Las Vegas– Sept. 15, 2008 – Experian® QAS®, a leading provider of customer data quality software and services, today announced at the Shop.org conference in Las Vegas the release of QAS Email and QAS Phone. These two new services are designed to improve accuracy and ensure the validity of e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Experian QAS partnered with TowerData, a leading provider of database marketing services and technologies, to integrate its email and phone database with both QAS Email and QAS Phone.
QAS Email and QAS Phone are designed to reduce time wasted on manually identifying and fixing incorrect email and phone information while assisting organizations to develop a more accurate view of its customer base. Both products increase an organizations ability to communicate with customers by preventing false information from entering databases and instantly identifying invalid contact data. With improved data accuracy companies can communicate more effectively with customers and reduce costs associated with post-collection data correction.
“Organizations that invest upwards of 20 percent of operating expenses on online media advertising or partnerships for lead generation, visibility or for customer loyalty programs risk squandering email marketing budgets on bounce reports that provide customer intelligence after the fact,” stated Leslie Ament, managing partner at Hypatia Research, LLC. “Our research found that use of good quality data, checked at the point of entry, results in higher open rates for email [>30 percent] and reduces soft and hard email bounce rates as well as the potential for being blocked as Spam by certain domains. Fewer bogus email addresses also has a positive impact on an organization’s conversion rates and future investment decisions in media advertising. ”
QAS Email and QAS Phone are easy for organizations to integrate, because they are Web services that are language independent, based on the universal standards of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Unlike simplistic home-grown solutions, QAS Email and QAS Phone services return comprehensive information instantly to accept or reject the email address or phone number.
“We’ve always focused on capturing, validating, cleansing, standardizing and enriching customer contact information for names and addresses,” says Joel Curry, COO, Experian QAS. “There was a demand for us to help organizations achieve accuracy and efficiency with their email and phone data as well. Our new, customizable, integrated services in these areas allow our clients to continue to improve their customer service and support. ”
QAS Email compares an entered email address to a continually updated internal database of typographical errors, active and dead domain names, and malicious email addresses in order to confirm the overall validity. The service has the ability to see if the username exists and runs the complete email address through a series of algorithms to confirm adherence to email addressing standards while also providing a suggested correction if the email is invalid.
QAS Phone processes a phone number through a series of algorithms to parse and standardize the phone number based on the North American Numbering Plan, an integrated telephone numbering plan serving 19 North American countries. Since phone numbers are area specific, organizations can derive valuable geographic and time zone information from it as well.
QAS Phone and QAS Email are available immediately. Experian QAS is located in booth 620 at the Shop.org Conference.
About TowerData
TowerData is a leading provider of database marketing services and technologies. Covering the entire lifecycle of customer data, TowerData helps businesses acquire and retain customers, validate and enhance data, and increase the performance of marketing communications. Founded in 2001, TowerData offers data processing services for postal, telephone, and email channels. For more information please visit http://www.towerdata.com/
About Experian QAS
Experian QAS is an address data quality software pioneer. The company's products capture, validate, cleanse, standardize and enrich customer contact information. Experian QAS provides solutions to more than 10,000 customers worldwide in retail, education, healthcare, insurance, finance, government and other sectors. The company was established in 1990 and has offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit http://www.qas.com
Experian plc is a global leader in providing information, analytical and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions.
Combining its unique information tools and deep understanding of individuals, markets and economies, Experian partners with organizations around the world to establish and strengthen customer relationships and provide their businesses with competitive advantage.
For consumers, Experian delivers critical information that enables them to make financial and purchasing decisions with greater control and confidence. Clients include organizations from financial services, retail and catalog, telecommunications, utilities, media, insurance, automotive, leisure, e-commerce, manufacturing, property and government sectors.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. It has corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and operational headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif. , and Nottingham, UK. Experian employs approximately 15,500 people in 38 countries worldwide, supporting clients in more than 65 countries around the world. Continuing sales for the year ended March 31, 2008, were in excess of $4 billion.
For more information, visit Experian plc’s Web site on www.experianplc.com.
“Experian” is a registered trademark in the EU and other countries and is owned by Experian Ltd. and/or its associated companies.
Contact:
Erin Corpening
Experian QAS
1 888 322 6201 Telephone
us.press@qas.com Email
Rick Sheehy
Emerge PR
1 617 729 3190 Telephone
rsheehy@emergepr.com Email