21 November 2007

BBC Magazines Boosts Ad Booking Bureau With Capscan

Matchcode Commercial Improves Customer Invoicing And Credit Checking With Accurate Business Address Data Capture

Capscan, a leading supplier of international address management solutions and data integrity services, today announced that BBC Magazines is using Matchcode Commercial during the advertisement booking process to validate business customer address data. Matchcode Commercial ensures that BBC Magazines captures and inputs address data accurately, reducing the risk of unpaid invoices and fraud.

BBC Magazines is the publishing division of BBC Worldwide Ltd, the BBC’s commercial arm. Its portfolio of high circulation magazines include Radio Times, Top Gear, Top of the Pops and Good Homes, all of which provide advertising space to new and existing business customers. Advertisement Sales Executives booking advertisement space at BBC Magazines register on average five new customers every day over the telephone. Prior to implementing Matchcode Commercial into its advertising management system from Atex, BBC Magazines had been using software from QAS, another leading supplier, to validate address data.

“Our customers are commercial organisations and with our previous supplier we were validating residential addresses, which meant there was a significant risk of mis-delivery of invoices,” explains Head of Advertisement Systems at BBC Worldwide, Mike Pelizzoni. “With Matchcode Commercial we are confident that invoices will be received, reducing the problems caused by incorrect addresses or company names such as non payment or a long process for our credit control team identifying the correct data.”

The integration of Matchcode Commercial into BBC Magazine’s advertising system was performed by supplier Atex, using the API (Application Programming Interface) provided by Capscan. This process took only two days, fully supported by Capscan’s technical team.

Managing Director at Capscan, Terry Hiles, adds, “Using Matchcode Commercial, the Advertisement Sales Executives simply need to enter a postcode or partial address, with the full business address and organisational name presented for immediate input. It has ensured that BBC Magazines’ database is populated with accurate business address and organisational names data and also contributes to the streamlining of the advertisement space booking process.”

Matchcode Commercial integrates with the National Business Database from Experian, which consists of over 4.1 million trading organisations, ranging from small businesses and shops through to blue-chip corporations and local government agencies. The database complements the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF) validating BBC Magazines’ business customers’ organisational name and address data, returning a full address in the minimum number of keystrokes, as well as providing Standard Industry Codes (SIC Codes), telephone and fax numbers and other key business profiling information.