Data management specialist UKChanges has added a number of new services to its data cleansing and enhancement portfolio, further increasing the range of options available via their bureau and UKChanges>online.

Firstly, the addition of the National Deceased Register data from The Ark will complement the range of deceased data suppression options available to the direct marketer. Already, live projects have confirmed that NDR delivers an average of 30% uplift when used alongside accepted industry files, helping to ensure that well-intentioned communications causing distress becomes an even rarer occurrence.

UKChanges have also been busy acquiring new data sources for the Extra Numbers service they offer to supplement the volume of telephone numbers available. With third party opt-in, the new pools of both landline and mobile telephone numbers have been welcomed by both existing and new customers who have achieved up to 50% increase in match rates.

And, as if this wasn’t enough, the number of forwarding addresses available through UKChanges has also seen a significant boost with the inclusion of Experian’s Absolute Contacts data. As a result, UKChanges>online has become the only non-Experian web-based data management platform licensed to provide the service.

Mike Fox, Director, said: “As an independent data management company, it’s important that we constantly assess the files available in the market and their value to our clients. We license those that we feel will bring real benefits. We also continue to develop our service in line with our customers’ requirements, which is reflected in our launch of a highly capable multi-file deduplication process within UKChanges>online.”

The newly released multi-file dedupe service not only lets marketers harmonise data from different sources to create net files for outbound activity, but plays a key roll in the ongoing development of the ‘Hosted’ services within UKChanges>online. Now, within just a few clicks, marketers can upload their files, establish a hierarchy for matching and begin processing – quickly and accurately.

So, is that it? Apparently not. Mike says; “We have many ideas! Development is underway on the next round of refinements and additions to our service offer, which will be available soon. We have no plans to slow down”

The UKChanges Development team have surfaced again to roll-out the latest refinements and enhancements to UKChanges>online - so this is a quick overview of what will be added whilst the system is unavailable on Saturday 18th December 2010.

File upload improvements: You will now be able to load fixed length files to the Clean tab and tweak the field layouts, as well as uploading PGP encrypted files that use ‘cryptographic keys’. Furthermore, in the interest of increased data security, we will now send all Results as self-extracting PGP encrypted files, offering either pre-exchanged ‘cryptographic keys’ or random passwords that will be emailed along with the corresponding Job Stats Report.

New – ‘Ready to Mail’ file: When you log-in to collect your Results you will now see an additional ‘Ready to Mail’ file which contains a copy of the submitted records that have been cleaned, suppressed, enhanced and prepared, ready to go straight to print and production – so your campaign can hit the doorsteps of our nation even faster.

This is a free labour-saver that will be available with all jobs where the services selected indicate that the file might be used for an immediate mailing – so basically every job that includes address processing and suppressions, plus one or two other service combinations.

Additional suppression matching controls: The Clean tab will now offer additional suppression matching controls that will allow you to stop processing ‘matched’ records against any further services. The previous stop processing option would only exclude matched records from further ‘suppression processing’.

Other exciting Clean tab developments: Brace yourselves, because we’ve also enhanced the functionality of the input telephone number compare service and added a telephone number source flag to Clean jobs, keeping you informed regarding which of the three datasets your appended telephone numbers were matched from – and, to save you a little more time, we’ve introduced the ability to skip the ‘file detection’ screen in the Clean tab when you are reprocessing a file that the system has seen before. Lovely.

Supply tab upgrades: Further dataset additions and revisions relate to the selections available in the Supply tab. Here we have added the extra telephone number datasets available in the Clean tab, as well as new Water Regions data and Fire Service coverage data.

We have also had a complete refresh of the Cameo selection options, overhauled the TV Regions data and added new categories, updated the UK Parliamentary Constituency boundaries, updated our Town and County selections and resolved a number of minor postcode mapping issues associated to the new ONS data.

Most significantly for the Supply tab, we have amended the base contact level selections to ensure that the system selects as many records as possible from the UK Consumer File Electoral Roll dataset before looking to top-up with records from other sources.

Hosted service enhancements: In other areas, the Development team have cracked on with a number of refinements to the Hosted data services we offer through UKChanges>online, providing additional functionality and increasing the speed and ease of data uploads and refreshes.

Credit Card payments: The last change of note is the launch of credit card payment facilities and a revision of the system sign-on process that will make it even quicker for new users to log-in and start processing data.

So, until the next update, we hope that you find this round of enhancements useful and encourage you to contact us with any specific refinements that you would like to see implemented.

For further information on any of these changes or to discuss your data management requirements, please contact your Account Manager or get in touch using the details on the contact us page.

Regards,

The Team at UKChanges

The first half of 2010 has been busy, with the release of our Hosted data services in beta, lots of internal development work focussing on making our systems even faster and more robust, and the addition of a selection of new cleansing and enhancement options that will help you develop a closer understanding of your customers.

Following is a quick round-up of the latest new service options added to the UKChanges portfolio:


Hosted Data Service  


Absolute Movers  


Email Addresses  


Consumer Lifestyle Attributes  


Wealth Profiling  



That’s all for now – but the wheels of development never stop so we’ll be back with another catch-up when the next round of new services and options are made available.
If you require further information on any of these new services, or would like to discuss a forthcoming project, please feel free to call us on 01926 626300 or email us at info@ukchanges.com.

These are the key goals of UKChanges>online – and to keep up our end of the bargain, we’ve added a couple more screening options to further improve your results.

Removing the details of goneaways is essential to direct marketing effectiveness. Continuing to try to communicate with customers or prospects who have moved house is a waste of time, effort and budget that ultimately diminishes returns and damages your brand.

The SubtrAction file is a new goneaway suppression service from Transactis that gathers goneaway data from the company’s pool of transactional data contributors.

The file contains over 14 million records – more than 4 million of which are unique to this dataset. For more details click here.

But that’s not all.

We’ve also added the TNT Premier File as a selectable option on our mail sortation service. So now, regardless of your preferred postal operator, you can gain access to a postal discount scheme and be rewarded for the accuracy, completeness and sortation of your address records.

Data management specialist UKChanges has launched a new web-based data supply service that Steven Day, director of the company, believes will revolutionise the market.

The new UKChanges>online:Supply service combines map-driven selections and real-time counts to save the user valuable time and reduce the effort involved in building prospect lists. By simplifying the process and removing the need for users to wait on a 'holding page' whilst the system counts the records, UKChanges believes it has removed two of the remaining barriers to broader market acceptance of online data supply services.

In addition to providing traditional pick-lists, the unique map-driven geographic selections of the new service overlay administrative and selected boundaries on to a UK outline, speeding and easing the process of making selections by allowing the user to simply click on the desired area of the map. The number of households or individuals within the selected areas are instantly counted and collated in a list that provides the user with an immediate total of the records available.

During the second stage of selections, where the user refines their lists by applying additional conditions such as age-ranges, ACORN profiles, wealth indicators, etc, the real-time counting engine provides immediate counts of the amended selections in each area, reflecting changes to the user's criteria as they are applied and ensuring that the user is always aware of the exact number of records selected.

Commenting on the launch, Steven Day, Director, UKChanges, said: "In designing UKChanges>online:Supply, our aim was to empower data planners and data buyers of all levels, providing them with the tools and information they require to quickly and effectively establish their own selections and build successful prospect lists."

Day continued: "We have looked at the market and there is nothing quite like this available. The limited number of established online data supply services cannot match the speed, flexibility and usability of our system. The user interface for our service is excellent and initial feedback from existing customers has been very positive."

As the second element in the company’s three module web-based data management system, UKChanges>online, Supply builds on the February release of the Clean service to extend the company’s offer in to a new market.

An established leader in online data cleansing, UKChanges has applied the same successful functional design principles to the development of UKChanges>online:Supply; creating a system that is fast, flexible and easy-to-use, with a strong, clear interface and a range of time and labour saving devices that put the user in control of their data requirements.

UKChanges, the established online data cleaning expert, is extending its service offer to provide direct marketers with a complete web-based data management solution.

Launching on 5th February, UKChanges>online will build on the company’s reputation as a leading supplier of internet-based marketing services and meet the industry’s demands for a single provider of secure, accessible and comprehensive online data management tools.

The UKChanges>online offer is divided in to three core areas: data cleaning; data hosting; and data supply.

Available as an end-to-end solution, or as a selectable menu of services, UKChanges>online will enable marketers to cleanse, manage, analyse, profile and enhance records from uploaded files or hosted databases, as well as identify and add new prospect information; all within a single, live web environment.

UKChanges>online capitalises on existing data management expertise, making customers and prospects aware of the growing range of services available and delivering the key tools that commercial data managers require through easy-to-use web interfaces.

The initial release, which will be presented to marketers at TFM, features a fully redesigned, refreshed and reinvigorated online data cleansing tool to replace the existing Direct Connect Online application.

Commenting on this element of the UKChanges>online service, Steven Day, Director, UKChanges, said: “We’ve taken all the knowledge, expertise and valuable user feedback that we’ve received since DCO was launched in 2000 and designed a user-friendly data cleaning service that retains the benefits of its predecessor and meets the needs of all data controllers, from the novice to the technically advanced.”

The data hosting element within UKChanges>online will offer users a comprehensive suite of hosting, management and analysis tools, allied with consultative services and database design and build skills. Users will also be able to source new B2B and B2C prospect records through the data supply function, quickly applying selection and exclusion criteria to a growing range of datasets.

The system, which has been designed to evolve with users requirements, will continue to be offered with full account management and technical support. UKChanges is also actively encouraging customers to suggest ways in which the service can be advanced, looking to regular users for assistance in ensuring that UKChanges>online keeps pace with the changing needs of the industry.

UKChanges, the data cleansing specialists, are pleased to announce the launch of a new partnership with Capscan, one of the leading suppliers of UK domestic and international addressing software.

Under the new agreement, UKChanges has provided a branded version of its established web-based data cleaning tool, Direct Connect Online, as an upgrade to the Capscan Integrity service that was launched last year.

Capscan Integrity customers will now have access to an extended range of data cleaning services, including goneaway and mortality suppressions, business and consumer data tagging and extraction, telephone numbering and preference service screens. Delivered via a flexible user interface and easy-to-follow Job Wizard, Capscan Integrity is available 24/7 from any internet-enabled PC, providing users with complete control over their data cleaning projects.

Commenting on the announcement, Steven Day, director, UKChanges, said: “Capscan is a major name in the address management industry and a long-standing partner to UKChanges. We are obviously delighted that it has chosen UKChanges to provide the new Integrity solution.”

He continued: “The ease of use and flexibility of the system mean that it is ideally suited to the varied base of customers that currently utilise the Capscan product suite. The new Integrity service complements Capscan’s address processing offer by allowing users to further enhance and validate the currency of contact details.”