APRA - a case study

APRA improves data integrity and professional image with Experian QAS

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the regulatory body for the financial industry. APRA sets up and enforces prudential standards and practices to ensure banks, insurance companies, superannuation funds, credit unions and building societies meet financial obligations.

APRA has more than 400 employees working in its branches across Australia in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Key challenges

APRA's national call centre, based in Canberra, receives calls from customers who might want to have their superannuation released early, or from financial institutions/trustees requiring advice. APRA's call centre receives up to 900 calls daily. With this high level of calls, staff needed to be able to enter address details quickly and accurately to send out information to members.

"We were looking for an address management system that would ensure data integrity for our daily mail-outs, and help our call centre staff to increase organisational efficiency," said Carol O'Shea, Canberra Office Manager, APRA.

The solution

APRA evaluated two address management systems in 2001. Carol O'Shea explained that two of the critical features in selecting the right system were customer service and technical support. QAS was selected in September 2001 as it offered both features.

APRA purchased 30 licences for Experian QAS' front-end tool - QAS Pro for all call centre staff. QAS Pro provides APRA with the ability to enter address information quickly and accurately to any underlying application in a standard, user-defined format. Only minimal data entry is required to retrieve a full address, and even incomplete or partially inaccurate data can return full results.

QAS Pro uses the highest quality address data available, which is verified against Australia Post's Postal Address File (PAF), ensuring data is accurate. APRA is now using QAS Pro in its call centre in conjunction with customer spreadsheets. Its administration team is also using QAS Pro for APRA's internal database.

Since the implementation of QAS Pro, return to sender mail has been reduced considerably. The only returned mail now comes from people who are no longer at an address.

The benefits

Since commencing its relationship with APRA, Experian QAS has delivered a wide range of benefits for the company. According to Carol O'Shea, the immediate benefit of implementing QAS Pro has been improvement in the organisation's professional image.

"In the longer term, APRA has seen significant cost savings in decreased return to sender mail, and has been able to manage incoming calls more quickly and efficiently," Carol O'Shea said, "For our call centre staff - Experian QAS makes their job so much easier."

" Experian QAS provided technical support for all our questions and were confident, courteous, and answered all of our questions first time, every time."

For further information about Experian QAS, please contact QAS.