Help
General
I am interested in ensuring that the customer data I collect through my call centre and website is correct. How can I do this?
By using our data capture product Verify. Verify allows your call centre agent to capture a name and/or part of an address, validate it, then discover who lives there. Verify can also be embedded in a website to validate all addresses captured online.
What is a DD data audit?
A data audit will tell you the data quality of your database. This includes address cleanliness, residency, the percentage of mailable data, decayed data (deceased or gone-away), duplicate data and identify where additional data could be added including telephone numbers, date of birth and demographic information. You will also see a profile of your data against the national average.
A data audit is free and available via View.
If I want to trace people, which product should I use?
We have two main tracing products. Our batch tracing product Enhance is for processing large numbers of records. Our second tracing product is an interactive product called Fastrac. Fastrac is easy-to-use and one of the best tools in the business to trace a contact.
What does suppressing data mean and how can I do this?
Suppressing data means highlighting or removing incorrect records or information from your database. This includes individuals who have moved, died or do not want to receive unsolicited telephone calls or mail. Our software includes many suppression files and you can choose the appropriate suppression files for you and your business.
Depending on the number of records and the frequency of processing, you can either upload your data to our online database cleansing software View or you can purchase Enhance and process your data locally.
What does enhancing customer data mean and how can I do this?
Additional information from various sources, including telephone numbers or demographic and lifestyle information can be appended to your data. Such details can help you understand the type of customers you have and that, for example they, tend to be aged over 45 and are interested in gardening. Thus you can tailor your promotions more effectively.
Again you can either upload your data to our online database cleansing software View or you can purchase Enhance and process your data locally.
Software Updates
How often do you update your data?
This depends on the products and on the data selected. For disc based products we send out quarterly updates which contain a refresh of our Masterfiles dataset and the telephone directory. Online suppression databases used by Enhance and Fastrac are generally updated monthly. Online phone numbers are updated daily.
How often do you provide data updates to customers?
We send out updates to most customers on a quarterly basis. However, for some products and data sets, we can send out updates more frequently.
Can you send the updates in a format other than CD-ROM?
We ship our historic trackdata on DVD due to the large amounts of data involved and the other disc based products on CD. Enhance is only available via online download. Alternatively we offer online services which are updated automatically.
I get a message when using the software saying my data is due to expire, what should I do?
This means that the Masterfiles data is due to expire so you need to install your software update. Software Updates are sent quarterly in March, June, September and December. You are given a month in which to install these updates before the data expires. The update comes with instructions and it is very easy to do. If you haven't received your update and believe you should have, please contact us.
Usage
My product is asking me for a licence code. What do I need to do?
You should call Data Discoveries on 0131 555 1100 to get an unlock code. You will see two sets of numbers that you need to quote before we can provide you with the relevant code. This usually only happens once a year when the annual licence is due for renewal.
I require more telephone credits. How do I go about getting these?
You should call Data Discoveries on 0131 555 1100 and state the number of credits you require, quoting the two relevant codes. We will then provide you with a code which will give you telephone credits.
Product Information
What are the Masterfiles?
Data Discoveries Masterfiles are a database of all adults and businesses in the UK including telephone directory information and dates of birth. The Masterfiles are created uniquely by cross-referencing several data sources. The Masterfiles are updated quarterly.
What is my external IP address and why do you require this to setup a Fastrac (online) account?
An external IP address is the unique identifier assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
We recommend that users of Fastrac (online) supply us with their external IP address. Many of our clients welcome this as it ensures the application cannot be used offsite. It also provides greater data security.
Your external IP address can be obtained from your IT department or there are many sites available which can identify this, such as www.whatismyip.com.
Access to Fastrac is not dependant on the supply of your external IP address.
What operating systems do your software products work on?
Fastrac, Verify and Basixs require Windows 95 or later. Enhance is available on Windows 2000 or later and Linux. We can support most systems through our Application Programmer's Interface (API).
Our software does not have particular RAM or processor requirements beyond that necessary to run the operating system. For processing speed, however, we recommend a reasonably modern system with at least 400MHz and 256MB RAM.
How much hard drive space is required on my PC for your products?
Fastrac requires 14GB for a full installation, including the complete trackdata set of historical information, Enhance requires 2GB, Basixs requires 150MB and all other products require 1GB.
Do I need an Internet connection for any of your products and if so why?
Fastrac online and Enhance require an Internet connection to access the licensing and online data.
Do your products provide any system for reporting on the accuracy of my data?
Enhance and View provide a summary report detailing the number of records that have been processed and the match rates against the data files the records have been processed against. For example, it will indicate how many matched against Mortascreen (a deceased suppression file) and the level of match achieved - Individual or Surname only.
View has graphs and charts that show the accuracy and inaccuracy of the data and changes made during the View data audit. A View account is free to set up and data audits are also free.
