DM p22-28 addressing Feb09.qxp 29/01/2009 13:35 Page 26
Addressing Software
data, I can provide it under a single license to the end could have the undesired effect of inhibiting use at
user. If someone ever selects a record I can get back in the top end of the market, precisely the opposite of
touch with that customer and inform them of a what is intended. Even if the existing terms are
goneaway or decease.” skewed towards the bigger users, they give a lot back
But this is possibly only with an homogenous by pre-sorting the mail, which greatly helps Royal
license agreement, Mucklow says. “A transactional Mail, while small users send so few letters they do lit-
approach is much more equitable, and enables you to tle for its benefit, he argues.
bring together data from different license sources. A Improving mailstream efficiency is one thing, but
lot of our customers really like the benefit of having a Good complains that this laudable aim has now
single credit pack from us.” This provides access to given way to moves for price adjustment. “That
Only in
data that facilitates UK and international address seems silly to me, because the large users are now
December did
cleaning and validation, geocoding and even route going to pay a lot more money for the system, and
we see the first planning, a new area which Mucklow thinks is poten- may not want to,” he says. “At the moment every
draft, and that
tially huge. department can have copy of software and files, and
does not allow
Much of the impetus for change is coming from can use it for 101 different things. Suddenly they are
small users, who feel that the existing licence unfairly going to find themselves being charged per user and
enough time to
favours large organisations. Originally designed for will have to rationalise how they use it.” The net
embed it in
mainframes, a single fee would cover many terminals, result, he thinks, will be to drive out the very people
enterprise while installations on separate PCs would all have to who most need to be using addressing software. “So
computing
be paid for individually. Perversely, that meant that at a time when Royal Mail is trying to cut the
systems.
in some cases a smaller business might end up paying amount of unsorted mail it gets it is suddenly going
David Dorricott, managing
more. to find itself getting more of it, which seems a bit
director, AFD Software. However firms that supply large organisations are contradictory.”
concerned that the pendulum will now swing too far Even supporters of new pricing model concede that
in the opposite direction, and that the new terms will there is an issue here. On the plus side, says
be unfavourable for many of their clients. Mucklow, transactional pricing makes companies
Hopewiser’s managing director Phil Good suggests it much more aware of the cost per click. “In the past
In a recession, if you could find a way to increase profitability
whilst also improving cash flow, you’d be the boss’s blue-eyed boy
person! It’s simple – stop mailing "gone away" and deceased
people today. And it will just cost you a small fraction of the money
you've saved. But not until after you've saved it!
With helpIT systems blend of desktop software and hosted data
cleansing service, you can prepare and clean your data in house,
then encrypt and upload it to our secure server. Next day, you get
your data back, screened against all the major suppression files.
One catalogue mailer stands to save over half a million pounds on
their next mailing using the helpIT solution!
Send us a sample of your data so we can calculate just how
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and you can be saving money on tomorrow’s mailing
26 Database Marketing February 2009 www.dmarket.co.uk
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