Spring brings with it a feeling of renewal. Lighter evenings, the first signs of warmer weather, Easter celebrations, and the annual urge to “Spring Clean” that has been a tradition since biblical times!
In this edition of Postcode News: We hear from The Evangelical Alliance, a church-focused membership organisation, and their requirement to clean their member address database prior to a major system migration.Read how AFD’s solutions and expertise exceeded their expectations.
As trailed in our previous edition of Postcode News, as part of AFD’s 40th anniversary celebrations last year, we commissioned a poem by Harry Baker, World Slam Poetry Champion. You can read the full version of the poem inside, but we highly recommend following the link to watch the entertaining video of Harry performing it!
Established nearly two centuries ago, the Evangelical Alliance (EA) serves tens of thousands of individuals, organisations, and churches across the UK. As a membership-charity, they advocate for the evangelical community to the government, media, and other areas of influence, as well as providing support, training, resources, and facilitating gatherings to help their members to act upon their faith.
Having relied on the Postcode People at AFD as their partners in address and bank data quality for over 20 years, when a system migration was required, they sought expert consultancy from AFD to discuss their four specific requirements:
Prior to the EA migrating to a new Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) CRM system, AFD completed a comprehensive evaluation of the address data held in the member database. Tim Coysh, Head of Digital & Membership at EA, explained: “We aimed to establish an accurate contact data foundation for future communications to our members. This involved cleansing, reformatting, and de-duplicating member addresses. Identifying members that had deceased or “gone-away” from the address we held so we could suppress them from future mailings and updating members’ new addresses where possible. We recognised the substantial value this would add to both the organisation and our supporters.”
Traditionally relying on quarterly magazine mailings, the EA wanted to strengthen its relationships with members and potential members by continuing with the tried and tested physical mailings, but also expanding through the channels of phone and email. AFD’s phone and email validation was implemented to help ensure these electronic communications are going to a live, valid email or phone number.
Tim continues, “In addition to the magazine, members can select from specialist interest emails they wish to receive. The last thing we want is our members to choose specific communications relevant to them, only to not receive any due to an error in their email address!”
As members of the EA pay via Direct Debit to help ensure that its vital work can continue, AFD’s Bank Validation has been confirming account numbers and sort codes for them for two decades. On the importance of the checks, Tim said: “Without AFD’s solution, even a minor bank account detail error would prevent us from collecting payments, leading to extra administrative costs, member frustration, and might even lose new members before they even start.”
Accurate location information for organisation members, primarily churches and charities, has become increasingly crucial for people wanting to find a church local to them and facilitating member networking. Tim observed: “Many church buildings are on large sites, often without a mailbox, with multiple entrances on multiple streets. We needed precise longitude and latitude coordinates, more specific than a postal address, to guide people to the correct entrance. AFD’s Address Lookup solution is able to return this exact detail when an address is searched and selected.”
Reflecting on the project’s results, Tim stated: “Having straightened up our contact data with AFD, we now maintain its quality by catching mistakes, flagging them to members and staff AND allowing corrections to be made – before they enter our database. The AFD D365 plug-in made this possible to add address, email, phone, and bank validation – with ease. The value of more effective communication, enhanced member experience and lower admin costs saves the organisation tens of thousands of pounds (and frustration) each year.
AFD proved to be a valuable source of expertise in all the areas we’ve discussed. The insight gained from having a specialist ask the right questions to uncover the true nature of problems and guide us toward solutions cannot be underestimated, and such expertise is rare.
It would be a disaster if we were unable to validate our members’ contact data and we would spend far too much time fixing errors introduced from manual data entry. If your organisation needs to communicate accurately with your members or customers, I recommend sharing your requirements with AFD”.
World Slam Poetry Champion Harry Baker joined AFD Software’s Annual Charity Event and 40th Anniversary Celebrations in November last year to deliver “An Ode to the Postcode”.
When not writing poems about The Postcode People at AFD, celebrating charitable donations and the importance of postcodes! Harry writes about a wide range of topics including hope, dinosaurs, and German falafel-spoons. His work has been shared on TED.com and viewed millions of times worldwide, as well as being translated into over 20 different languages. Harry’s work has been described as “Absolutely beautiful” by Zoe Ball, he has been hailed as “a champion” by Ed Sheeran and “Epic” by Ice Cube. Here is his Ode to the Postcode in full:
Some heroes wear capes, some come dressed in Lycra
Some swing on webs once they’re bitten by spiders
Often the heroes are ones that we don’t know
Here’s an ode to the unsung hero: the postcode.
First trialled in Norwich, they mustered up history
Imparting knowledge with such specificity
No need for sonnets or colourful imagery
Just alphanumeric pure rugged efficiency
It starts with the area code:
You might pop to Preston for the good PR
Or choose to chuck Coventry on your CV
If you dwell in Darlington, keep it on the DL
Or head to Huddersfield for life in HD
If you wanna get online, take a trip to Ipswich
An IP address gives you all that you need
Of if you’re in Belfast and you need to bell fast
I can guarantee your phone line comes from BT
The next digits give you the district:
If central Newcastle is your fixed abode
You can always say yes to: “Is NE1 home?”
Or if school’s in South Peterborough and Gym’s not for you –
In all likelihood you’ll avoid PE2
Catch me walking round Hayes in a Daze for sure
Getting Deja Vu – I’ve seen UB4!
Or this happens all of the time:
Does a German reluctant
to solve workplace conflicts
in outer Herefordshire
go and see HR? Nein…
Finally you have the sector and unit:
If we find ourselves on the Isle of Man
And think King Edward Road is where we should meet
There’s no need for stress or contriving plans,
Just know that: IM3 2AT
Imagine if Frodo had known Mordor’s postcode
The eagles could have dropped him off and then flown home,
there’s no place like home for Dorothy and Toto
But it could have helped show where the yellow brick road goes
Way back when if I’d said I’m on the High Street
There were 5,410 I could mean.
Now the 3,811 Station Roads
Can all be separated by these basic codes.
It’s like we’re all Disney princesses, white as snow
How up to 7 small characters can guide us home
They may not see through walls or have super speed
They just help you get to where you need to be
Which brings us to AFD:
The first ones to use postcode data online
To help companies comfortably contact their clients
And just like anyone who’s made lots of bucks
They spent all their profits on planes, yachts and trucks!
Except:
The truck was for Beach Buddies cleaning our shores
The plane to deliver supplies to the poor
The yacht for disabled folk sailing on board
And they’ve donated so much to so many more.
Given their work it seems only apt,
The Postcode People put these on the map
They may not have super strength, or be angry and green
They’ve helped others get to where they need to be
All of this founded on strong Christian values
Enacted in every thing that they do
As they’ve given to hundreds of organisations
There’s power in people, and postcodes too
Jesus cleanses the sins of whoever confesses
They cleanse your database of duplicate addresses
Jesus fed thousands and walked onto water
They validate thousands of emails,
and that’s also important.
We know the Lord works in mysterious ways
And yet through him and through them there’s millions raised.
Long may his work continue through AFD
As he helps us all get to where we need to be.
Some heroes can fly, some are quick as a flash
Some become weirdly obsessive with bats
Often the heroes are ones that we don’t know
This goes out to the unsung hero: the postcode.
See Harry performing An Ode to the Postcode at www.afd.co.uk/harry
More information about Harry including his Ted Talks can be found at www.harrybaker.co.uk
James works within our Research & Development team specifically focusing on maintaining AFD’s solutions.
He enjoys working on and maintaining solutions that he knows help thousands of organisations solve real problems around contact data validation, and being part of a like-minded team.
“My journey with AFD began 9 years ago when I spent my placement year whilst studying at Queen’s University Belfast, working on real software and development as opposed to theory.
As part of AFD’s commitment and investment in nurturing young people, I was then sponsored for the remainder of my course which led to being permanently hired upon finishing my degree.”
Outside of work, James enjoys playing board and roleplaying games, with 3D printing becoming another hobby which he uses to make enhancements or repairs to the board games he already has. “I got a 3D printer a few years ago and that’s been amazing (it’s like something out of a sci-fi movie). With it, I built a 3D version of Settlers of Catan for my sister and have used it to make custom gifts for people (and replacement parts for some of the board games I have).”
James and girlfriend Amy recently spent a trip travelling around Europe and the standout destination was Krakow. “It was wonderful walking around the inner town and Wawel castle. We enjoyed the great food and had a chance to throw some ninja stars! Would recommend it and looking to go back at some point.”
Between January and March 2024 there were significant updates to data on PAF. These included 14 new localities; 6,784 new postcodes; 120,789 new delivery points and 25,043 delivery point changes.
The most up-to-date PAF data is available now in our latest Q.2/24 update. You can order updates for any AFD Software solution by calling 01624 811711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
We serve thousands of organisations and a network of hundreds of partners across multiple industry sectors, enabling them to have full confidence in their contact data.