Poor quality address data is a serious risk to your business. Hopewiser gets data management right.

The value of your business will increasingly depend on the successful management of one of your most important assets – your data. Can you afford to risk the future of your business by relying on poor quality data?

“Data problems caused a US$8m loss in the fiscal year instead of a gain in one business unit,” concluded a US mid-market survey in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Risk Management Solutions Data Management Survey 2001.

In the Australian mid-market the report found similar problems, concluding that, “Bad quality data has had a very long and negative impact that still exists.”

Getting data management right
Remaining competitive in today’s data-rich and data-reliant global market place is a challenge for all businesses. The real commercial benefits that flow from getting data management right arise when management across all levels within an organisation recognises that a commitment to data quality, underpinned by a coherent data management strategy, is no longer an option – it’s a prerequisite of business success.

A recent survey comprising 600 of the world’s leading companies across three continents – including the United States, the UK and Australia – found that 75% of respondents experienced problems as a result of data quality issues. These ranged from extra costs incurred to run their business, through to inability to deliver orders. Researchers also found that only 40% of respondents claimed a high level of confidence in the quality of their data, while less than 20% were confident about the quality of other organisations’ data.

Customer data
Company data is collected through numerous channels and is used for different purposes: stock inventory data; financial data; human resources data; and customer data. While all are vitally important, it’s your customer data that plays the major role in the success of your business. Its value, however, is dependent on its accuracy, and how effectively it is used.

With more than 3m Australians (17%) changing address each year, according to Australia Post’s National Change of Address Database, it’s a constant challenge for businesses to keep track of their customers and maintain their databases.

Ask yourself these questions.

• How accurate is your database?
  
• Is your organisation using its data as a source of competitive advantage?
  
• How much do you value your customers?

Improvements
Until recently, business had no benchmark to follow when addressing mail or capturing data for entry into a customer database. Australia Post’s barcoding initiative and the introduction of the Address Matching Approval System (AMAS) has changed all that. Before you can barcode your mail, you need to cleanse and update your customer database by washing it against Australia Post’s Postal Address File (PAF) using AMAS-approved software.

The PAF is the country’s most comprehensive and up-to-date list of all delivery addresses, owned and maintained by Australia Post.

You cannot apply for the barcoded PreSort postage discounts available from Australia Post without preparing your customer database using AMAS-approved address-matching software. It works by validating, correcting, and matching address records stored on your customer database against the same address data in the PAF. Only when an address match occurs will a Delivery Point Identifier (DPID) be returned with the address.

The DPID is the brain of the barcode. It’s a unique eight-digit number that has been allocated by Australia Post to every deliverable address in the country, and it’s the DPID that is converted into a barcode for printing.

Using AMAS-approved address-matching software like Hopewiser’s ATLAS and RAINS+, you can be confident your address data is always 100% accurate and reliable because it has been subjected to a rigorous process of address validation, correction and matching against PAF.

Address matching software
A range of AMAS-approved software solutions are now on the market in Australia. They include batch address matching software, bureau services and online rapid key address matching software that can offer up to 50% direct labour savings in a call centre environment.

Hopewiser, the quality leader in the address management market in the UK, and a supplier of software solutions to companies around the world, is making serious inroads in the Australian market.

“We are continuing to win business across the country as customers realise that there is more to address management software than just price,” says Matthew Good, General Manager at Hopewiser Australia.

“While we are in the address management software market, we consider ourselves as much more than software vendors. We’re risk managers – aiming to help companies minimise the risk of losing touch with their customers and maximise the potential of their customer database.”

Poor quality data
Consider this scenario. An industry leader with a customer database of 1m records is losing contact with 1% of its customers every year. Each customer is worth an average of A$50 per annum to the company. That’s 10,000 customers.

The implications are severe. Annual lost sales would equal A$500,000.
Even with a database of, say, 100,000 records, annual lost sales would be A$50,000.
Who can afford to risk losing A$500,000 or even A$50,000 per year by ignoring the simple fact that wrong addresses cost money and correct addresses make money? The answer, of course, is nobody.

This scenario could have been caused by one of a number of problems – address records that are incomplete, others that are simply incorrect, duplicate records appearing not twice but three or four times on your database, or difficulties merging data from other sources into your customer database.

Reducing the risk
Hopewiser has been developing address management software solutions for 20 years. Its software is of the highest quality – proven time and again to achieve the best accurate address matching rates compared with any other products on the market.
“It all comes down to analysing the cost-benefit of adopting an address management strategy using Hopewiser’s software solutions versus other products on the market,” says Mr Good.

“The productivity gains achieved using our fast and easy-to-operate software, combined with our excellent record of returning the highest accurate address match rates in the market, means you minimise the costs and maximise the returns of each and every direct marketing campaign.

“An address is either right or wrong. It cannot be 80% right. Our software only returns correctly validated addresses.”

Harness the power of your customer data
As industry leaders offering innovative, flexible and cost-effective solutions, Hopewiser can help you maximise the potential of your customer database with ATLAS and RAINS+.

ATLAS-advanced and flexible batch processing software. Hopewiser’s AMAS-approved ATLAS batch processing software can overcome all these problems. The most advanced and comprehensive address management system in Australia, ATLAS will increase the accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness of your customer database, thereby reducing postage costs and improving relationships with your customers.
Designed with maximum flexibility in mind, ATLAS provides a total address management solution in a modular format that is easy to integrate.

ATLAS’ batch address cleansing and correction functionality returns the correct PAF address and associated Delivery Point Identifier (DPID) to your database, enabling access to Australia Post’s barcode PreSort mailing discounts. Its interactive address capture and retrieval capability minimises the volume of ‘return to sender’ mail in every mail campaign. ATLAS also provides manual address correction.

ATLAS will intelligently locate and remove costly duplicate addresses using various name and address keys. It generates a report on suspected duplicates, allowing you to alter the status of each record before filtering and merging record fields. Its reformatting capability assists with merging dissimilar databases into one, while its address list generator produces mailing lists by suburb or postcode simply and quickly using keyword filtration options. The capabilities of ATLAS also extend to producing address labels or printing address envelopes correctly formatted and with a barcode.

Suitable for most platforms, namely Windows, UNIX, AS 400 and mainframes, ATLAS is available to customers with a single or multiple user licence, or a server licence.

Maintaining data integrity
Implementing systems to cleanse and update existing databases is the first step in a sound address management strategy. However, how can you ensure the integrity of addresses added to your database in the future?

RAINS+ the true rapid addressing solution. Hopewiser’s recently-released RAINS+ is the answer. Address capture is simple and fast with the AMAS-approved RAINS+. Users enter minimal address data – as few as nine keystrokes are all that is needed for a complete and correct address to be returned immediately, with its DPID appended.

Ideal for any business involved in capturing address information, RAINS+ increases data entry efficiency and effectiveness through faster and more accurate data capture, and minimises the number of keystrokes required to return a full address, thereby reducing data entry errors. In addition, the one-button data entry facility means new addresses can be added easily and quickly.

Bureau services
If an in-house address management software solution is not for you, or if you’re not sure where to start, consider outsourcing to Hopewiser’s bureau service.

Hopewiser’s competitively-priced and comprehensive range of custom services includes practical advice for designing and implementing database management systems, as well as database cleansing, merging and purging.

In conclusion
Companies that manage their customer data as a strategic resource and invest in its quality will be streets ahead in terms of reputation and profitability from those that fail to do so. The time to act is now.

For more information:
Telephone: +61 3 9909 7230
Email: enquiries@hopewiser.com.au
Website: www.hopewiser.com.au