0208 915 1103|sales@thesoftwarebureau.com

About Martin

Martin Rides has 35 years’ experience in the world of Data & Direct Mail. He has worked across many areas of the industry including agencies, mail production and data bureaux. After 9 years running a specialist Direct Mail consulting practice, Martin returned to The Software Bureau as Managing Director in 2015.

Streamlining Data Quality: The Rise of Fully Automated Data Cleansing Services

By |2023-05-17T11:45:39+00:00May 17th, 2023|

In today's data-driven world, businesses rely heavily on the accuracy and reliability of their data to make informed decisions. However, maintaining clean and error-free data is a complex and time-consuming task that can often overwhelm organisations. To address this challenge, a new solution has emerged: fully automated data cleansing services. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies, these services streamline the data cleaning process, enabling businesses to enhance the quality of their data effortlessly and efficiently. The Challenge of Data Quality: Data quality is a crucial factor in ensuring reliable business operations, insightful analytics, and effective decision-making. Organisations often encounter challenges such as duplicate entries, outdated information, inconsistent formatting, and incomplete records. These issues can stem from various sources, including manual data entry, system [...]

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8 reasons why should you switch to SwiftCore now for all your data processing and management needs

By |2023-04-26T08:10:19+00:00April 26th, 2023|

What is SwiftCore? SwiftCore is our powerful computing platform, hosted on the Microsoft Azure Cloud, that offers a range of services designed to help organisations process their CRM contact data more efficiently. Why is SwiftCore the best solution for you? It is secure One of the most significant advantages of the Azure Cloud platform is its robust security features. Azure provides multiple layers of security, including role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and encryption, ensuring that data processed in Azure is secure and compliant with industry standards and regulations. It is compliant Because Swiftcore is a UK hosted solution, the data processed within it complies with all UK data protection regulations. This feature is particularly important if you handle sensitive or [...]

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Direct mail now more measurable than email!

By |2023-04-17T15:24:44+00:00April 17th, 2023|

Direct mail is now as measurable (if not more so, according to JICMAIL) than digital campaigns. For the first time JICMAIL has assessed how responsive UK householders are to direct mail incorporating key metrics such as response rates for acquisition and retention-based mail marketing campaigns, ROI, CPA and AOV. These are available for the retail, finance and insurance, medical and charity sectors. The study found that organisations using direct mail can expect benchmark response rates of almost 11 per cent for warm direct mail, which is defined as mail received by people who are known to be customers. Whilst a response rate of one per cent is received for cold mail, which is considered to be mail sent to people [...]

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On-prem v cloud data breaches: where is the safest place for your data?

By |2023-04-04T07:25:12+00:00April 4th, 2023|

According to the Cost of a Data Breach Report by IBM, the average total cost of a data breach for businesses in the UK stands at £2.9 million. This represents an increase of 9.4 per cent from the previous year's report. The report also found that the average cost per compromised record was £98 which is higher than the global average of $146 USD per record. Obviously, the cost of a data breach can vary depending on a range of factors, including the size of the organization, the industry, the type of data compromised, and the severity of the breach. However, the cost of a data breach can be significant, and can include expenses related to legal fees, regulatory fines, [...]

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Direct mail effectiveness soars

By |2023-03-23T10:05:54+00:00March 23rd, 2023|

Direct Mail experienced something of a renaissance during the Covid years – lockdown prompted a wide scale love affair with the letterbox. People enjoyed receiving mail, it provided a welcome break from the mundanity of being at home ALL THE TIME! This week, as we mark three years since the first lockdown back in 2020, it seems fitting that the latest figures from JICMAIL reveal that mail’s engagement is still on the rise. Mail open and retention rates both soared by four percent year on year. Over Christmas (Q4 2022) open rates hit 77 per cent and retention grew to 66 percent demonstrating the importance of mail within the marketing mix. At a time of year when consumers are more [...]

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The Software Bureau adds Baby Mailing Preference Service to SwiftCore

By |2023-03-09T10:07:00+00:00March 9th, 2023|

The Software Bureau has integrated Baby Mailing Preference Service (BMPS) to its SwiftCore suppression data portfolio to give organisations specialising in baby related products and services more control over their direct marketing. BMPS, a not-for-profit service managed by the DMA, is a specific preference service which enables bereaved parents to opt-out of receiving baby-oriented direct marketing communications including mail, email, SMS and phone calls. Most parents and parents-to-be are happy to receive communications from relevant brands at this exciting time, but in the UK sadly one in five pregnancies fall victim to a miscarriage and almost 3,000 a year result in a still birth. The BMPS enables those affected by miscarriage and stillbirth the opportunity to stop unwanted communications at [...]

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We achieve ISO27001 recertification

By |2023-03-02T07:33:07+00:00March 2nd, 2023|

We are delighted to have once again been recertified for ISO27001, which we first achieved in 2019. ISO27001 is the international standard prescribing best practice for an Information Security Management System (ISMS). It provides a framework for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring and improving information management using a six-part process model. According to the latest ISO Survey less than one per cent of UK businesses (2,818 organisations) currently hold the award due to the complexity involved in adhering to the controls outlined by the Standard. The accreditation builds a culture of security protecting valuable data and information assets. Comments Martin Rides, Managing Director, The Software Bureau: "This is a great achievement, particularly since we are one of only a few organisations in the [...]

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Zero trust and the role of data hygiene 

By |2023-02-27T16:21:38+00:00February 27th, 2023|

Massive amounts of data are being generated daily - from exercise stats compiled by wearables through to smart building monitors that collect temperature and air pressure information every 15 minutes. If data creation continues at its present rate, more than a yottabyte (a million trillion megabytes) will likely be generated annually by 2030. We are really starting to put the big into big data!  But with data, comes data threat. The two are synonymous. Last year it is estimated that there were 4,100 publicly announced breaches in security equating to 22 billion records being compromised and a rise of over 25 percent is expected this year. In an attempt to mitigate these threats, it is unsurprising that within three years Gartner [...]

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ICO calls for SMEs to be more data aware; we call the ICO to do more with #HelptoGrow! 

By |2023-01-31T08:27:16+00:00January 31st, 2023|

The Information Commissioner is urging SMEs to check they have the right data protection practices in place to help sustain and develop their businesses. The UK regulator says getting good data practices in place from the start will save businesses time and money, and boost customer confidence. A recent survey, commissioned by the ICO reveals that 91 percent of people worried about having their personal information sold to other companies without their consent, and 87 percent worried about a company losing their personal information. And this is not surprising considering a survey by the DMA found that only 10 per cent of SME leaders felt that they were complaint with current data protection laws. Another shocking report found that half [...]

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Is now the time for innovation in the direct mailing industry? 

By |2023-01-23T13:36:44+00:00January 23rd, 2023|

As many of our network will know, in December we carried out a research study investigating the automation opportunity for the sector. The overwhelming finding was that there is significant appetite to innovate particularly in terms of the use of AI. For the sector, it is therefore good news that the UK currently ranks first in Europe, and third in the World, behind the US and China in developing AI technologies. Moreover, the Government is keen for the UK to maintain this position. Investment continues to be high. As part of this in July last year The National Robotarium at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh opened its doors. It is the UK’s hub for robotics and artificial intelligence and has [...]

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