Cloud-based skip tracing application

A method executed at least in part in a computing device for providing cloud based skip tracing to a client, the method comprising:

• providing a cloud based skip tracing service enabling data interchange with a plurality of vendors providing skip tracing services;
• providing a registration process for the cloud based skip tracing service, the registration process being a common registration process for a plurality of products or services including the cloud based skip tracing service;
• providing a billing process for the cloud based skip tracing service, the billing process being a common billing process for the plurality of products or services including the cloud based skip tracing service;
• receiving at the cloud based service and from the client a file of records for skip tracing;
• configuring a waterfall process through a user interface of the cloud based skip tracing service to apply waterfall logic to the file of records for skip tracing, the water fall logic including a plurality of levels of custom criteria selected by the client;
• applying the waterfall process to the records using the computing device wherein the waterfall process includes at least a subset of the plurality of vendors, wherein the waterfall process applies the waterfall logic to manage and sequence electronic data interchange with the vendors according to the plurality of the levels of the custom criteria selected by the client;
• returning to the user a results file containing skip tracing results corresponding to the records;
• wherein the waterfall logic is based on an analytical model;
• and
• wherein the analytical model is derived from an analysis component analyzing a plurality of return files from users, each of the return files providing information identifying contacts made with customers identified in the records, the analytical model including conditional statements, and being based on a statistical model that determines a path of the file of records through the skip tracing.