QAS Signs Alliance With NZ Post

QAS Opens New Zealand Office And Signs Strategic Alliance With New Zealand Post

Auckland, 22 August 2006 - QAS, a leading supplier of address management solutions, is expanding its Asia Pacific presence by opening an office in New Zealand. Located in Auckland, the new office will be headed up by Angela Buckley, business development manager, New Zealand who will be reporting into Glenn Parker, managing director, QAS, Asia Pacific.

As part of its launch, QAS has signed a strategic alliance with NZ Post to gain access to its Postal Address File (PAF), a database of 1.8 million addresses which will enable QAS to cleanse and match addresses in its customers' enterprise databases to ensure they are accurate and compliant.

One of the reasons QAS has established the office is because of New Zealand Post's new four-digit postcode system. This system creates significant opportunities for QAS to assist local companies in converting their customer databases.

The NZ four-digit postcode system was introduced in June 2006 and, unlike the previous system, is required for all items of mail, whether sent from within the country or from overseas. There are 1,850 postcodes, with up to 10,000 locations in each code.

QAS offers a comprehensive Bureau service to cleanse, format, standardise and update existing databases to ensure compliance with New Zealand Post's guidelines (deadline July 2008).

It has also developed a New Zealand-specific address capture tool, QuickAddress Pro and online address validation solution, QuickAddress Pro Web, both of which are based on the New Zealand PAF. Installed at the front-end of customer service and database applications, QuickAddress Pro will allow New Zealand firms to capture addresses accurately in approximately ten keystrokes or less. QuickAddress Pro Web will allow users to integrate accurate address capture into a web site to deliver a more professional user experience.

"We are very excited by the opportunities in this green field market," said Glenn Parker, managing director, QAS Asia Pacific. "We are confident that New Zealand businesses will be extremely receptive to the address management concept because it delivers quality service and measurable returns and addresses the important issue of Data Quality. For financial institutions, for example, simple things like incorrect addresses can lend themselves to fraudulent activities and money laundering. Returned mail costs businesses thousands of dollars each year, let alone the loss of potential business. Also with the privacy laws, data accuracy has become another important issue for companies."

Nick Brown, data business relationship manager - Customer Solutions Group, New Zealand Post said, "With the new postcode system now in place, QAS will be able to work with companies to help get them up-to-date on the new system and reduce the instances of misdirected mail caused by incorrect addressing and duplicate or similar street names. "The introduction of new four-digit postcodes is central to ensuring New Zealand Post continues to deliver customers' mail accurately and on time, and is a key component of a wider investment program which involves upgrading mail sorting technology across the country," he added.

Target Markets

QAS' immediate focal point in New Zealand will be customer-facing organisations, such as banking and finance institutions, government, telecommunications, business services and utility providers. Direct marketing agencies and businesses that rely heavily on the use of databases also stand to make significant gains using QAS' new product range.

QAS QuickAddressPro

QAS address verification software works with almost any established or custom-built database or CRM system, and is easy to use and install. QAS' flagship product, QuickAddress Pro is a rapid address entry tool with interactive address verification functionality. Using New Zealand Post's postal address data sets to ensure the highest address data integrity, QuickAddress Pro can achieve tangible business benefits in various departments within an organisation.

- Finance department - ensure that confidential billing and account information to business partners and customers will not be sent to the wrong address, ensuring cash flow.

- Administration department - eliminates the need to investigate, handle and re-issue returned to sender mail. Also ensures the database is clean without errors such as duplicated, mis-spelled and non-existent addresses.

- Call centre - keystroke savings of up to 80 percent means staff will complete calls faster, with more accurate data, as well as frees up time to up- and cross-sell products.

- Operations Department - data is correctly entered in a standardised format while decreasing average speed of answer.

- Marketing department - maximises marketing efforts, decreases postal and administrative costs, missed opportunity costs when marketing materials are unable to reach customers.

In addition, QuickAddress Pro provides visible and measurable return on investment (ROI), with most of QAS' clients achieving positive ROI within a year or less.

QAS has agreements to access the address files of national postal authorities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA.

QAS' New Zealand partners include ASI Solutions, Civica and Hansen.

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About QAS

QAS is an international provider of data accuracy and identity management solutions. Our QuickAddress range of software helps organisations worldwide capture accurate address data and conserve integrity over time. Any organisation that holds data on prospects, customers, suppliers, employees or distribution networks will benefit from the efficiency gains and cost savings achieved with QuickAddress.

Based on data secured from national postal authorities and other leading data sources, QuickAddress captures, cleans and maintains name and address records. The true potential of this data can then be enhanced by the addition of information from over 60 datasets.

Award winning solutions from QAS are a result of a 14-year investment in technology development to ensure each solution delivers the highest level of functionality and service support. QAS supports more than 9,500 customers worldwide across all industry sectors. QAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Experian(r), the global information solutions company. Visit QAS on the web at www.qas.com

About Experian For more information, visit the company's website on www.experian.com.

The word 'Experian' is a registered trademark in the EU and other countries and is owned by Experian Ltd and/or its associated companies.

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