AFD Software helps over 100 Universities to validate and cleanse student contact data.
We have partnered with Tribal for 15 years to deliver our solutions integrated within Tribal’s student records systems.
AFD’s full range of solutions that are integrated into SITS and e:Vision include:
SITS [AFD04] and SITS:Vision [AFD05]
SITS [AFD06] and SITS:Vision [AFD07]
SITS:Vision [AFD08]
SITS:Vision [AFD08]
SITS:Vision [AFD09]
We need good data. We use AFD online for the student application and enrolment processes. We need to capture contact details correctly, if we are unable to contact students (prospective and current), this doesn’t provide them with confidence.
AFD helps ensure we capture the address, email, and phone data accurately. One student can provide £50,000 in funding, its essential we don’t let them slip through the application stage due to an incorrect phone number or email address.
Accurate contact data is also essential for student support and pastoral care. If a student misses a class and that’s out of character, we can reach out to them via their phone number or email address and provide the required levels of support to them during their studies.
Head of Student Information Systems, Arden University.
The University of Dundee has been running independently since 1967 and are ranked in the top 10 in the UK for student satisfaction. We spoke to Andy Ross, Service Delivery Manager to find out how AFD Software’s address management software is helping the University maintain data quality and the benefits of upgrading to AFD.
The University of Dundee uncovered a range of benefits that came with upgrading to AFD Software.
“AFD offer a hosted solution which means that we are not required to use valuable IT resources manually updating our datasets.
User interface with AFD is significantly quicker, having the ability to search by address fragment is especially useful for students that partially know their address.
We reduced cost by moving to AFD who offer a flexible, simplified payment model which means we pay for what we will use and it’s very clear.
With our previous solution, there was a general unawareness of what was being licensed. Every time staff moved roles there would be a period of reaffirming our address validation solution. Since upgrading to AFD and moving to a hosted solution, we now have no license worries at all.”
“Upgrading to AFD Software within our SITS/eVision system took the best part of a couple of hours. It just worked straight away. We needed to do some work within our online forms as we were now offering an online postcode lookup. The solution works straight out the box, but we needed to spend some time reorganising the structure of the forms so the postcode question was asked first rather than last. The actual postcode popup screen just worked with some small configuration changes made once globally.“
“Our impact assessments were done within our Business Services team. We analysed which departments used postcode lookup and what systems used it. As only one system used the postcode validation, we met with users to explain the reasoning and what would change. This process only took 2-3 weeks from start to finish.“
“We would strongly encourage any other University to move to AFD Software. Technical support is good, and they have strong knowledge of Tribal products across the board.”
Ongoing Upgrades
“The only issue encountered was searching for addresses in the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland) as there is only one official ISO code that covers the whole UK which meant that users could, for example, select Wales as the country but then search for an address in Scotland. AFD offered to develop a solution and this was implemented in January 2024. This will enable data quality to be further enhanced so we would like to thank AFD for this work which has come at no additional cost to our AFD licence.” Alan Winton, University of Dundee.
| Grouping | Dataset | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | UDPRN | Royal Mail Unique Delivery Point Reference Number assigned to this letter box. | Try It |
| Administrative | Ward Code | Code identifying the electoral ward for this postcode. | Try It |
| Administrative | Ward Name | Name identifying the electoral ward for this postcode. | Try It |
| Administrative | Constituency | Parliamentary Constituency for this postcode. | Try It |
| Administrative | Constituency Code | Parliamentary Constituency Code for this postcode. | Try It |
| Administrative | Authority | Local/Unitary Authority for this postcode. | Try It |
| Demographics | Censation Code | Censation Code assigned to this Postcode. | Try It |
| Demographics | Censation Label | Label for the Censation Code. | Try It |
| Demographics | Affluence | Provides a description of affluence. | Try It |
| Demographics | Lifestage | Provides a description of life stage. | Try It |
| Demographics | Additional Census Info | Additional information from the Census. | Try It |
| Education | LEA Name | Name identifying the Local Education Authority for this postcode. | Try It |
| Education | LEA Code | Code identifying the Local Education Authority for this postcode. | Try It |
| Education | Devolved Constituency Name | Devolved Constituency Name for this postcode (covers Scotland, Wales & NI). | |
| Education | Devolved Constituency Code | Devolved Constituency Code for this postcode (covers Scotland, Wales & NI). | |
| Education | POLAR3 Young | The participation of local areas (POLAR) classification groups show how likely young people are to participate in higher education across the UK by postcode. | Try It |
| Education | POLAR3 Adult | The participation of local areas (POLAR) classification groups show how likely young people are to participate in higher education across the UK by postcode. | Try It |
| Education | POLAR4 | POLAR4 classifies local areas across the UK according to the young participation rate in higher education. The rate is calculated by dividing the number of young people from each area who enter higher education aged 18 or 19 by the young population of that area. | Try It |
| Education | Deprivation Rank | The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is a measure of relative deprivation for small areas (Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). Scottish IMD also avalable. | Try It |
| Education | Deprivation Decile | The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is a measure of relative deprivation for small areas (Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). Scottish IMD also avalable. | Try It |
| Education | LEP Name | Learning Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Name at the Postcode entered. | Try It |
| Education | LEP Code | Learning Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Code at the Postcode entered. | Try It |
| Education | LEP Name 2 | This is an optional data field and requires a licence to return. | Try It |
| Education | LEP Code 2 | This is an optional data field and requires a licence to return. | Try It |
| Education | AEB Area | Adult Education Budget (AEB) shows which postcodes fall within devolved authority areas. | Try It |
| Education | AEB Source | Source of funding responsible for Adult Education Budget at this postcode. | Try It |
| Education | AEB Effective From/To | Shows the date that the AEB funding was the responsibility of the AEB Source returned. | Try It |
| Education | TUNDRA LSOA | Tracking underrepresentation by area (TUNDRA) classifies local areas in England into five groups (quintiles) based on the proportion of state-funded school pupils who participate in higher education. LSOA uses 2011 lower super output area (LSOA) as the definition of local area. | Try It |
| Education | TUNDRA MSOA | Tracking underrepresentation by area (TUNDRA) classifies local areas in England into five groups (quintiles) based on the proportion of state-funded school pupils who participate in higher education. MSOA uses 2011 middle super output area (MSOA) as the definition of local area. | Try It |
| General | UPRN | This is an optional data field and requires a licence to return. | Try It |
| Geographical | Grid E | Grid Easting as a 6 digit reference. | Try It |
| Geographical | Grid N | Grid Northing as a 6 digit reference. | Try It |
| Geographical | Latitude | Latitude representation of Grid Reference in Decimal Format (WGS84) 9 digit reference (53.6655850). | Try It |
| Geographical | Longitude | Longitude representation of Grid Reference in Decimal Format (WGS84) 9 digit reference (53.6655850). | Try It |
| Property Characteristics | Multiple Residency Indicator | Indicates if an address is a multiple residency address, e.g., a flat within a building with a single delivery point. This is a single character – O for Multiple Residency Owner, M for Multiple Residency address. 1 where the flag is indicated, 0 where the flag is not valid. This is only available to Multiple Residency users. | Try It |
| Property Characteristics | Not Yet Built | Identify and deliver services to the addresses of properties that are at the planning and construction stage. | Try It |
AFD software products which may interest you
Address validation saves time and money. It is the backbone of excellent service, customer retention, data analysis, prevention of duplicates, enhanced reputation and more profitable business performance.
Maintaining a clean, duplicate-free customer, supporter, student, member or prospect address database underpins the foundations of effective marketing, high-quality customer service and punctual delivery.
Email validation saves time and money. A simple mistake in typing an email address makes it impossible for an email to reach the right recipient. For a business or service-based organisation, this can be costly to both revenue and reputation.
Accurate phone and mobile data allows your institute to
maintain contact and relationships with students. From initial interest, to enrolment and duty of care. AFD’s solution helps ensure accurate communication.
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.