Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Our comprehensive FAQ’s designed to help you with commonly asked questions
About Data8
What is Data8? Data8 is an award-winning data quality management company founded in 2005, delivering data-driven marketing, data quality management, and address validation solutions to clients across multiple industries.
When was Data8 founded? Data8 was founded in 2005 with the ambition to deliver market-leading data solutions, and has grown into an award-winning company serving a wide range of clients across multiple sectors.
What solutions does Data8 offer? Data8 provides a range of solutions including data cleansing, address validation, data quality management, and data-driven marketing tools designed to help businesses clean, enhance, and maximise the value of their data.
Has Data8 won any awards? Yes, Data8 won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and Innovation for its Duplicare solution in 2022 and holds 5-star ratings on G2.
What are Data8’s core values? Data8 operates around three core values: being Collaborators, Solutioneers, and Trailblazers, which guide how the team works with clients and with each other.
How does Data8 keep data secure? All Data8 operations are subject to an ISO27001 certified system, backed by Cyber Essentials certifications, with policies that are fully documented and externally audited each year.
Can I try Data8’s services before committing? Yes, Data8 offers a free trial that you can start directly through their website.
What industries does Data8 serve? Data8 serves a wide range of clients across multiple sectors, including central government bodies, museums, and ecommerce brands such as Benefit Cosmetics.
What data quality solutions does Data8 offer?
- Data Validation: Real-time capture and verification of customer data at the point of entry.
- Data Cleansing: Cleansing and updating B2B/B2C databases, including addresses, email/phone data, movers, deceased and goneaways.
- Data Migration: Migration services that can incorporate cleansing, deduplication and merging to improve records during a system move.
- Data Deduplication / Duplicare: Automated deduplication, merging and standardisation of records, including integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365.
- Data Quality Monitoring / Data8 Data Integrity: Scoring, measuring and monitoring data quality over time, including field-level quality scores.
- Business Insights: Organisation-level intelligence such as company background, headcount, turnover, credit position/ratings and financial history.
- Data8 Online: A 24/7 self-service data-cleansing portal for auditing, cleansing and managing data.
- Professional Data Cleansing Services: Managed cleansing, including deduplication, merging, exporting, automated/batch cleansing and data migration services.
Data Validation
What are Data8’s Data Validation solutions?
We provide a suite of real-time Data Validation solutions designed to verify and enrich customer information at point of entry. Our Data Validation solutions include; address validation, email validation, phone validation, business insights and preference service screening.
What is included in Data8’s Data Validation solutions?
Depending on your requirements, our solutions can validate and enhance key customer information including postal addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and business details. Our validation solutions can be integrated into websites, applications, CRM systems and other business processes to help ensure accurate data is captured from the start.
How do Data8’s Data Validation solutions work?
Our solutions validate information in real time as it is entered. For example, address validation can use a postcode or partial address to identify and return accurate address information, while email and phone validation checks whether contact details are valid – helping prevent incorrect information from entering your systems.
Who is Data Validation suitable for?
Data Validation is suitable for any organisation that captures customer or business information digitally. It is particularly useful for organisations looking to improve data accuracy, reduce manual corrections, improve customer experience and maintain cleaner CRM and customer databases.
Address Validation
What are Data8’s Address Validation solutions?
We provide a range of real-time Address Validation solutions designed to verify and enrich addresses at point of entry. Our solutions include: PredictiveAddress, Postcode Lookup, UPRN Lookup and Eircode Lookup.
What is included in Data8’s Address Validation solutions?
Our Address Validation solutions validate, enhance and standardise addresses as they are entered. They can be integrated into websites, applications, CRM systems and other business processes to help ensure accurate address data is captured at the beginning.
How do Data8’s Address Validation solutions work?
Our solutions validate addresses as they are entered in real time. For example, PredictiveAddress uses Fuzzy Logic to identify and return an accurate address as soon as a user begins typing. This helps prevent incorrect addresses from entering your system and provides a more seamless user experience.
Who is Address Validation suitable for?
Address Validation is suitable for any organisation that captures address data digitally. It is particularly useful for organisations looking to improve address accuracy, reduce failed deliveries, improve customer experience and maintain cleaner customer databases.
PredictiveAddress
What is Data8’s PredictiveAddress solution?
PredictiveAddress is our industry-leading software which identifies and returns a list of matching addresses as a user types in an address at point of entry.
What is included in Data8’s PredictiveAddress?
PredictiveAddress is an address autocomplete solution that provides users with a list of suggestions to choose from when typing in an address. PredictiveAddress can be integrated into websites, applications, CRM systems and other business processes to obtain accurate and valid addresses at point of capture.
How does PredictiveAddress work?
PredictiveAddress uses fuzzy logic and authoritative datasets to formulate suggestions based on the data inputted by a user. As a user types, a list of matching addresses is generated in real-time for them to choose from.
Who is PredictiveAddress suitable for?
PredictiveAddress is suitable for any organisation that captures address data digitally. It is particularly useful for organisations looking to improve address accuracy, reduce failed deliveries, improve customer experience and maintain cleaner customer databases.
Postcode Lookup
What is Data8’s Postcode Lookup solution?
Postcode Lookup identifies and returns a list of matching addresses when a user enters a postcode in real-time.
What is included in Data8’s Postcode Lookup?
Postcode Lookup provides users with a list of matching addresses to choose from when they type in a postcode. Postcode Lookup can be integrated into websites, applications, CRM systems and other business processes to obtain accurate and valid addresses at point of capture.
How does Postcode Lookup work?
Postcode Lookup uses Royal Mail’s PAF dataset to provide a list of matching addresses when a user inputs a postcode.
Who is Postcode Lookup suitable for?
Postcode Lookup is suitable for UK based organisations that captures address data digitally. It is particularly useful for organisations looking to improve address accuracy, reduce failed deliveries, improve customer experience and maintain cleaner customer data across their systems.
UPRN Lookup
What is Data8’s UPRN Lookup solution?
UPRN Lookup provides Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) alongside our UK address validation services, helping businesses accurately identify individual properties. It works with PredictiveAddress and Postcode Lookup to improve address matching, data quality and deduplication.
What is included in Data8’s UPRN Lookup?
UPRN Lookup adds the relevant Unique Property Reference Number to a validated UK address, providing a consistent property-level identifier. The service uses Ordnance Survey AddressBase data to help businesses maintain accurate and reliable UK address information.
How does UPRN Lookup work?
UPRN Lookup matches a UK address against address reference data to identify its corresponding Unique Property Reference Number. The UPRN can then be used to link, match and deduplicate property records across different databases and systems.
Who is UPRN Lookup suitable for?
UPRN Lookup is suitable for organisations that need accurate, consistent UK property and address data, including finance, insurance, property, logistics and public-sector organisations. It is particularly useful for businesses looking to improve data quality, match records and identify duplicate property records.
Eircode Lookup
What is Data8’s Eircode Lookup solution?
Eircode Lookup provides real-time Eircode validation and Irish address lookup, helping businesses accurately capture and verify Irish addresses. It can be integrated through the Eircode API and Data8’s PredictiveAddress solutions to improve address accuracy and data quality.
What is included in Data8’s Eircode Lookup?
Eircode Lookup includes Eircode validation, routing key verification and address matching, helping identify accurate Irish addresses. It also supports fuzzy matching to account for common spelling mistakes and variations in data entry.
How does Eircode Lookup work?
Eircode Lookup matches a supplied 7-character Eircode to its associated Irish address and returns the relevant address information. The service can also return formatted address details and address coordinates, helping businesses capture accurate location data.
Who is Eircode Lookup suitable for?
Eircode Lookup is suitable for businesses that capture, validate or manage Irish address data, including e-commerce, logistics, financial services and customer-service organisations. It is particularly useful for organisations looking to reduce address errors, improve delivery efficiency and enhance customer data quality.
Bank Account Validation
What is Data8’s Bank Account Validation solution?
Bank Account Validation verifies UK and Irish sort codes and account numbers, as well as international IBAN and BIC details. It helps businesses capture accurate bank information, reduce payment failures and support fraud prevention in real time.
What is included in Data8’s Bank Account Validation solution?
Bank Account Validation includes sort code and account number validation, IBAN and BIC checking, bank and branch information, and supported payment type details.
How does Bank Account Validation work?
Our solution checks bank details against validation rules to determine whether a sort code and account number, or IBAN and BIC, are valid. The service returns a validation result alongside relevant bank information, helping businesses identify potential errors before processing payments.
Who is Bank Account Validation suitable for?
Bank Account Validation is suitable for businesses that collect or process customer bank details, including finance, payroll, e-commerce, insurance and direct debit organisations. It is particularly valuable for businesses looking to reduce failed payments, improve data accuracy and minimise payment-related administration.
Email Validation
What is Data8’s Email Validation solution?
Email Validation provides real-time verification to check whether email addresses are valid, deliverable and correctly formatted. It can be integrated into websites, forms, CRM systems and other platforms via API to improve email data quality.
What is included in Data8’s Email Validation solution?
Our solution includes syntax, domain, server and mailbox-level checks, as well as email type identification and suggested corrections for common mistakes. It can also identify addresses as valid, invalid, catch-all or inconclusive.
How does Email Validation work?
Our solution checks an email address against increasingly detailed validation levels, from basic syntax through to checking whether the mailbox is live and accepting on incoming email. This helps businesses identify invalid addresses and correct common spelling or formatting errors before emails are sent.
Who is Email Validation suitable for?
Email Validation is suitable for all businesses that collect, manage or use customer email addresses, including e-commerce, marketing, CRM and customer-service teams. It helps organisations improve email deliverability, protect sender reputation, reduce bounced emails and maintain accurate customer data.
Name Validation
What is Data8’s Name Validation solution?
Name Validation provides real-time name verification and standardisation, helping businesses capture accurate names at the point of entry. It can identify random, blank, salacious or unusable names and integrates with websites, applications and databases through an API.
What is included in Data8’s Name Validation solution?
Our solution includes real-time validation, formatting and standardisation, fuzzy matching and identification of random or inappropriate names. It can also check spelling variations, capitalisation and special characters to improve the quality of customer data.
How does Name Validation work?
Our solution checks names as they are entered, using fuzzy matching and AI technology to identify potential errors, random entries and unusable names. The service then validates and standardises the information, helping prevent poor-quality names from entering business databases.
Who is Name Validation suitable for?
Name Validation is suitable for any business collecting customer names online or through digital forms, including e-commerce, financial services, CRM and customer-service organisations. It helps improve data accuracy, personalise customer communications and provide a smoother user experience.
Phone Validation
What is Data8’s Phone Validation solution?
Phone Validation provides real-time phone number validation and verification for mobile, landline and international telephone numbers. It standardises phone numbers and can be integrated with websites, CRM systems, ePOS platforms and bespoke applications via API.
What is included in Data8’s Phone Validation solution?
Our solution checks whether numbers are valid and callable, while identifying details such as number type, location, country and telecommunications provider. It also standardises phone number formatting and supports features such as TPS/CTPS compliance checks and international number validation.
How does Phone Validation work?
Our solution checks a telephone number against country-specific validation rules to verify whether it is live and callable. The service returns a validation result and can provide the number’s standardised format, type, location and provider information.
Who is Phone Validation suitable for?
Phone Validation is suitable for businesses that collect or manage customer telephone numbers, including e-commerce, financial services, insurance, sales and customer-service organisations. It is particularly useful for improving contact data quality, reducing failed communications and ensuring businesses can reach valid phone numbers.
Business Insights
What is Data8’s Business Insights solution?
Our Business Insights solution provides company information, business profiles and credit validation reporting to help organisations make better-informed trading and customer decisions. The service provides information such as company details, group structure, SIC code, turnover, employee numbers, financial information, credit ratings and credit limits.
What is included in Data8’s Business Insights solution?
Business Insights can provide comprehensive company profiles and financial information, including registered company details, addresses, group structures, turnover, employee numbers, SIC codes, profit and loss information, balance sheets, directors, credit ratings and credit limits. Data is refreshed regularly using market-leading sources such as Companies House.
How does Business Insights work?
Simply enter a business name or use Business Insights within an integrated system. The solution retrieves relevant company information and presents a detailed business profile, helping you validate information, assess credit risk and understand potential customers or trading partners. Business Insights can be used through CRM integrations, a custom API or the Data8 self-service portal.
Who is Business Insights suitable for?
Business Insights is suitable for organisations that need reliable company information to support sales, onboarding, credit decisions, customer due diligence or business development. It can help sales and marketing teams identify opportunities while enabling finance and credit teams to make more informed trading decisions.
Data Cleansing
What are Data8’s Data Cleansing solutions?
We provide a range of data cleansing services designed to improve the accuracy, consistency and completeness of B2B and B2C databases. Our Data Cleansing solutions include: PAF cleansing, suppression & mover services, deduplication & merge services, email & phone validation, preferences services and appending & enhancement.
What is included in Data8’s Data Cleansing solutions?
Our cleansing solutions cleanse existing customer records, standardise information, identify duplicate records, validate contact details and identify records that may require suppression or updating. Our professional services team can also support bespoke cleansing and complex data quality requirements.
How does Data Cleansing work?
Your existing data is assessed to identify errors, inconsistencies, outdated information and duplicate records. Appropriate cleansing, validation, standardisation and matching processes are then applied to improve the quality of your database. Where required, additional information can be appended to create a more complete customer record.
Who is Data Cleansing suitable for?
Data Cleansing is suitable for organisations with existing databases that contain inaccurate, incomplete, duplicated or outdated information. It is particularly valuable for businesses preparing for a CRM project, database migration, marketing campaign or data quality improvement programme.
Data Appending & Enhancement Services
What are Data8’s Data Appending & Enhancement Services?
We offer a variety of Data Appending and Enhancement Services including Tele-Appending, demographic profiling and B2B firmographic enrichment. These services add valuable contact, demographic and business information to existing customer and prospect databases.
What is included in Data8’s Data Appending & Enhancement Services?
Services include telephone number appending, SONAR demographic data, SIC codes, company size, turnover, year established and key contact information. We use multiple data sources to enrich records and create more complete, actionable customer and business profiles.
How does Data Appending & Enhancement work?
Our solution matches existing customer or business records against relevant data sources and appends additional information to create more complete records. For example, Tele-Appending can match names and addresses to telephone numbers, while B2B enrichment adds company and financial information.
Who is Data Appending & Enhancement suitable for?
Data Appending and Enhancement Services are suitable for businesses looking to enrich customer databases, improve segmentation and gain deeper insight into their B2B or B2C data. They are particularly useful for marketing, sales, lead generation, CRM and customer insight teams seeking more complete and actionable data.
Email & Phone Validation
What are Data8’s Email & Phone Validation solutions?
We provide both Email & Phone Validation solutions to enable businesses to validate email addresses and telephone numbers in bulk, rather than checking records individually. It is available for large-scale data cleansing and can be used within CRM environments such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
What is included in Data8’s Email & Phone Validation solutions?
Depending on your requirements, our solutions include bulk email validation and phone number validation, helping identify invalid contact details across large datasets. Validation results are written back to the relevant records, providing a clear view of overall contact data quality.
How does Email & Phone Validation work?
Our solutions analyses and counts the records requiring validation, then processes the approved batch and updates the relevant validation fields with the results. Businesses can also schedule recurring validation jobs to automatically maintain email and phone data quality.
Who is Email & Phone Validation suitable for?
Email & Phone Validation is suitable for businesses with large customer, prospect or CRM databases that need to validate contact information at scale. It is particularly useful for marketing, sales, CRM and data-management teams looking to reduce invalid contact data and improve database accuracy.
Data Suppression
What is Data8’s Data Suppression solution?
Data Suppression identifies and suppresses deceased, movers and goneaway records, helping businesses keep customer databases accurate and up to date. The service also includes screening against the Mailing Preference Service (MPS), Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS).
What is included in Data8’s Data Suppression solution?
Our suppression solutions include deceased screening, movers and goneaway identification, new-mover information and preference-service screening. It uses multiple trusted data sources to help improve data accuracy, protect brand reputation, optimise marketing and support compliance.
How does Data Suppression work?
Our solutions compare customer records against relevant reference databases to identify deceased individuals, people who have moved or goneaway, and customers registered with preference services. Records can then be flagged or suppressed, while new-mover addresses can help businesses update eligible customer records.
Who is Data Suppression suitable for?
Data Suppression is suitable for businesses and organisations with customer, supporter or prospect databases, particularly those carrying out direct marketing or maintaining large CRM databases. They are especially valuable for charities, retailers and other organisations seeking to improve data quality, reduce wasted marketing and support compliance.
Goneaway & Movers Suppression
What is Data8’s Goneaway & Movers Suppression solution?
Goneaway & Movers Suppression provides goneaway and mover flagging services to help businesses maintain accurate customer databases. The service uses multiple data sources to identify people who have moved and, where available, provide their new address.
What is included in Data8’s Goneaway & Movers Suppression solution?
Our solution includes goneaway suppression and mover appending, with datasets updated at least monthly. Businesses can also access information about the matched data source and mover or goneaway date where available.
How does Goneaway & Movers Suppression work?
Our solution matches names and addresses against multiple third-party mover and goneaway suppression sources to identify records where an individual is no longer at their current address. For confirmed movers, a new address can be appended where one is available, while goneaway records can be flagged or suppressed.
Who is Goneaway & Movers Suppression suitable for?
Goneaway & Movers Suppression is suitable for businesses and organisations with customer, supporter or prospect databases, particularly those conducting direct-mail marketing. It helps improve data quality, reduce wasted mailings, increase campaign effectiveness and maintain more accurate customer records.
Deceased Suppression
What is Data8’s Deceased Suppression solution?
Deceased Suppression identifies deceased individuals within customer databases and allows businesses to flag or suppress deceased records before marketing activity. The service uses multiple suppression data sources, including Mortascreen, TBR and NDR, to help keep records accurate and up to date.
What is included in Data8’s Deceased Suppression solution?
Deceased Suppression includes deceased record screening, flagging or suppression, with optional information such as the matching data source, date of death and match level. It can be delivered through Data8’s Online Portal or integrated via API for automated deceased data checking.
How does Deceased Suppression work?
Our solution compares a person’s name and address against multiple third-party deceased suppression sources to identify potential matches. Matched records can then be flagged or removed from marketing lists, helping prevent communications being sent to deceased individuals.
Who is Deceased Suppression suitable for?
Deceased Suppression is suitable for businesses and organisations with customer, donor or prospect databases, particularly those carrying out direct marketing. It helps reduce wasted marketing costs, protect brand reputation and avoid the distress caused by communications being sent to deceased individuals.
Deduplication & Merge Services
What are Data8’s Deduplication & Merge Services?
We offer a range of data deduplication and merge services through Data8 Online Portal, Professional Services and Duplicare™ for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Dataverse. These solutions identify duplicate records, merge them and help organisations create a reliable single customer view.
What is included in Data8’s Deduplication & Merge Services?
Our solution include advanced data matching, fuzzy logic, bespoke matching rules and multi-record merging while retaining valuable information. Additional features include address and phone standardisation, duplicate prevention and scheduled batch deduplication.
How does Deduplication & Merging work?
The solution compares records using advanced matching, phonetic and fuzzy logic to identify potential duplicates, even when names, addresses or other details vary. Matching records can then be merged using defined rules to create accurate master records without losing important data.
Who is Deduplication & Merging suitable for?
Deduplication & Merging is suitable for businesses and organisations with duplicate customer, contact, product or other database records that need to improve data quality. It is particularly valuable for CRM, marketing, sales and data-management teams seeking a single customer view, better reporting and reduced costs.
PAF Cleansing
What is Data8’s PAF Cleansing solution?
PAF Cleansing provides UK address cleansing and validation against Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) to improve address accuracy and database consistency. The service is available through Data8 Online Portal, automated cleansing and professional data cleansing services.
What is included in Data8’s PAF Cleansing solution?
PAF Cleansing can correct misspellings, update address elements, add missing information and standardise address formatting. Cleansed records are returned with match levels to help businesses assess address quality and mailing suitability.
How does PAF Cleansing work?
Our solution matches supplied address data against Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) and returns an updated, standardised address when a match is found. Where a full match is unavailable, we standardises address elements where possible and updates any components that match PAF.
Who is PAF Cleansing suitable for?
PAF Cleansing is suitable for businesses and organisations that manage UK address databases, particularly those using direct mail or needing accurate customer records. It helps reduce undeliverable mail, improve database consistency, reduce costs and support better data quality.
Preference Services
What is Data8’s Preference Services?
Preference Services provides TPS, CTPS and MPS screening to help businesses respect customer marketing preferences and support regulatory compliance.
What is included in Data8’s Preference Services?
Data8 Preference Services includes screening against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) and Mailing Preference Service (MPS) using regularly updated preference data.
How does Preference Services work?
Our solution matches customer and prospect records against the relevant TPS, CTPS and MPS databases, identifying contacts who have opted out of specific types of marketing. Businesses can then flag or suppress these records before campaigns, helping reduce compliance risks and unwanted communications.
Who is Preference Services suitable for?
Preference Services is suitable for businesses and organisations that carry out telephone or direct-mail marketing, particularly those managing large customer or prospect databases. It helps marketing, CRM and data teams maintain accurate contact lists, respect customer preferences, reduce wasted campaign activity and support compliance.
Data8 Duplicare
What is Data8’s Duplicare solution?
Duplicare is our award-winning automated deduplication solution designed for Microsoft Dynamics 365. It identifies duplicate records, supports advanced data matching and enables records to be merged to create a more accurate and consistent customer database.
What is included in Duplicare?
Duplicare includes automated duplicate detection, advanced matching, batch processing and record merging. It uses sophisticated matching capabilities to identify potential duplicates and provides control over how duplicate records are handled.
How does Duplicare work?
Duplicare analyses records within your CRM to identify records that may represent the same individual, organisation or customer. Once duplicates have been identified, matching records can be reviewed and merged according to your chosen rules, helping create a cleaner and more reliable single customer view.
Who is Duplicare suitable for?
Duplicare is ideal for organisations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 that need to identify and manage duplicate records. It is particularly useful for businesses with large or complex CRM databases, multiple data sources or ongoing challenges with duplicate customer information.
Data Migration
What is Data8’s Data Migration service?
We provide end-to-end data migration services covering the extraction, transformation, mapping, testing and loading of data into a new system. Data cleansing, standardisation, deduplication and merging can also be incorporated into the migration process.
What is included in Data8’s Data Migration service?
Our migration service can include data quality auditing, source data analysis, field mapping, data transformation, cleansing, deduplication, testing and final migration. The process is tailored to your existing data, target system and business requirements.
How does Data Migration work?
We works with you to understand your source systems, data structure and objectives for the new platform. Data is extracted, assessed and mapped to the target system before being transformed, cleansed and tested. Once the data has been validated, it is migrated into the new environment.
Who is Data Migration suitable for?
Data Migration is suitable for organisations moving data between CRM, ERP, accounting or other business systems. It is particularly useful for businesses consolidating multiple databases, replacing legacy systems or moving to a new CRM while wanting to protect data quality throughout the process.
Data8 Data Integrity
What is Data8 Data Integrity?
Data8 Data Integrity is a data quality monitoring and scoring solution designed to help organisations measure and manage the quality of their data over time. It integrates with Microsoft Dynamics and allows organisations to create data quality scores against important fields and records.
What is included in Data8 Data Integrity?
The solution includes configurable data quality rules, customisable scoring, quality monitoring, automated score recalculation and recommendations for addressing data quality issues. Rules can be created across fields, tables, objects and views to measure areas such as completeness, accuracy, consistency, validity and uniqueness.
How does Data Integrity work?
Data8 Data Integrity evaluates your CRM data against rules that you define. It produces data quality scores that allow you to monitor performance over time and identify where improvements are required. Scores can be recalculated as data changes, helping you understand whether data quality is improving or declining.
Who is Data8 Data Integrity suitable for?
Data Integrity is suitable for organisations that want ongoing visibility and control over the quality of their CRM data. It is particularly valuable for Microsoft Dynamics users who need measurable data quality standards, reporting and a structured way to identify and resolve data quality issues.