20 September 2010

Capscan Significantly Enhances International Data Quality Management Technology with Exclusive Loqate Deal

New Loqate engine and international data to mark Matchcode International as one of the most powerful international data quality management tools worldwide

Capscan, a leading supplier of international address management solutions and data quality services, has today announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with US company Loqate, a provider of geographic data quality solutions. The agreement delivers Capscan exclusive rights to Loqate’s powerful Geo-data Quality Engine and worldwide address and geocoding data, which will be developed to further enhance Capscan’s international data quality software and services.

Loqate will provide Capscan with international address data for 240 countries and territories and worldwide coverage for geocoding, including over 80 countries to delivery point. As well as giving Capscan exclusive reseller rights in Europe for international address management for Loqate’s extensive international address data, Capscan will use Loqate’s powerful Geo-data Quality Engine to enhance the breadth of coverage and performance of its Matchcode International software.

“Drivers such as the Internet have created an international marketplace; for businesses looking to successfully sell across borders, effective international data quality management is critical,” comments Managing Director of Capscan, Terry Hiles. “The Loqate Geo-data Quality Engine will improve the speed and accuracy of Matchcode International with its unique parsing capabilities, which produce superior matching results on address data. It will also enhance the data with external datasets such as geocoding, lifestyle and various business-to-business information, which can add considerable value to the data already held by the business. All this helps increase the effectiveness of targeting in an international direct marketing campaign, especially if there is little knowledge within the business of particular overseas markets.”

For many international organisations, the issues of poor quality contact data or ineffective international data quality management can affect business processes substantially, ranging from inability to use the data for marketing campaigns to costly processes caused by operational inefficiency. Taking steps to improve international data quality, whether this is through processes, strategy or technology can bring a wealth of benefits, including improved company image by adhering to local formats and customs, an improved single customer view, reduced cost of mailing due to less risk of undeliverables, reduced exposure of the business to identity fraud and better customer service.

“Many national postal authorities do not deliver the breadth, depth and quality of address data such as that of the UK,” adds Hiles. “Couple this with different languages, address formats, diacritic characters etc. and this can all cause issues for international data users. The addition of Loqate’s international data and its Geo-data Quality Engine will go a long way in establishing Capscan as a leader in international data quality management software.”

CEO of Loqate, Martin Turvey comments: “We know that Capscan is one of the UK's leading address quality software companies and we are confident that our partnership will enable it to further enhance its international solutions, as well as provide a strong distribution channel into Europe for Loqate.”

The Loqate Geo-data Quality Engine will enable Capscan to develop better identification, parsing, verification and enrichment of geographic and location based international data such as postal address, point of interest, and latitude/longitude coordinates. It will also produce faster and more accurate matching for international address data, due to its advanced capability to handle non-alphabet based languages.

Capscan will be launching and demonstrating the new version of Matchcode International on booth 715 at the DMA Conference 2010, taking place 9th – 14th October, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, US. For further information on the conference, please visit: www.dma2010.org.