Postode lookup software

[Spacecadet]

Thanks All

[Joe Black]

Quick Address Search is the market leader, IIRC.

But VERY expensive.

Indeed.

One of the clients I worked for - someone obviously missed the small print - quite sensibly set about finding an alternative when someone flagged up that, with the number of per seat licenses they required, it was going to cost circa £250k the following year.

Their solution (don't know the cost figures anymore) was simply purchasing a Royal Mail CD containing the info and importing it into a database with a few very simple webservices wrapped round it.

[TheFaQQer]

Indeed.

One of the clients I worked for - someone obviously missed the small print - quite sensibly set about finding an alternative when someone flagged up that, with the number of per seat licenses they required, it was going to cost circa £250k the following year.

Their solution (don't know the cost figures anymore) was simply purchasing a Royal Mail CD containing the info and importing it into a database with a few very simple webservices wrapped round it.

£250k seems to be a "reasonable" figure for QAS - I've been quoted that on a few projects now.

You can get hold of the national address gazateer which gives you the information, but you get charged per search that you undertake so would need something to audit this. Ordnance Survey provide half the data, Royal Mail do the other half, and I think it's something like 0.5p or 0.25p per search that they charge. Factor that into a big system and it can get quite expensive in itself.

[Silkman]

A good alternative is Capscan. Found to be a better product, better service and more cost effective............worth a try??

[EvilWeevil]

I've found the AFD products to be reliable and reasonably priced.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Indeed.
.....

Their solution (don't know the cost figures anymore) was simply purchasing a Royal Mail CD containing the info and importing it into a database with a few very simple webservices wrapped round it.

This is a good option if the client is happy with it. I know of at least one PeopleSoft implementation that does this (needs a little custom work of course)