data8 have integrated one of their Apps, postcode lookup, into The Clever Baggers website to improve the speed and accuracy of their data capture.

Will Contestible, internet marketing manager, of The Clever Baggers, a leading printer and supplier of ethically produced cotton, jute and drawstring bags, based in Welshpool, Powys, commented, “data8 have been helpful and pleasant to deal with and their service has already exceeded my expectations”. He continued, “Using data8’s postcode look up application means we are now confident that all future name and address data capture will be accurate helping us maintain a clean database and improving deliveries”.

Antony Allen, managing director data8, said, “We were pleased to work with The Clever Baggers, our postcode lookup application will save The Clever Baggers time and money as all addresses can now be accurately data captured by simply inputting the postcode and the house/building number. This saves 90% of key strokes and in addition all addresses are captured to PAF standards”.

Postcode lookup is one of a range of webservice/api applications (Apps) that data8 have to validate data input, they include telephone and email validation. All these Apps help in the process of data cleansing.

The New Business Data Company is a service that captures and qualifies data about new business start ups, the data is then supplied to companies who wish to target this sector.

The New Business Data Company helps companies stay ahead of their competitors as they can be one of the first to contact any new business.

Using this service companies can also target relocating businesses, new branches or businesses that have changed owners, The New Business Data Company can supply fresh data either weekly or monthly.

Companies simply choose the types of businesses and area they require, The New Business Data Company delivers the data in a format to suit the customer’s marketing needs - telemarketing, email or direct mail.

data8 use their data cleansing technology to validate the data as it comes into the business

A recent report by Dutch researcher Dr Harold van Heerde has suggested that data collected by websites should be made to degrade over time to help ensure privacy.

Of course, data degrades over time in any case as people's details change without them informing the sites that hold a copy of the data, so this proposal would simply help accelerate this process.

A regular data cleansing process would identify those details in a database that are no longer valid and allow them to be removed, further reducing the potential implications of a data loss.

Over the years, I have entered CAPTCHA codes on many websites and am familiar with the process of entering a random number of barely legible characters into a text box. It was not until just before the England v USA World Cup game on Saturday, however, that I was asked to answer the direct question “Are you a human?” My initial thoughts were “well what else would I be ... a martian looking to buy a new pair of trainers?!”

I appreciate the need to eliminate fraud and capture data correctly so reluctantly entered the answer to the stock question ”What colour is the sky on a clear day” and went on to purchase my shiny new trainers. This solution often turns real humans away from websites. By adding postcode lookup, mobile validation and email validation to a website, you can ask the more real question: “Are you giving us genuine data we require to correctly capture for our database?”

A couple of hours later, while watching England’s performance against USA, I was reminded of my online shopping experience by hearing two stock comments about Rob Green’s error: “We all make mistakes” and “He’s only human.” Using software such as our postcode lookup API you can eliminate mistakes and get the information you require quickly and simply, reducing drop rates from your registration or contact page.

Unfortunately Data8 can do nothing to help Messrs Green, Hart or James from reducing their drop rates!

Data8 have produced a pdf which gives a quick outline of online data cleansing. Find out how quickly and easliy you can trust your data by getting it sparkling clean with this one page guide.

Click here 1,2, 3, to see how easy it is clean data in three steps.