating records that failed DA360 rules

To start investigating, open the WF 1 Validation Results by Rule Drillable widget, clicking on the expansion icon in the top right corner of the widget.

To isolate the records that failed for a specific rule, right click on the rule, and select Failing Rows.

If the columns relevant to a rule are not readily visible in the default view, extra columns can be hidden:

1. Click Columns.
2. Check off all the columns you want to hide and click Exclude.
3. Click Apply to save changes.

Data Studio provides data discovery and profiling tools to help with investigating data quality issues like those identified by DA360. These tools are available in the Results by Rule Drillable view.

Sharing analysis results

The focus of DA360 is to help identify data quality issues that may be in a Metro 2® file. Any issue remediate must occur in the source data, from which the Metro 2® file was generated. If the results of an investigation need to be shared outside of Data Studio, a View of the data may be saved from Results by Rule Drillable as a CSV file.

FAQ