Royal Mail has posted an announcement on its website stating that the following products and services, including all bulk products, will become liable to VAT from 2 April 2012:

Advertising Mail (70, 120, 700 and 1400)

Automated Standard Tariff Large Letter

Cleanmail

Cleanmail Advance

Cleanmail Plus

Do not redirect

First and Second Class Standard Tariff Account mail

Mailsort (70, 120, 700 and 1400)

Ministerial Pouch Services

Packetpost

Packetsort

Packetsort Plus

Packetsort Returns

PO Box Services

Presstream

Redirect Diversion

Response Services (inc licence fees)

Sustainable Mail

Walksort

While most businesses can claim back VAT payments, charities and companies working in the financial services, two of the biggest users of advertising mail cannot claim back the VAT. So if you are in either of these sectors, this will have a significant impact on your business. It will be even more essential that customer mailings are accurately targeted and valuable budget and resource is not wasted on out of date data.

Data8 provide a complete online data cleansing service, where files can be uploaded and processed 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Prior to any mail activity duplicates, deceased, mps and goneaway records can all be suppressed to ensure you are not wasting any valuable budget. You also have the ability to load, process and view the results achieved in a data audit without any commitment to buy. If the audit demonstrates the data is accurate you have ensured you are targeting accurate customer information without any upfront investment.

The Muppets are soon to be back on the big screen! 

Ever since I saw "Muppt's 3D" on holiday I have thought they were hilarious. My favourite character since then has been Fozzie Bear (I do a pretty good "Wacka Wacka"), but unfortunately for Fozzie his name would be considered salacious in the data cleansing process which would be correct as we don't live in a world with talking animals made of felt.... more the pity.

This is not an uncommon case, as we all know someone who has used a pseudonym. If you cleanse your data with use you may find a few Fozzie's  and a couple of Kermits hiding within your own records.

It had to come to pass, the practical Swiss Army Knife has moved into the digital age, as well as having the thing for removing stones from horses hooves it now has a USB.

Just think of how much data you can store on the 1T version, but make sure if you store any information that there has been some data cleansing.

Also be careful where you leave it, you don’t want to get hauled up in front of the Information Commissioner, I wonder if they do still have the stone remover? Maybe a homing device would be helpful.

“How much does it cost to cleanse data?” is one of the first questions we are often asked by any novice to data cleansing.

The trite response is, “How dirty is your data?”

The easiest way to find out is to use our online data cleansing service, register for free, upload the data for free, we will supply a Data Quality Audit for free, this will give a detailed breakdown of how dirty the data is and how much it will cost to clean it, all for free.

And if you have any problems, we are only a phone call away to help.

So, if you want to know how much it will cost, start by registering today

To quote Captain Boyle from Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock , “The whole world's in a terrible state of chassis”, so predictions for 2012 will be difficult. Mayan stone tablets are thought to end their predictions in 2012 which some say indicates the end of the world, maybe they just ran out of stone or got bored

I made some predictions for 2011 and now is the time to see how I did –
1.    Data will be king in 2011 (Martin Sorrell), if this is going to be so then the quality of data will come under scrutiny. (still true)
2.    Every business will look more keenly at their costs and want to reduce waste (very much so and will get even keener in 2012)
3.    There will be an increase in the use of direct mail as marketers realise their ‘share of voice’ in the new media is falling. (starting to happen)
4.    In October, England will win the World Cup (no not that World Cup - the Rugby World Cup) (less said about this one the better)

This year I have asked the team for some help on their predictions for 2012, contributions have varied from the bizarre to the obscene from the global to the parochial.

Jez, Laura and Cath all think data8 will expand, I would agree with that thought.

The Open Data Institute unveiled by the Government aims to make data held by Whitehall departments and public bodies work to the “commercial advantage” of the private sector. Expect to see a raft of ‘apps’ trying to take advantage of this.

Facebook will have a crucial year, Richard wonders if they will be able to marry the commercial demands with the privacy requirements of their users, therefore going into a decline.

Local data8 predictions:

Cath may be pushing things a little, or maybe she is looking for a pay rise by saying Antony will be crowned King of Data.

Bernie, I think is on a winner with ‘Mark Carrington will become very tied and agitated as he embraces fatherhood’, however she does predict that Steve will father another child, not so convinced on that one. Mind you Laura is certain that Jez will become a dad again.

On the sporting front Richard doesn’t think the England football team have much of a chance this summer, I would agree. Expect the usual scenario, initially the red-tops making them out to be world beaters, for them to crash and burn, giving the opportunity to poor scorn on the team and the coach.

I suppose Brenda and Phil the Greek will have a great time touring the country before the Jubilee celebrations in June.

Have a prosperous New Year.