Ideal

"Using Capscan's ASP service we have reduced data entry from 50 keystrokes to an average of seven keystrokes per order, whilst significantly improving the quality of address data. We now validate 60,000 addresses each year and plan to rollout the solution to other Ideal services, including hardware and software distribution."

Head of e-Services Europe at Ideal, Karl Harris

 Ideal is one of the UK's most successful suppliers of IT products and services, supplying a full range of hardware, software and services, from components to high-level consultancy. Its software licensing business manages the license requirements for computer dealers, VARs, integrators and resellers. It has the largest UK market share for Microsoft licence sales (35%) and manages software licence sales for Symantec, the world's largest security software vendor.

To simplify the distribution of software licenses, Ideal uses its License Desk Internet (LDi) tool. It allows Ideal customers to automatically calculate and purchase the most cost-effective licensing solution for its client over the web, to ensure they remain compliant with software regulatory bodies including the BSA and FAST. As part of the ordering process, the customer is required to enter the address details of the client for invoicing and delivery. When entered correctly, the address is matched against previous purchase records in the database and the order processed.

Yet despite having required fields for address components such as company name, street and postcode, Ideal were constantly finding fields partially completed, or even filled in with just a single character. Head of e-Services Europe at Ideal, Karl Harris explains, "Customers making bulk orders on behalf of a number of clients found the process too time consuming. We hold more than 15,000 active addresses in our database and the data that was being entered would often not match any of them. Even if they were an existing customer."

Incorrect addressing was having direct impact on Ideal, using time and resource to track the correct address. This was ultimately risking delay in the dispatch of software licenses and disruption to both the customer and client. Ideal also exports licenses to mainland Europe and some countries impose export restrictions that also demand an accurate, full address.

Ideal recognised that by integrating an online address validation tool integrated with its LDi it could streamline data entry and provide accurate European addresses for completion of each order, delivery and invoicing, whilst maintaining a healthy database.

The leading address management suppliers were evaluated, with Capscan and QAS being short-listed. Harris explains the reasons for choosing the Capscan Address Service Portal hosted service, "Capscan's hosted service provided the perfect compliment for the LDi and was something that QAS did not offer," he continues, "The breadth of countries also meant it covered our customer-base across Europe for no extra cost to us. The icing on the cake was the value for money. It was well within our budget and billing was based on the number of addresses validated."

Using the Capscan ASP service the customer registers on to the website (http://ideal.license-desk.com/) and enters a postcode or partial address into the LDi. The data is immediately sent via an encrypted and authenticated SSL-based two megabyte weblink to the Capscan ASP where the WEB-address-server checks the data and returns an accurate, valid address in real-time. This ensures Ideal maintain a cleanly populated database of correct delivery addresses and minimises delays for both the customer and their client.

Harris adds, "Using Capscan's ASP service we have reduced data entry from 50 keystrokes to an average of seven keystrokes per order, whilst significantly improving the quality of address data. We now validate 60,000 addresses each year and plan to rollout the solution to other Ideal services, including hardware and software distribution."

"The hosted service is ideally suited to Ideal as we are not burdened with the inherent cost and risk of implementing an enterprise application, which needs updating and servicing over time," says Harris. "The sheer scalability of the Capscan ASP means we can easily implement it across the entire organisation and are currently looking to make it central to our business process as we expand our activities."