A fundamental business improvement

Preston’s College has positioned itself in the heart of its community in the North of England. With thousands of students aged 14-18, studying vocational, A-Level, and post-school courses, Preston’s College also prides itself on its extensive adult education services, apprenticeship provision and working with employers to employ students of all ages.

Further education is a vital step for school leavers. Whether laying a solid foundation to enter the workplace or achieving the necessary results to gain a place at University, Preston’s College is motivated by its students’ future possibilities.

We sat down with Rick Giagnacovo, Information Systems Manager at Preston’s College, to discuss some of the challenges the college has faced around its students’ address data.

“Throughout the year, we enter a lot of learner details onto our systems. We use that information for engagement and reporting – it’s essential we get those details correct.

From the start of our process in looking for an alternative supplier to provide our address validation, AFD Software made it clear that that they are specialists in the higher education sector. Working with an organisation that understands the sector was a big draw.

Our previous address validation solution was seen as an overhead tied exclusively to two of our systems and could not be used elsewhere in the college where there was also a requirement for accurate addresses at the point of entry. A major limitation we found was only being able to validate addresses by a correct postcode. Since making the upgrade to AFD Software, users can now search by address fragments as well as by postcodes – very handy for our students who may not know their exact address details.”

Postcode Plus from AFD Software has allowed Preston’s College to deploy essential rapid, accurate address validation throughout the college.

An education in integration

At AFD Software, we are constantly seeking new ways to improve our services and functionality to directly benefit our end users, offering integrations with most systems. With our patented Robot technology and technical expertise, we can always find a way for our powerful Name, Address, and Bank validation solutions to work within your organisation.

Discussing AFD Software’s implementation at Preston’s College, Rick goes on to say: “It just worked, the installer was simple – two clicks and it was working! There was no impact on our users and no additional training was required.

Before the introduction of AFD Software, we would have to switch to a different screen to access the address lookup functionality. Now we can update student details all from one system – saving time and staff frustrations.

This is a fundamental business improvement that I could not recommend highly enough to other colleges and further education organisations.” Preston’s College made the upgrade to AFD Software and now reap the benefits.

AFD Software has been helping organisations in the education sector like Preston’s College for over 30 years, improving business processes and helping achieve goals. Today, thousands of organisations in multiple sectors directly benefit from AFD Software’s address management solutions in a variety of environments. How could your organisation benefit?