Experian Offers Data Quality in the Cloud

12/02/2009

Sydney, 12 February 2009 - Experian QAS, a world-leading supplier of contact data management, today launched Australia's first fully supported Cloud Computing Data Capture solution, Experian QAS Pro On Demand.

By using the data quality service 'in the cloud', Experian QAS customers can reduce the cost associated with traditional software licensing agreements, hardware and implementation costs, annual software maintenance fees and continuous upgrade cycles.

Experian QAS On Demand automatically completes and standardises addresses as users are entering them into their existing database application.

Experian QAS Pro On Demand is available through Experian's On Demand web portal and is hosted in the company's own highly secure data centres to ensure network reliability and first class data security.

Experian QAS Pro On Demand is also available through salesforce.com's AppExchange. The two systems are integrated to provide benefits to salesforce.com customers including reduced keystrokes and improved data accuracy in the CRM system. QAS Pro On Demand is customisable to individual business' requirements to help them achieve more accurate data quality at the point of capture.

Inaccurate data can damage business relationships and increase costs
QAS Pro On Demand software is designed to instantly verify and search addresses against up-to-date high quality reference data sources including Australia Post's Postal Address File (PAF), NZ Post's Postal Address File and 13 other international data sets.

Customer data is collected by organisations through a variety of channels, including face to face, over the phone, via email, web forms and sometimes even through instant messaging. Human error can cause incorrect data to be collected, even before it is used.

Experian research indicates that for every incorrect postal address, it can cost between $15 and $25 to correct the mistake.

"During an economic downturn, companies are increasingly focused on servicing their existing customers to maintain profitability," said Matt Glasner, General Manager, Experian QAS. "Every time customer data is entered incorrectly, businesses risk damaging customer relationships and facing a financial loss.

"If businesses are to survive and thrive during this time, they need to deliver first-class customer service. That means ensuring they have captured all the necessary information about their customers correctly."

"Experian research has found that organisations can also lose up to 19 percent of revenue because they have bad data," said Glasner. "Today's businesses simply can't afford that cost. Being able to quickly, easily and reliably access data quality solutions is critical."

Security of data is a primary concern for Experian, which provides its solution through its own data centres. "We have four international sites. Security is our first concern and the sites have been designed to a financial grade security model. We take both data security and physical security very seriously." said Glasner