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Welcome to the summer edition of
Postcode News - we hope you enjoy it.
In this issue:
- One of Yorkshire’s fastest growing companies used the Free AFD Health Check service. It made a difference for them, could it make a difference for you?
- Royal Mail announces it has appointed AFD
Software to assist in the production and
distribution of Royal Mail PAF®.
- Find out why organisations like Virgin Active,
Carpetright and University of Manchester are
switching to AFD Postcode solutions.
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Fastest Growing
CMD Ltd is a friendly, straightforward business and in the top 20 fastest growing Yorkshire companies. You may be using CMD products in your office, for lighting and cable management or for reducing the risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI). Jenny Bell is Marketing Manager and has recently completed a full re-brand of CMD, consolidating all brands under the CMD banner.
Jenny picks up the story:
 Taken for granted
The products we produce turn a mass of messy, dangerous cables into a logical, organised structure. Often taken for granted – they are essential to any modern office. We’re finding the same is true with our address data – AFD Refiner turns a mass of messy data – with the capacity to damage our firm – into the gold that it really is.
We can make a difference
We’d just not taken the time to understand how important customer records are and how the simplest of things can make a huge difference to data.
Important Task
We send heavy A4 64 page glossy colour brochures to our customers and prospects – architects, furniture manufacturers and electrical contractors. Frankly we were getting too many returns. Untangling the data was an important task and we knew it was time to turn our attention to it.
Free AFD Health Check
We came across AFD Software on the Royal Mail website, found out about the free AFD data health check and sent our data for testing. The results clearly confirmed that the data was in a poor condition. We invited addressing expert Jonathan Stocks to visit and show us how the data could be cleansed with Refiner. The software was fantastic and it was an easy decision to purchase.
Important Foundation
Our address data is now in an excellent condition. We are able to reduce waste considerably, plan more accurately, and spend less time dealing with returned mail. We know that raising the quality of our customer and prospect address data is an important foundation which supports our growth aspirations.
We are implementing a new CRM system and want to be more pro-active in marketing. Our brand proposition is ‘We can make a difference’ and AFD Refiner has made a massive difference to our data.
- Jenny Bell. Marketing manager, CMD
What’s Your Address Data Really Like?
Each year we run millions of customer records through our free health check service. Our report not only shows you what’s wrong – it shows what can be put right. Typically a database that is very poor can be made very good using AFD Refiner. Curious? Email healthcheck@afd.co.uk and we’ll contact you to arrange to professionally check your data. We did for CMD – can we do it for you?
Free data health check. Act Now!
Email: healthcheck@afd.co.uk
www.afd.co.uk/refiner |
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...to University of Manchester, Virgin Active and Carpetright who are among a string of major organisations switching to AFD. Sales Director Mike Solomon commented:
“Common themes in these decisions include the ability to move easily to our robust server-side solutions, enjoy lower maintenance and support costs and have access to extra, valuable data.”
Roll out the Red Carpet!
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Following a competitive OJEU regulated tender process, Royal Mail has appointed AFD Software to assist with the development and distribution of the Postcode Address File (PAF®) and its portfolio of address management products.
Miranda Dodd, Head of Royal Mail’s Address Management Unit (AMU) said:
“This is one of the most significant developments in the production and distribution of PAF® for many years. We selected AFD as they have a proven track record in introducing new technology and new media, and we are sure our customers will be pleased with the new enhanced formats which will be available.”
Neville Hilton, AFD Software Business Development Director continued:
“For over fifteen years AFD has provided PAF® and data based software and services. We are delighted to be working with the AMU on streamlining and automating the production and delivery of PAF®.”
Martin Dale, Royal Mail AMU Addressing Specialist said:
"We were impressed with the way AFD grasp today’s problems - with an eye to the future. They have a flexible, can do approach which has led to new ideas and solutions which are being acted on to the benefit of Royal Mail and its customers. AFD really engaged with Royal Mail to tackle technical challenges in a personal, professional and open manner."
Royal Mail PAF Technology Manager Steve Robinson concluded:
"We were aware of AFD's professionalism and experience in the data world. Visiting AFD we saw a live process- driven operation which would deliver better service to customers while greatly improving control and access to Royal Mail PAF products."
The new system is expected to go live in August. |
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Good address data supports efficient, professional communication and financial records. Poor data will undermine your efforts.
But how do you know if the addresses being keyed or imported to your database are correct?
Just because an address looks tidy doesn’t mean it is accurate or that the mail will arrive at its destination or that it looks professional to the recipient.
But it’s quite a list!
We’ve seen millions of records from hundreds of organisations. Typically we find poor spelling, inconsistent formatting (data in the wrong fields) and important information missing such as localities. Parts of the address are missing, partially included or wrong. Other details have changed over time. They were once right – now they are wrong.... and so the list goes on!
How much can you be expected to know?
There are over 28,700,000 postal addresses in the UK; 1,750,000 postcodes and 1,661 post towns. Is it really possible to have a comprehensive knowledge? If you could develop this – your time would probably have been better spent elsewhere!
AFD Products are designed to put that information at your finger tips – instantly:
• Reduce Costs
• Improve Performance
• Improve Communication
• Streamline Processes
• Make More Effective Decisions
Here’s what AFD Postcode, Postcode Plus or Names & Numbers can do for you:
Save time by entering addresses from just the postcode
Accurate addresses. Speaks for itself!
Improved Perception. Recipients of mail see their details professionally and correctly presented
Consistent Data Formatting. Simply best practice and makes data easy to find and merge etc
Duplicate identification / prevention. Duplicates cause waste and annoy the people you want to serve!
Better analysis & planning. Accurate data leads to better decisions
Easier merging with prospect pools and other datasets
Link to government / other geographies. Postcode based geography for reporting and analysis
Links to mapping / routing / nearest / systems. Grid references at postcode level enable this
Delivery. Reduce mail returns and the delivery delays which arise from poor address data
Better postal discounts. Accurate address data leads to better Royal Mail Mailsort discounts
View a summary of each AFD product at
www.afd.co.uk/products. |
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For over 25 years we’ve been providing sound advice to thousands of organisations who want the benefits of better data. If you have not yet switched on AFD, why not talk to one of our experts now? 01624 811711 |
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Friends and Heroes is an animated adventure series for children featuring amazing 3D Bible Stories. Produced in the UK, it's available in 10 major languages understood by 680 million children. Friends and Heroes has been aired on BBC TV and thousands of DVD’s have been shipped across the world.
Friends & Heroes is part of the AFD Group and to celebrate this international success a special set of stamps is being issued by the Isle of Man Post Office. We’ll be shipping the Autumn issue of Postcode News with a special, limited edition First Day Cover, featuring the stamps.
If you collect stamps or have friends who do - it’s worth grabbing the envelope before it is ripped open! To see clips from the series and find out more, please visit www.friendsandheroes.tv and www.friendsandheroes.com. |
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Grid references form the basis for distance calculations, ‘where’s my nearest’ and aspects of data analysis. AFD has now upgraded the postcode level grid references in all its products using data from Ordnance Survey. The data is more complete and more accurate than any previous source. There is no extra cost and customers will continue to access co-ordinates without charge.
All users of Postcode Plus, Plotter and Names & Numbers will now be able to use the grid references at either 1 or 10 metre resolution depending on their preference. 10 metre will be available through the product specific APIs to maintain backwards compatibility. Customers with integrations using the CommonAPI will have the benefit of 1 metre resolution data. Northern Ireland grid references are not included in the upgrade and remain unchanged. |
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| Did you know that all post from the Isle of Man is treated as First Class and that Special Delivery items are tracked through the Royal Mail Special Delivery system? |
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| Lisa Rodick - Customer Services Administrator
If you said to Lisa “Search me?” she probably would as this was one of her roles as a prison officer! That was before she had a 5 year ‘Mini Adventure’ at BMW.
Now with two young children, Lisa lives on the Isle of Man with her husband. She loves to laugh while watching comedians like Peter Kay and Lee Evans. Lisa enjoys her colleagues, her job and eating cake, chocolate and takeaways. She says the Island is a great environment to raise kids.
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