Swinton - a case study

Swinton - An online solution

Swinton is one of the UK's largest insurance brokers, with a leading presence on the High Street in the shape of some 440 branches nationwide. The company sells many different types of insurance, including home, car, pet, travel and commercial insurance.

Up until February 2005, Swinton was using an address management system from a well-known supplier, which performed adequately in the company's branch network and contact centre. At this time, Swinton was starting to make plans to relaunch an online insurance offering. Swinton found that its incumbent supplier was not able to provide a solution that would work online in a cost-effective way, and so turned to Experian QAS.

Accurate data capture

Experian QAS recommended its QAS Pro Web solution, which could be deployed in the company's branch network, contact centre and also online. QAS Pro Web is an award-winning data capture solution that brings together Experian QAS' experience of rapid address capture and web service technologies, and ensures the integrity of customer data captured over the web or in a browser based environment. Swinton deployed the QAS solution initially across its branch network and contact centre.

Improved customer service

QAS Pro Web runs on a server, with the branches accessing it via a Wide Area Network. The Experian QAS software enables the company's retail staff to enter data more rapidly and more accurately. It ensures that customer address data is validated at point of entry and consistently formatted across the organisation. While Swinton has found QAS Pro Web intuitive to use and extremely fast, Cassidy says there were other factors that influenced the company's decision.

"A lot of it was down to the Experian QAS team," he says. "We got a really good product at a really good price, but we felt like these were people we could do business with. They haven't sold us a solution and then walked away. They have stayed in touch, kept us up to speed on new developments and been really sensible about everything. As a result, there are other Experian QAS services that we are now actively considering."

Benefitting from improved data management

Since Swinton deployed QAS Pro Web in February 2005, it has generated a substantial return on investment.

"We have calculated that using QAS Pro Web to reduce keystroke time presents us with a time saving that translates into more than £2 million a year of income," he says. Alongside clear cost benefits, Swinton also believes that through accurate customer data they can provide a more efficient service to their customers across the UK as well as their business partners.

Building on the data quality strategy

Swinton is looking to increase its use of QAS Pro Web on its relaunched e-commerce offering, which goes live in 2007. The company anticipates that efficient address capture online will minimise potential website drop-offs. Swinton is also looking to use Experian QAS software to clean, verify and suppress some of the older data within its database.

Data suppression is also a consideration. Swinton currently outsources this activity but is discussing the option of bringing this function in-house using a desktop solution from Experian QAS.