A new, upgraded version of AFD’s Postcode Evolution service (the server solution for accessing AFD’s datasets) has been completed by our Technical teams and is now ready for all AFD customers to benefit from.
“Performance Evolution” has taken the excellent foundation of the Postcode Evolution Service and added significant upgrades to three key areas, namely; Speed, Resilience, and Facilitating new features.
Speed
AFD’s Postcode Evolution engine is fast, as all current users will attest. Performance Evolution has seen the average lookup speed in a real-world environment increase by between 4 and 15 times! Your choice of deployment; Hosted (cloud service) or Installed (integrated on your own network) will determine the performance increase you enjoy.
Additional features usually slow things down, but the improvements in speed in AFD’s Performance Evolution further highlight just how effective the substantial work on the data engine has been.
Resilience
AFD Software has invested heavily into resilience so that we maintain optimal service levels to all customers. Customers trust us to maintain reliable services 24/7/365 and we do just that.
To further advance our resilience, Performance Evolution is now set up as a cluster of services with built-in redundancy so that when a fault is detected it is resolved automatically and without impacting service levels. In short, detected issues are resolved faster – but service levels remain robust, reliable and fully available.
FastFind Enhancements
AFD’s FastFind functionality has been incorporated into our range of data validation solutions to help users find the correct address by spotting typing errors or missing characters in any address fragment entered, and still returning the best match.
With the latest version of FastFind, both its performance and relevance of results have been improved. As a result, multiple requests can be handled simultaneously and faster than ever before. Results are now displayed in the most relevant order based on the data entered, reverting back to postcode order if there is no relevant match
TypeAhead
TypeAhead further improves our users’ experience using AFD’s data validation tools. As data is entered, the full address is predicted and narrowed down as more data is provided. This saves time, key strokes, and of course data errors!
How to benefit from Performance upgrades
These significant upgrades are now available Free of Charge to all Postcode Evolution customers. AFD is recommending all customers make the upgrade and benefit from both the enhanced performance and additional features. If you choose not to upgrade, nothing will break and your software will run as it always has – with excellence. Accessing Performance Evolution will depend on your choice of deployment: Installed or Hosted.
AFD Software donation providing emergency assistance to Indonesia.
In 2008, the AFD Group announced the donation of a brand new Kodiak Bush Aircraft for use by Christian charity Mission Aviation Fellowship in Borneo.
The new Kodiak aircraft visited the Isle of Man in October 2009 on its journey from the manufacturers in the USA to Asia. A major open day was held at the Andreas Airfield – and many of AFD’s staff, as well as members of the Manx Community were able to view and fly in the aircraft – then registered as N97 10M.
Since arriving in Indonesia, and being re-registered as PK-MEB, the Kodiak has carried out hundreds of flights in East Kalimantan, Borneo – providing a vital lifeline to many villages where overland travel is all but impossible – and saving many lives when accidents and medical emergencies have occurred.
Following the recent terrible disaster in Sulawesi, PK-MEB has now been deployed to provide emergency assistance. Peter Neal from MAF’s Kalimantan programme flew to Balikpapan on Monday to pick up MAF’s Disaster Response (DR) specialists (Rick Emenaker, Wilbert Rietveld, and John Gorneflo) as well as their 1.2 meter rapid-deploy ‘VSAT’ dish, which will be an invaluable communications tool.
Once landing permissions had been received, Peter flew PK-MEB on to Palu (one of the areas of Sulawesi worst-hit by the earthquake and tsunami) on Tuesday morning, arriving just before midday local time. Since then, MAF has been communicating with, and providing coordination services for, a number of partner organizations – including Ethnos360 Aviation, Helivida, and ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA).
Already, survey flights around the Palu area have begun to reveal the extent of the devastation – homes have been flattened, bridges have been swept away, and massive landslides have blocked the road networks.
Alison Dorricott speaks on behalf of the entire AFD team when she says “All our AFD Staff Team are delighted that their hard work and energy in donating this aircraft is now further providing help and assistance to those in such great need – it just goes to show how we on a small island in the Irish Sea can make a vital difference for others on islands so far away”
Click here for more information about AFD’s Donation.
Learn more about MAF | Donate to MAF
AFD Software’s new phone-validation feature can greatly reduce the number of errors (or invalid phone numbers) entered into your organisation’s records. You will have much more confidence in your data and customers will receive the communications you intended!
Just one incorrect digit can lead to your customer missing essential communications, order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders and special offers.
AFD’s Telephone Validation solution validates UK landline, UK mobile and International telephone numbers at the point of entry. In addition, it shows whether the telephone number is currently “live” (but note that it does not verify that the number is correctly associated with a named individual or organisation).
On the rise
GDPR Compliance
GDPR (article 5.1) requires that “Personal data shall be: (d) accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date”. AFD’s new service can help you meet the obligation to enter and maintain accurate, reliable information.
This summer has seen recording-breaking temperatures across the UK and climate change has been more visible than ever.
AFD Software is leading the field amongst technology companies in the British Isles to reduce its carbon footprint as it actively seeks ways to become greener as an organisation.
Since AFD moved its HQ to the Mountain View Innovation Centre (MVIC) in 2015, over 3000 trees have been planted on site. The environmental importance of trees is hugely significant as they trap carbon dioxide and provide oxygen in return. Per year, a mature tree is able to absorb 22 kg of CO2 on average. The new trees are already providing additional habitats to a whole variety of birds and wildlife, which will only increase as they mature.
A Hive of Environmental Activity
The largest solar array on the Isle of Man now occupies one of the roofs at MVIC. Two years in the making, its launch couldn’t have been planned any better: the panels came online in June, and were able to make good use of the island’s record 290 hours of sunshine that month! In the first four months of operation, AFD has been self-generating all the electricity used on site, saving over 12,558 kg in CO2 emissions.
Managing the world’s largest online Football, Tennis, Rugby and Cricket stores comes with its own set of unique challenges. We caught up with Nick Marlow – Project Manager of Platform Operations at Pro:Direct Sport – to find out more.
From Humble Beginnings
“Starting life as a sportswear goods store in Torquay in 1981, Torre Sports served customers in the local area for 17 years before re-branding as Pro:Direct Sport. Fully embracing the dot-com boom, the online business was launched in 1999 – and has since become a household name and the go-to place for many sports enthusiasts.”
Aiming specifically at the exclusive sportswear market, Pro:Direct Sport now hold the largest market share in the UK for this sector. Through a mixture of exclusive products, the latest available technologies, brand positioning and excellent customer service – the company has been able to achieve their growth objectives.
Tailored Communication
Keeping up with the ever-changing trends online as well as customer preferences takes a lot of work, planning and system flexibility. Nick continues “We use email extensively when communicating with our customers – and we are careful to tailor our messages appropriately to the customer’s gender and sport interest – as well as taking account of their brand and range preferences.
Communication is not just limited to emails and visitors to the site. We have channels on all the popular social media platforms to help us engage with as wide an audience as possible.
Interviews with sports stars, ‘unboxing’ exclusive products and training tips are just a few of the 1000+ videos on our YouTube channel that has over 50,000 subscribers.”
Accurate, Flexible, Managed
Having exclusive products and the largest range of sports apparel online is a key factor in customers choosing Pro:Direct Sport; another highly important factor of course is making sure the orders get to the customers – this relies on contact data being correct.
“We had the option for an installed or hosted solution and went down the hosted route to ensure our customers can still place orders in the event of our own systems failure. It gives us one less thing to maintain and worry about.”
For the past 14 years, AFD Software has provided Pro:Direct Sport with address lookup functionality for the UK and for the past 8 years for International addresses too.
Nick goes on to say “AFD’s solution was initially used as a desktop service for telephone orders. As the focus switched to online so did our requirement from AFD Postcode Plus and WorldAddress are both deployed on the website to ensure speed and accuracy during the customer’s buying journey, regardless of where they need the product delivered.
Our customers expect the data entry process of ordering goods to be seamless, easy and error-free. Only allowing correct addresses to be entered eliminates lost orders and ensures customer satisfaction – essential to our business.
During a planned upgrade from our legacy Enterprise Relationship Planning (ERP) system, we had to be confident services would be uninterrupted during the changeover. Ensuring our customers would continue to be served with excellence was a key requirement – and AFD delivered.”
Both the UK and International address validation are deployed as managed services. Nick explains “It gives us one less thing to maintain and worry about. We had the option for an installed or hosted solution and went down the hosted route to ensure our customers can still place orders in the event of our own systems failure.”
Pro:Direct Sport facilitates a customer experience that is quick, accurate and hassle-free. Through flexible deployments and changing requirements they have been supported by both UK and International address validation provided by AFD Software.
Just over a month has passed since the General Data Protection Regulation became law around Europe. I’m sure you have received enough emails containing the subjects; “GDPR” “opt-in” and “subscribe” to last a lifetime! Many of these coming from organisations you had never previously heard of or remember giving any details to.
At AFD, we took the approach to work on our data validation solutions behind the scenes, ensuring that they and all their users were compliant with the new law. We felt this approach would have real value and effectiveness without needing to bombard all our customers with yet more GDPR emails. If we’ve achieved our objective – and thanks to some hard work over the past couple of years – you’ll hardly have noticed the significant changes we’ve had to make!
Perhaps the most significant part of this process was to change the data update process for our Names & Numbers product by providing free weekly suppressions to deal with data subjects who wish to opt out of our data streams. Under the new regulations, any individual who chooses to exercise their right to have their personal data removed (suppressed from data) must have their request met within a one-month timeframe. Your latest Names & Numbers update will have taken care of this obligation on our products – and on you as a data processor – and has been done behind the scenes, at no additional charge.
As always, if you would like friendly advice from a real human being with a name – and the knowledge and skill to help you – do get in touch with me, Oliver Lenihan, Head of Customer Services by email oliver.lenihan@afd.co.uk or on 01624 811711.
2018 marked the 35th anniversary of AFD’s humble beginnings in a small Scottish village. We take a look at the AFD story – growing from a home-based business into the leading data validation solution provider in the UK.
The AFD Journey
Starting in 1983 as a home-based business in Scotland, AFD began life providing office and computer equipment and maintaining charity databases – especially their mailing lists. This naturally progressed into the supply of both computer systems and computer training to the charity sector in 1985. AFD MailCode (since renamed MailSaver), a solution that sorts mailing data to achieve maximum discounts on postage, was launched in 1988.
Having built up considerable expertise in addressing, AFD Postcode (which offered street level address entry and validation) was launched in late 1994, and in 1995 AFD Software Ltd was incorporated to focus on the new aspect of the AFD business. Costing a fraction of comparable products, AFD Postcode brought rapid addressing within reach of smaller organisations – and, even more importantly, allowed it to be closely integrated into a wide range of everyday applications that used addresses.
Following rapid expansion (still in the house where AFD began) the business needed a new base from which to expand and grow, so relocated to Ramsey in the Isle of Man in 1997. That growth and development has continued, always paralleled by investment in high-quality infrastructure, including new buildings purchased in 1998 and again in 2005. More recently, 2015 saw the move to the current head office, situated at the 25-acre Mountain View Innovation Centre site owned and developed by the AFD Group, located just outside of Ramsey.
Today, AFD Software serves some of the UK’s largest (and smallest) organisations across every sector with a host of solutions that validate Name, Address, Email, Phone and Bank data within business-critical systems and applications.
Despite both growth and success, AFD Software still retains its culture and identity. Staff feel they are part of a family and customers are served and supported rather than sold to and forgotten – evidenced in a number of very long-standing customer relationships.
Long-standing customer relationships
AFD’s data validation solutions allow organisations to better serve their customers, donors, members or other contacts with speed, accuracy, a truly professional image and quality customer experience.
In an age of instability, where loyalty and reliability have become a rarity, AFD has demonstrated that long-term business relationships are hugely beneficial for customer and supplier – building trust and eliminating the enormous costs of change.
Why customers continue to use AFD
Damart UK is a major mail-order firm with a £100M+ annual turnover; they have been an AFD customer for the past 22 years. Discussing the relationship with AFD, Ian Auker, Network, Communications and Service Delivery Manager commented: “With various systems throughout the organisation that all require accurate data, we have multiple uses of AFD solutions that facilitate this including: a UNIX-based version of AFD Postcode Plus for our contact centre and mail order data entry systems; an XML-based web service version of AFD Postcode Plus; and WorldAddress for our USA and website systems.
AFD Software has always allowed us – and continues to allow us – to better serve our customers by making technical transitions happen – reliably.”
Parkdean Holiday Parks, now Parkdean Resorts, have been an AFD customer for the last 17 years. Claire Phipps, Contact Centre Manager at Parkdean, describes her key target for calls and how AFD Software helps them to achieve it: “When taking customer calls our goal is a 5-minute conversation, with all essential contact information captured in just 10 seconds, leaving the rest of the time to talk about the holiday.
Without AFD’s solution validating the contact data, call duration would go up, I’d risk losing calls, increase the risk of duplicating customer records, waiting times would be longer and customers would be disappointed. We would also have to decipher place names like Merthyr Tydfil!
There is a cost when the customer waits – frustrated callers are simply less likely to buy – with AFD we serve customers faster and better.”
Collective Experience
If you add up the collective Address Management experience in the AFD team it is well north of four hundred years – over 430 in fact. To go back in time 430 years would take us to the 1580’s – the decade in which chocolate was commercially introduced to Europe!
Staff Longevity
“I believe there are a number of reasons for AFD’s continued growth and retention of customers. We understand addresses and have built quality products which serve customers well. We have a team that build strong relationships with customers.
We provide support which often goes above and beyond to assist customers in their own environments. We have committed staff across all areas of the business from developing and testing products to selling, supporting, administrating and maintaining the cash-flow that any business needs to survive.
We work together to be strong in all we do to allow innovation while ensuring that’s backed up with good administration and realistic expectations. I also believe we have God’s favour on AFD as a business as David and Alison (Directors) and others seek to put God first and invest in His kingdom and other projects wisely.”
“Being here as long as I have, I have watched the company grow and evolve into the success it is today. In the early days we only sold standard, out-of-the-box products but now we also offer more bespoke, tailor-made solutions and all of our staff are specialists within their own departments when delivering these solutions to our customers. We have a fantastic working environment with great on-site facilities.”
“After first starting work with AFD back in Ayrshire, I chose to work for AFD because I like helping people, and I enjoy being able to research technologies and products that help our customers and internal staff to do specific jobs. As an organisation, we have both grown the customer base and been able to retain customers due to good products, at good prices - supported by good support, administration and sales teams.”
Infrastructure
Five separate high bandwidth internet connections across two major telecommunications suppliers, in addition to two 4G cellular telephone aerials on site, ensure internet connectivity at MVIC.
Power provision is equally well secured with two separate connections to the National Grid, linked to the on-site sub-station and transformer gear. Our three-phase 128 Kw self-start emergency generator (pictured below) has enough fuel to run for a week and protects our power supply through a dedicated control room – with separate feeds to the data centre, as well as all points of the site.
In short, we have invested in the present and future of AFD Software and applied as many failsafes as feasibly possible to keep all systems operational, at all times.
AFD wasn’t the only notable tech-based creation in the 1980s, with the IBM PC, CDs, VCRs, Personal Camcorders and Space Invaders all notable mentions. Discussing the past and looking to the future, Group Managing Director David Dorricott says :“For over thirty-five years AFD has been committed to helping businesses, not-for-profits and public-sector organisations to manage address data. We have built up enormous expertise and experience across all computing platforms and system sizes – and are the “go-to” resource for all organisations who want efficient, reliable address data at the core of their systems.
The business is currently investing heavily in human talent, physical infrastructure and digital resources to allow it to further expand and consolidate its position as the world leading specialists on UK addressing. As other organisations lose their identity through merger or acquisition, AFD is determined to keep its identity and culture and, as God allows, remains committed to its wide customer base for the next thirty-five years.”
Imagine being able to revolutionise education with relational-based, project-based learning that arouses and sustains a child’s curiosity.
What about using horse carriages to increase the confidence of those unable to ride and to improve their physical and mental health?
Or being present in 37 countries, exposing poverty and helping with practical ways to end it by working to change current systems that marginalise the poor.
The charities that do these things are Chapel Street Community Fund, Manx Carriage Driving 4 Disabled and Christian Aid. At the annual AFD Group charity event in December they told stories of the impact on thousands of lives and families.
The event, held at the Group HQ at the Mountain View Innovation Centre on the Isle of Man, celebrated the fact that more than 60 charities nominated by AFD staff and Directors received a total of over £1,250,000 during 2017. David Dorricott, AFD Group Managing Director said “A core motivation for profit is to make life better for others. The lives of thousands of people have been enriched and empowered through carefully-channelled funds. We are delighted that such a wide range of charities has captured the imagination of our staff.”
See all the charities supported by the 2017 event here.
After four years of preparation and debate, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was finally approved by the EU Parliament on 14th April 2016.
The EU GDPR replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. Its purpose is to synchronise laws on data privacy throughout Europe and to align how organisations handle data privacy.
The regulations entered into force on 25th May 2018.
Accuracy
When it comes to how AFD Software can help your organisation in relation to GDPR compliance we know that our main contribution is in the realm of contact data accuracy.
The regulations are clear – Article 5.1 of the GDPR states that “Personal data shall be: (d) accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay”.
So, what could go wrong?
Getting contact data right has two central aspects. Accuracy at the point of collection, then keeping it that way.
An unclear delivery address, an incomplete name, a mis-keyed email address or phone number can lead to the intended person not receiving the communication, the goods or the services. Worse still, the delivery may go to the wrong person. People make mistakes, in fact mistakes are very easy to make. The cost of mistakes to your organisation can be considerable. This is not just about keeping a new regulation – it is about retaining your customers, maintaining your reputation and reducing the costs of correction. It’s about repeat business and loyalty.
When address data was originally collected it may have been accurate. But address data changes. Over the past 12 months alone, there were over 90,000 changes to addresses and nearly 500,000 new addresses added to the Royal Mail PAF file. So what can you do?
Act NOW!
As a first step, we recommend you upload all address data on your systems to our free secure, confidential data-healthcheck service. This will produce a clear report showing you the condition of the data. After you receive the report one of our experienced data consultants will be able to help you navigate what to do next.
The Historical Association brings together people who love history, study history and teach history. Its members and subscribers want access to an unparalleled depth of history-related learning resources and to engage with a like-minded community. The Association has delivered this as a charity since it was founded in 1906.
Today it is a vibrant organisation serving over 27,000 people – and through them influencing far beyond this number in schools, colleges and universities. The Historical Association has a network of over 50 UK branches which run over 350 events per year.
Employing just 10 staff, the Association “punches above its weight”. By using efficient systems, processes and data, it is able to serve members through increased focus on publication of journals, magazines and podcasts, and many other services.
Improve, Upgrade, Automate
Emily Randall is the Membership Manager. For four years she has worked to improve the Association’s membership systems and increase engagement from members and subscribers.
Emily explains: “We had a legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which was not fully integrated with our website. This led to a lot of manual work to find and eliminate duplicate records and update details. We needed a new integrated system.”
Emily had clear outcomes in mind. These included maximum automation and self-service by members, elimination and prevention of duplicate records, minimising internal administrative work and having all data connected to each member in one place. In addition, she wanted the organisation to have dynamic, relevant and clear reports.
Emily continues, “Our careful stewardship of revenue from member subscriptions means we can add more value to members. The benefits of process improvement and data accuracy go beyond the financial. They release the passion of our staff from administration to higher value tasks which add further value to our members.”
Accuracy, Service and Confidence
The Association believes that member acquisition and retention and the collection of membership subscriptions rely on address data being correct – so that journals, renewal notices, and other communications reach the intended recipients.
Emily concludes: “Having used AFD for address validation within some of our legacy systems we were familiar with the solutions and knew they were reliable. We had a good relationship with our account manager and were keen to continue using AFD products. Putting AFD at the heart of our new system – which incorporated new functionality for member self-service and internal staff use – has been easy. Occasionally mail is returned. This can be due to people moving and not updating us and is now easily manageable. We are confident in our data and can concentrate on content and member services.”
Time and Money Saved
The Historical Association has significantly reduced the time spent on mundane but essential administrative tasks – including identifying and eliminating duplicates; and re-keying address data entered into one system onto another.
AFD Postcode Plus software plays a hidden but active role in helping the Historical Association expand the number of members, cut costs and improve data accuracy.
Time and Money Saved
The Historical Association has significantly reduced the time spent on mundane but essential administrative tasks – including identifying and eliminating duplicates; and re-keying address data entered into one system onto another.
AFD Postcode Plus software plays a hidden but active role in helping the Historical Association expand the number of members, cut costs and improve data accuracy.
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.