Tag Archives: Tracing

Data Cleansing Specialists Unveil New-Look Corporate Website

Tracesmart Corporate, data cleansing specialists and leading providers of consumer information services, have launched their new look corporate website. The redesign is not just skin-deep however, as it also includes an updated appearance to their intuitive online services, employed by a growing legion of operators to trace people and conduct identity checks. The redesign project was initiated following discussion with clients and prospects about site functionality.

Following in-depth market research with staff, customers and potential clients, the company embarked on a strategic overhaul of their business website to reflect the requirements and observations made by visitors during the research. The new look website and service portal was developed to portray Tracesmart Corporate as a modern and progressive organisation with a more welcoming and easier to understand user interface.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager commented, “Putting into practice the feedback we received during market research has paid dividends. We believe our new look corporate website presents a more customer focused and user friendly search facility. Our in-house web developers and design team have responded to the challenge and delivered a fresh, contemporary design that I’m sure our customers will greatly appreciate.”

The Tracesmart Corporate website provides access to a variety of data intelligence services such as self-key consumer tracing, existence checks anti money-laundering and know your customer identity verification. Users of these services come from a broad and growing range of industries that include, amongst others, the financial sector, professional services and the media.

Paul Weathersby, Tracesmart’s Technical Director added just before its launch, “Following exhaustive examination of our previous site and listening to visitors and our customers, we were keen to improve the user experience and design. The website has gone through more than just a face lift and early indication from those consulted on the project suggests a more than favourable reaction. We are extremely delighted with the new design.”

Via EPR Network
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Tracesmart Bolster Their Database

Tracesmart, the online people search providers, have announced the addition of 100,000 rolling register updates for their tracing website. The new records will further assist customers when performing their online searches, delivering added accuracy to the Tracesmart facility. The new electoral roll data consists of individuals who have moved home or changed other details during the past month and have contacted their local authority to register their change of circumstance. The annual canvas of the UK population is undertaken during October every year, offering households the choice to opt out of the electoral roll if they wish. The option has given people the freedom to decide if their information is to be kept in the public domain, or only made available to those within local authority or credit reference agencies.

The number of people choosing to opt-out has risen since the opportunity was introduced in 2003, however the electoral roll continues to document millions of people and in 2009 the total amassed was 25 million records. Paul Weathersby, Tracesmart’s Technical Director, explains that although this number is lower than previous years, he is confident that the company’s unique Tracesmart Register fills in the gaps, strengthening the database. Weathersby commented, “We were the first website to publish the monthly updates, and we know from listening to customers that this has benefited them greatly. The fresh data we upload monthly is in addition to the Tracesmart Register, which is a database of data compliant sources.”

The Tracesmart Register has 250,000 new record uploads every month, and the extra rolling register monthly additions bolster the websites positioning as the premium name search facility.

“We pride ourselves on the information we hold, and invest in the most current data available to us. This provides our customers with the best possible chance of a successful address search to find relatives or friends,” said Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager.

Anyone who moves or changes their details is encouraged to contact their local authority or visit the website About My Vote to register or update their details.

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HSBC Division Employ Tracesmart’s Proprietary Existence System

Tracesmart Corporate has been appointed by HSBC Actuaries and Consultants Limited (HACL) to provide their proprietary existence and tracing services. The facility will allow the verification of customer data against vital consumer information, including key UK mortality records; permitting the HSBC employee benefit consultancy to continuously and confidently monitor their client database in order to maintain contact with existing customers and highlight possible fraudulent activity.

HACL is part of the HSBC Group and a market leader in the UK specialising in actuarial and employee benefits consultancy, providing opinion, advice and services to pension scheme trustees, employers and individuals. It has become one of the leading employee benefits and actuarial consultancies in the UK.

Following stringent examination amongst stiff competition, including the incumbent, Tracesmart was recently awarded the three year preferred supplier contract. Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director commented, “Our meticulous procedures and thorough understanding of our customers’ requirements has successfully delivered yet another major account. Our existence facility and unique multi-tiered tracing solutions are currently delivering significant benefits to our clients. We look forward to working with HACL to deliver the best possible and most cost effective service available.”

Tracesmart, the Cardiff based data intelligence company, provides a comprehensive and unique facility to trace people, delivered by a team of in-house tracing agents, the service offers a tiered search solution to a growing number of companies. Tracesmart is also one of a small number of organisations to receive a weekly update of the UK Death Registration Information f r o m the General Register Office (GRO) to enhance its mortality screening facility. Approximately 12,000 deaths are recorded weekly in the UK, and this amassed information, combined with Tracesmart’s vast consumer database, drives the company’s proprietary service ‘Existence Alert’. The service is in essence a data cleansing process, which provides a continuous screening facility that identifies deceased individuals and ‘gone aways’ (people that move home without notifying a change of address) at the earliest possible moment, allowing appropriate action to be taken to minimise risk and combat escalating fraud such as the impersonation of the deceased.

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Tracesmart Won The South Wales Chamber Of Commerce Excellence In eBusiness Award For 2009

The Cardiff based people search specialists, Tracesmart, have won the South Wales Chamber of Commerce Excellence in eBusiness award for 2009. The award was presented to Tracesmart by the distinguished journalist and television personality, John Sergeant at a glittering ceremony and dinner to honour the best in Welsh business. The event was the culmination of the Chamber’s Business Week in Wales.

Following 10 years of growth, investment and continued technical advancement, Tracesmart has developed one of the UK’s leading people tracing facilities. Utilising a range of consumer datasets, including the continuously updated electoral roll, the online resource delivers an intuitive tracing service to the general public.

The web based facility offers, amongst a multitude of functions, an address search feature, affording consumers an easy to use resource to find relatives and friends. The facility has, over the years, helped reunite thousands of families and friends, whose stories have often attracted media attention.

Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director commented, “We are delighted to have won the Chamber of Commerce Excellence in eBusiness award, it’s a notable mark of distinction and a tribute to the work we do at Tracesmart. We constantly strive to develop and improve our online services, and it’s great that our work has been recognised.”

Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, Owen Roberts added, “The South Wales Chamber has built up an excellent reputation within Wales and has firmly established itself as the nation’s most prominent business support organisation. We are proud to be associated with the Chamber and are extremely pleased to have won the award. The company has changed and grown significantly over recent times and we are now reaping the benefits of our hard work.”

Tracesmart will now receive automatic entry to the British Chambers of Commerce national awards.

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Data Cleansing Experts Shortlisted for Industry Award

Consumer data specialists Tracesmart have been shortlisted for a new industry award. Following the submission of an application into the ‘Best PR/Advertising Campaign’ category of the CSA (Credit Services Association) Awards, the Tracesmart Corporate ‘Nobody home?’ campaign has made the shortlist.The winner is to be announced at the CSA’s annual Gala Dinner, which concludes the CSA & DBSG (Debt Buyers and Sellers Group) Conference in Brighton later this month.

Tracesmart’s ‘Nobody home?’ entry, employs a variety of promotional mediums to communicate its message. The campaign promotes the Tracesmart Corporate data cleansing and debtor tracing services, which can be utilised to verify debtor residency and trace people.

The message which the campaign conveys is that Tracesmart’s services make it simple to confirm whether a debtor is resident or not – a task which is even more pertinent in the current economic climate, as more individuals attempt to avoid paying debt. Commenting on the imagery used to symbolise how difficult it can be to confirm residency, Adam Smith – Tracesmart’s Marketing Manager – commented,

“Our creative brainstorming session led to the idea of a vacant house to symbolise someone who may no longer be resident, however this concept did not deliver the striking imagery we required. It eventually evolved into the more abstract concept of an empty tortoise shell. This image ticked all the boxes; whilst the shell appears empty, it could still have a resident, thus epitomising the problem of confirming debtor residency.”

The concept has clearly worked for Smith’s team as Tracesmart have seen impressive results from the campaign. Commenting on the effectiveness of the ‘Nobody home?’ campaign, Chris Rothwell – Sales Director for Tracesmart – remarked, “The campaign’s creative concept has been well received by the industry and this has been reflected in the campaign results to date.

So far, in comparison to our last financial year, lead generation is up 53% for the sector, which has significantly boosted sales of the services promoted by the campaign. From a brand awareness point of view, this campaign has definitely helped to highlight how we can help debt collection agencies and enforcers verify debtor residency and locate gone aways.”

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Identity Verification Experts Reach Half-Million GRO Mortality Records

Tracesmart, the data and fraud prevention specialists, this week reached a landmark half million mortality records received from the General Register Office (GRO) as part of the Disclosure of Death Registration Information (DDRI) scheme. The UK Death Registration Information (DRI) was first released in September 2008 and Tracesmart Corporate were the first organisation to be approved by the GRO to receive the weekly update of the DRI following rigorous examination. The DRI is only accessible for the purposes prescribed by law and is stored within Tracesmart’s secure data facility.

Identity Verification Experts Reach Half-Million GRO Mortality Records

The Home Office estimate that identity fraud costs the UK economy over £1.2 billion a year and the half million death records accumulated since the beginning of the scheme less than a year ago, supplemented by Tracesmart’s additional and vast database, will significantly help combat today’s ever increasing and resourceful fraudster. Mortality data is a key tool in the battle to beat identity fraud, especially its derivatives – impersonation of the deceased (IOD) and the lesser known concealment fraud.

Although both IOD and concealment fraud involve deceiving organisations into the belief that a deceased person is still alive and dishonestly claiming and receiving lines of credit and other beneficial services, the perpetrators differ greatly.

IOD fraud is often committed by professional fraudsters who utilise previous occupant’s mail or obituaries to assume an individual’s identity and obtain credit or benefits illegally. In contrast, concealment fraud is often committed by the deceased’s spouse or dependents, who deliberately neglect to notify the correct parties of the deceased’s passing in order to receive illicit funds.

Tracesmart is one of the UKs leading providers of identity fraud prevention tools, and its clients benefit significantly from the DDRI scheme as electronic identity checks and mortality screening searches are conducted utilising the weekly feed of the DRI. In addition to its identity verification facility, Tracesmart also provides a data cleansing service and an online resource to trace people for positive or negative intentions.

Highlighting the benefits of the DRI to Tracesmart and its clients, Mike Trezise, the company’s Managing Director commented, “Regularly updated mortality information has become crucial in our fight against fraud. Obviously, the more information we hold, better the chance we have of highlighting discrepancies within client databases and possible cases of fraud. The half million records of new mortality data received since the inception of the DDRI scheme is certainly a landmark and has already significantly helped Tracesmart, and our service users, expose fraudulent activity.”

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Standards And Services Body Employ Tracesmart’s Proprietary Existence Checking Service

Origo, the eCommerce standards and services body for the UK financial services industry, has appointed Tracesmart Corporate as their exclusive service provider to deliver their new online facility – the Origo Data Matching Service (ODMS) on a 3 year contract. The bespoke data screening service allows financial providers to check their customer data against key sources of information, including records of deceased UK individuals and those no longer residing at a given address, which in turn helps them to manage payments in-force, reserves and identify fraudulent activity.

Tracesmart, the Cardiff based tracing, identity verification and data cleansing agency, is one of a small number of companies to receive a weekly update of the UK Death Registration Information f r o m the General Register Office (GRO), and this information, along with Tracesmart’s vast consumer database, drives the company’s proprietary service “Existence Alert” which distinctively fulfils Origo’s requirements for its new data matching service.

Paul Pettitt, Managing Director of Origo, commented on Tracesmart’s commission, “Origo is delighted to announce the launch of this service, which addresses fraud issues and delivers immediate bottom line benefits for providers. Origo is uniquely placed to identify collective requirements, following which we have procured a cost effective service to meet those requirements. We are looking forward to working with our chosen supplier, Tracesmart, to deliver immediate benefits to providers.”

The ODMS will assist providers in mitigating risks associated with annuity overpayment to the recently deceased, combat ‘Impersonation of the Deceased’ fraud and highlight ‘gone aways’ policyholders who have moved f r o m their last known address. Tracesmart currently provide similar services to numerous other financial institutions throughout the UK, including the vast majority of third party administrators within the pension sector.

Following exhaustive examination and assessment, Tracesmart emerged as the preferred data supplier for Origo’s new service and Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director, commented, “We are delighted to have secured such a significant account. Tracesmart’s ability to fully recognise Origo’s requirements is fundamental to our success. The provision of relevant data, accessed via an easy to use platform will significantly help Origo’s members to verify customer residency and flag gone aways, in addition to mortality screening their databases. We look forward to working with Origo and their associates, to deliver the best possible service.”

Rick Williams, Actuarial and Technical Support Manager of Friends Provident, one of Origo’s original members and sponsors, added, “ODMS will allow Friends Provident to keep in touch with its customers in a simple and non-intrusive manner, without the bureaucracy that annuity providers have traditionally used. Using better technology to reduce costs, whilst not losing sight of our customers, is what we are all about. As the first company to use ODMS we have been fully involved in the development of this service and are looking forward to our relationship with both Tracesmart and Origo.”

About Tracesmart
Established in 1999, Tracesmart Ltd is a leading provider of consumer intelligence services. It specialises in the provision of both online tracing and identity verification. Prominent in the pensions, legal, financial and retail sectors, their fraud prevention and anti-money laundering solutions are employed by a growing legion of businesses ranging f r o m SME to FTSE 100 companies.

The company’s management has recently embarked on a rapid growth strategy, recently doubling, staff numbers and office accommodation at its Cardiff Bay headquarters in addition to opening its City of London office to satisfy existing and anticipated future demands for its products and services.

Mike Trezise
Trezise is the founder and Managing Director of Tracesmart. With over 25 years tracing and fraud analysis experience, his unrivalled knowledge provides the company with a distinct competitive advantage.

About Origo
Origo was launched by 16 of the UK’s leading life assurance companies in June 1989 to facilitate the development of electronic trading between principals and agents for Life, Pensions and Collective Investment business. In February 2006, the scope of Origo’s activity was extended to include mortgage business.

Origo’s main purpose is to address cost and efficiency issues for the UK Life, Pensions, Investment and Mortgage sectors by delivering common eCommerce services and standards. Origo drives the adoption of eBusiness by creating a standards-based, competitive and secure trading environment in which industry goals are being met.

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Consumer Data Specialists Tracesmart Partners With NeuStar To Employ Their UltraDNS Service

Utilizing UltraDNS will greatly improve connection reliability from their Tracesmart Corporate and consumer services to their datacentres. The move forms part of the company’s disaster recovery program and their continued commitment to service quality and dependability.

Well regarded worldwide, NeuStar currently works with the likes of Tesco, SalesForce, Forbes, Oracle and My Space. With a reputation for technical superiority and service reliability, NeuStar’s UltraDNS service was the ideal choice for Tracesmart as it employs an external domain name system spanning continents and housed in 6 data centres, ensuring continuous availability and speed. Using UltraDNS, Tracesmart will now be able to interchange between their datacentres much faster – a benefit that is of great importance for disaster recovery planning.

As part of the company’s larger business continuity plan, the UltraDNS implementation means that in the highly unlikely event that Tracesmart’s core data centre fails due to a natural or human-induced disaster, the company can quickly switch to their backup datacentre. Discussing how their new approach will negate the impact of external physical catastrophes, Tracesmart’s Technical Director, Paul Weathersby, commented,

“The new UltraDNS service will enable us to have a standby response to any possible disaster that impacts upon our primary datacentre. The new service will divert service traffic to our reserve datacentre; which means our consumer and business clients should experience as little service degradation as possible.”

The new implementation also adds further reliability to Tracesmart’s services, such as their identity checks service, AML, which is used for anti-money laundering purposes. Additionally, the employment of the UltraDNS service will benefit Tracesmart’s internal functions, as it means their corporate specialist staff will still have access to the various datasets needed for manual tracing and data cleansing in the event of the company’s core datacentre failing. From a customer standpoint¬ this will further benefit Tracesmart’s corporate clients as it means their projects would have little or no additional delay in turnaround.

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People Search Website Receives Traffic Surge

Following the first episode of the new series of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, Tracesmart, leading providers of online people search tools, experienced a significant surge in visitors to their site. It would appear the programme has inspired viewers to research their family tree, in which Tracesmart can play an important role.

Over 10,000 people searches are conducted daily on the Tracesmart website, which helps people to find relatives and friends.The site provides people tracing and research tools, such as their address search tool, which are driven by a multitude of databases which cover recent history. Whilst users cannot research historical data such as census records, which are a useful resource for genealogists, they do provide a link to some of the most powerful resources for family tree research – living relatives.

Many people in the UK have lost touch with family members or have distant relatives who may hold the key to unlocking their family history, and Tracesmart has long been used to aid amateur genealogists in their quest for knowledge. Providing access to information such as current and historic Electoral Roll records and Birth, Death and Marriage Indexes, Tracesmart can be utilised to locate relatives that could provide vital links to the past.

The BBC’s ‘Who Do you Think You Are?’ series has raised the profile of genealogy. The first episode of this new series aired on Wednesday 15th July at 9pm and featured Davina McCall, who traced her French and English roots. It was following this broadcast that the Tracesmart website received an influx of visitors. Owen Roberts, Communications Manager at Tracesmart, comments on the role the company has to play in family research,

“Living relatives can often provide gems of information about a family’s history but, unfortunately, family members can often lose touch with one another. It is at this point that the genealogist will turn to us to help them locate those relatives they have lost contact with.

In addition to our online search facilities, we also have an experienced team of researchers who can offer advice to those who have lost contact with a family member – my advice to anyone who is searching for a relative is get in touch with us!”

This series of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ continues for another 5 episodes, with the forthcoming episode featuring Radio 1’s Chris Moyles.

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Tracesmart application usage swells on Facebook

Tracesmart’s new Names Directory has seen a dramatic increase in users, predominantly within social network site Facebook where the directory is accessed via the “My Name application. The facility, which was launched in December, enables users to discover statistical and geographical information relating to their name. The database contains 1.5 billion names from the electoral roll 2000-2009 and the application is free to use within Facebook or via the Tracesmart website.

Tracesmart are extremely pleased with the response to their new online search tool, We have been very encouraged by the feedback from individuals who have used the Names Directory, says Owen Roberts, Communications Manager for Tracesmart. We believe a third of our consumer traffic is directly attributed to this new search function, it’s great that the application has become such a popular tool.

tracesmart

The United Kingdom has a wide range of different and unusual names from all over the world, and these will inevitably appear on the lectoral roll. An increase in the popularity of genealogy has resulted in many new researchers getting familiarised with the diverse spelling of similar sounding names. Commenting on this, Sarah Lawrence – Tracesmart’s Customer Service Manager noted, “This new database seems to fascinate many people. It offers help for those trying to find relatives and friends as it can assist with the spelling of names essential to get the spelling right when conducting a people search“. Tracesmart’s Names Directory also lists alternative spellings, helping researchers with often difficult names.

However, the most common reason for using the Names Directory is to explore how popular an individual’s name is. The database ranks the names in order of popularity; it will also predict how many other people in the UK have the same name and display their possible location.

Tracesmart is currently developing additional systems that will improve the visitor experience, and increase the profile of family research to a wider audience.

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Electoral Register Is Updated With 1m Changes

Over the last six months Tracesmart, one of the UK’s leading providers of consumer data services, has made over 1,000,000 amendments to their Electoral Register 2009 data. Conducted over the period January ’09 to June ’09, the changes were made possible through the Rolling Register updates which the company receives on a monthly basis – ensuring Tracesmart holds the most accurate data available.

Both the full and edited Electoral Registers play a key role in the company’s Tracesmart Corporate suite of services. Edited Electoral Register data is utilised in the business’s data cleansing, existence check and debtor tracing systems. Whilst Tracesmart’s electronic identity verification service, AML, draws upon full Electoral Register data.

Tracesmart’s Electoral Register records were refreshed using monthly Rolling Register updates. The Rolling Register is a monthly update which provides individuals whose personal circumstances change during the electoral year – for example a home move or marriage – with the opportunity to re-register on the Electoral Register with their new details. Prior to the inception of the Rolling Register this was only possible once a year.

These updates allow Tracesmart to refresh their records on a monthly basis – ensuring their clients can access the most up-to-date consumer information available. It is essential that the company’s d a t a s e t s are constantly updated, as many of their services are relied upon for legal compliance. For example their AML service which facilitates electronic identity checks, helps Tracesmart clients to ensure they comply with UK anti-money laundering legislation, making it imperative that data provided is as current and accurate as possible.

Commenting on the company’s continued commitment to data quality, Paul Weathersby, Technical Director for Tracesmart, noted, “All of our services, whether for corporate or consumer use, draw upon the most recent data available. We conduct updates on an annual, monthly, weekly and even daily basis to ensure accuracy. In addition to regular updates, the company conducts its own data collation projects; some of which involve extensive digitisation of data held in hard copy format. This commitment to data quality and diversity allows for constant service augmentation and innovation, which in turn allows us to retain our market leading position.”

About Tracesmart: Tracesmart Ltd was formed in 1999 and supplies a diverse range of consumer data cleansing, identity check and tracing tools to a wide variety of industries. Their client base ranges f r o m SME to blue chip companies; all recipients of bespoke solutions, built around their specific needs.

Paul Weathersby – Tracesmart’s Technical Director, Weathersby is the driving force behind the development and production of Tracesmart’s suite of web-based services, and manages and directs their experienced IT team.

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Cutting Edge Data Cleansing Company Expands Premises

Following the acquisition of the adjoining waterfront office accommodation in Cardiff Bay, Tracesmart – one of the UK’s leading suppliers of consumer data services – are transferring their tracing, customer service, sales and marketing teams to their new high-tech residence on completion of an extensive refurbishment project. The company has in-effect doubled their workforce over the past 18 months and the office expansion will more than adequately service their growth.

Counting the prominent and prestigious St David’s Hotel and Spa as a neighbour, Tracesmart’s waterside position is in one of the most sought after areas within Cardiff Bay’s newly developed and highly acclaimed business and recreation quarter. In-line with the original design of their headquarters, the ultra-modern theme continues; reflecting the company’s values and persona whilst providing a first-rate environment for their workforce.

Tracesmart Corporate, the company’s commercial division, has been the key driver in the organisation’s development, delivering a wide range of services from identity checks for anti-money laundering purposes, to mortality screening for fraud prevention. Bucking the current economic trend, Tracesmart is experiencing continued growth across all areas. Demand for their data cleansing and tracing services has grown dramatically as the need to trace people continues to increase.

To effectively serve their ever-growing client portfolio, Tracesmart continues to recruit specialist staff and the refurbishment project will afford much needed scope to accommodate their future staffing requirements. Whilst the extended offices have served the company well until now, the reconfiguration and restructuring will allow for space to be utilised much more ergonomically. This frees up a greater working area which can be used to house future employees.

Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director commented, “We believe this area of Cardiff is the perfect location for our company. When we were searching for new premises we had no need to look further than next door. The initial move allowed us to expand our team, and this redesign will allow us to expand even further. When completed, the refurbishment will solve our accommodation needs in line with projected future business and staffing requirements.”

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Proposed European Legal Move Planned To Regulate The Use Of Cookies Could Have A Profound Negative Impact Upon Some Of The World’s Biggest Businesses

Bigmouthmedia has warned that a proposed European legal move to regulate the use of cookies could have a profound negative impact upon the some of the world’s biggest businesses.

In a move that threatens affiliate marketing, bid management and web analytics, proposed amendments to the 2002 European Communities Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications would mean that in future, websites would only be able to place cookies on visitors’ computers if they give their express consent.

“This is a proposal that would strike at the very heart of what the digital economy is all about. The ability to measure, track and improve the site experience for visitors is key to the success of e-commerce, and given the potentially damaging effect this could have on a multi-billion pound business channel, suggests legislators don’t quite appreciate the havoc they could cause,” said Andrew Girdwood, Head of Search at bigmouthmedia.

“This isn’t really a privacy issue. More often than not, cookies only contain data to measure the success of keywords or affiliates. We support attempts to raise awareness of privacy issues and provide internet users with more control but believe these functions would be better provided by the browser than the website. This would give users even greater flexibility and more consistency.”

Many areas of the digital marketing business could be seriously affected if the proposed legislative changes come into effect, with big names from Amazon to Google likely to be hit. Services dependent on using user data to track sales such as affiliate marketing would suffer significantly, while pay-per-click advertising services would be forced to ask permission to place a cookie every time a user attempted to follow a link.

If the amendments go through, commercial web sites may be forced to run multi million pound search campaigns without having a detailed understanding of how well the strategy is performing. Most modern forms of web analytics, meanwhile, would also be threatened by the European proposal.

The experience of visiting commercial websites could also be badly affected. Sites may be forced to display a pop-up message – commonly associated with invasive advertising – in order to seek the visitor’s permission before any tracking could be used. Over all, the loss in transactions combined with the cost of implementation would stretch to many millions of Euros in lost revenue each month for online retailers, travel and finance sites.

Full details of the proposed legislative change and its possible ramifications are available through bigmouthmedia’s digital news service.

About bigmouthmedia
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest and most experienced digital marketing agency and was rated the UK’s #1 Search agency for SEO and PPC in the 2009 NMA Marketing Services Guide. Bigmouthmedia’s 200+ online marketing experts across 12 international offices maximise online brand exposure by means of integrated digital strategies incorporating SEO, PPC, Social Media Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Display Advertising, Online PR and Copywriting. Bigmouthmedia’s multilingual digital solutions deliver outstanding ROI for over 300 world leading brands including British Airways, Tesco, Sky, Cisco, BT, Comic Relief, Barclaycard and Europcar. Bigmouthmedia also provides up to date daily digital marketing news.

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Online People Search Company Sending Out the Right Message

Tracesmart private customers will receive a new look newsletter from the online people search website this month, as a result of a revamped email marketing campaign. The online tracing facility has enjoyed continued growth since the website launched in 2004, with approximately 10,000 trace and address search requests performed every day.

The company has helped to reunite thousands of families and friends, many of whom may not have had contact for several decades; a large proportion are found instantly through a simple electoral roll search. Tracesmart has simplified the tracing process, taking the hassle away from family researching, which can quite often be daunting for new users.

“The customer service team here at Tracesmart assist visitors with different enquires ranging from an in-depth trace to a straightforward postcode search,” Sarah Lawrence, Tracesmart’s Customer Service Manager explained. “We hope this new look newsletter will stimulate many customers who may have abandoned their people search, to come back and try again, after all, our database is updated every day.”

The new look email, which will be distributed to all subscribers, includes news stories and tracing tips to help individuals conduct a successful people search. The ever changing facets of marketing practices have seen a shift in the way companies communicate with their customers. Tracesmart has implemented many of the industry standards with the aim of attracting new visitors and increasing the popularity of family tracing.

Tracesmart historically corresponded with customers both through the post and via email, but are reducing the use of surface mail wherever possible. The people search specialists are eager to meet green guidelines and reduce their carbon footprint in line with government targets. “Tracesmart are working closely with ‘E-shot’, an email marketing company, ensuring correct procedures are implemented and employed,’ commented Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager. “They have over ten years e-marketing experience, and we are confident that Tracesmart will benefit enormously from this new campaign.”

    About Tracesmart

  • Sarah Lawrence boasts over 17 years experience in the field of customer services and satisfaction. In her role at Tracesmart Consumer she ensures the smooth day to day running of the customer services team.
  • Owen Roberts has worked in the creative, advertising and communications industries for over 25 years and is the voice of Tracesmart. Heading up the communications team, he raises public awareness of the company through various media driven PR campaigns.
  • Tracesmart Ltd – Since the launch of its website in 2004, Tracesmart Ltd has established itself as one of the UK’s leading providers of online people tracing tools.www.tracesmart.co.uk combines state of the art search technology with an extensive collection of consumer data, providing one of the most powerful and successful systems to trace people.

Tracesmart now associate member of the BBA

Cardiff based Tracesmart, leading supplier of asset reunification and identity verification services, has announced it is now a professional associate member of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). Tracesmart has joined the BBA to gain a deeper insight into the financial sector and share its expert knowledge with the banking community.

Tracesmart currently supplies a wide range of services to the financial sector which are used for a variety of purposes – from specialist tracing and data cleansing services which drive asset reunification campaigns, to electronic identity checks which are used in anti-money laundering and know your customer exercises. Becoming a professional associate member of the BBA will ensure Tracesmart is fully aware of challenges the industry faces and allow the company to share its extensive specialist knowledge. Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, highlighted the company’s long tradition of working with professional organisations,

“We are already members of, and work with, numerous professional bodies to the benefit of both parties – we now hope that in working with the BBA we can continue this practice and expand our knowledge of the banking industry. A better understanding of the sector inevitably allows us to further tailor our service offerings and can only lead to better service provision for our clients.”

In addition to information sharing, the company aims to raise the awareness of the Tracesmart brand in the banking community – the BBA has members all over the globe and its member banks together form the biggest international banking centre on the planet. On welcoming Tracesmart as a professional associate member, Jason Cole, Commercial Director of the BBA, noted the diverse array of companies that support the BBA,

“The BBA is the leading UK banking and financial services trade association and acts on behalf of over 200 members from 60 different countries. We are pleased to welcome Tracesmart as a professional associate member of the BBA. This membership consists of a variety of firms including companies from the legal, accounting, consultancy and technology sectors. All have one thing in common – a desire to participate and share information amongst their peers from the banking community.”

About Tracesmart

Tracesmart Limited was formed in 1999 and supplies a diverse range of consumer data cleansing, identity check and people tracing tools to a wide variety of industries. The company’s client base ranges from SME to Blue Chip, who are all recipients of bespoke solutions, built around their specific needs.

About BBA

The BBA is the leading association for the UK banking and financial services sector, speaking for 223 banking members from 60 countries on the full range of UK or international banking issues and engaging with 37 associated professional firms.

About Mike Trezise

Mike Trezise is the founder and Managing Director of Tracesmart. With over 25 years tracing and fraud analysis experience his unrivalled knowledge provides the company with a distinct competitive advantage.

About Jason Cole

Jason Cole is the Commercial Director for the BBA and is responsible for the management of BBA’s commercial services, including marketing, publications, qualifications & training, venue hire and developing and running over 100 conference and seminar programmes annually.

Via EPR Network
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Popular ITV chat show uses one of Tracesmart’s many success stories as a feature on their Xmas show

Once again Tracesmart has helped to reunite a brother and sister. They were, until now, apart for more than forty years and the story is made even more special as ITV picked up on the successful trace, and helped organise a special surprise reunion for The Alan Titchmarsh Christmas Show. Tracesmart are a formidable force in the people search arena and have assisted numerous media channels with heart warming reunion stories similar to this. The show is to be broadcast at 6.30pm on Sunday 21st December.

Originally, Dave Bower from Australia contacted Tracesmart asking for help to find his sister, who was sadly separated from the rest of the family nearly forty years ago. Linda, his sister was found to be living in Eastbourne, which meant that Dave and his wife and sons had a very long way to travel. The reunion was made possible by ITV who were themselves looking for families to reunite and surprise for The Alan Titchmarsh Christmas special.

Tracesmart has helped thousands of families to find relatives and assisted the public in their people searches. Visitors to the website can search people using the current 2009 electoral roll. Many of those who subscribe to the website will be looking to find relatives who they may not have seen for a decade or more. A simple address search can sometimes result in a match being found instantly, other searches may take a little longer, for instance, if the subject has moved out of the area or has changed name. Tracesmart has a dedicated customer service team and an online instant messenger support, which is free to use, both helping to make the search to find relatives less stressful.

Louise Hewlett, who assisted with the surprise reunion said, “We were delighted that ITV wanted to help reunite one of our success stories. Without their help the reunion between the siblings may have taken a lot longer, when considering the cost of flying and the distance between them.”

A great deal of interest has arisen from various stories that Tracesmart has helped orchestrate, and this has further raised public awareness of how easy it is to perform a people search and ultimately find relatives or friends. Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager was keen to comment on the good publicity, “The main purpose behind the campaign is to help people find relatives and share their story with different media agencies. This has resulted in many more people finding the special person in their life, and possibly being able to spend their first Christmas together in many years.”

Contact Details:

  • Louise Hewlett is the driving force in Tracesmart’s Missing Person’s campaign and has been tracing people for over 2 years. Louise has previously appeared on BBC 1’s Missing Live programme to discuss tracing and one of her previous successful reunions.
  • Owen Roberts has worked in the creative, advertising and communications industries for over 25 years and is the voice of Tracesmart. Heading up the communications team, he raises the public awareness of the company through various media driven PR campaigns.
  • Tracesmart Limited – Since the launch of its website in 2004 Tracesmart Limited has established itself as one of the UK’s leading providers of online people tracing tools. www.tracesmart.co.uk combines state of the art search technology with an extensive collection of consumer data, providing one of the most powerful and successful systems to trace people

Missing person Blog to be launched by Gill Whitley in collaboration with Tracesmart with the aim of helping reuniting people with their loved ones

Tracesmart is to launch a new website on behalf of ‘Searching for a Memory’, a voluntary tracing service run by Gill Whitley. The organisation is sponsored by Tracesmart, the leading online people search facility, and consists of Gill and a team of three other tracers working from home; their aim is to help find relatives or friends for people who have no idea where to start.

Gill, the founder of the service, has been tracing families since 1998 and since then has helped thousands of people hoping to find relatives. The new blog style website will allow visitors to share with Gill as she posts her success stories, and post comments or questions live on the site allowing her to reply personally.

The blog has been created as part of the collaboration between Tracesmart and the ‘Searching for a Memory’ team, an alliance which began early in 2008, and has been flourishing ever since. The union was formed with the aim of becoming an exceptional team in the people search arena, mixing the experience of the research team together with Tracesmart’s extensive online people search facility. Tracesmart’s Missing Person campaign launched in February of this year, with the intention of raising the profile of its vast electoral roll search facility, resulted in countless enquiries and in some cases, the information offered by the person searching was very limited, consequently it became beneficial to refer the trace to Gill and her team.

Gill commented, “I started Searching for a Memory in recognition of my late mother-in-law, who had been estranged from my husband for 34 years. I found her 11 months before she died, and thought as a tribute to her I would continue tracing to help other people find their loved ones. Over the years I would like to think I have had a great deal of success. I have used various resources during this time, but none better than Tracesmart’s excellent online address search and people search facility.” Gill added, “The facility makes tracing so much easier compared to the earlier days and can very easily be used by anyone.”

Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, “The ‘Searching for a Memory’ website has been created by our in-house technical team to help Gill, we are very pleased to be able to facilitate and help Gill and her team because of the excellent voluntary service they provide. I anticipate many people will interact with the new website, and enquire with Gill for help with any Missing Person search, with the hope people will also share their success stories or questions with each other on the blog.”

  • Gill Whitley – Gill is an experienced tracer and has successfully reunited thousands of individuals through her Searching for a Memory project. Her association with the weekly Missing and Found column is published each Saturday in the Daily Mail.
  • Owen Roberts has worked in the creative, advertising and communications industries for over 25 years and is the voice of Tracesmart. Heading up the communications team, he raises the public awareness of the company through various media driven PR campaigns.

Via EPR Network
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Entrepreneurial Challenge Sparks Media Interest in Tracesmart

Tracesmart has received attention from the national press following their MD’s entry into the Bank of Scotland Corporate £35 Million Entrepreneur Challenge.

Tracesmart, renowned for providing online people tracing, anti-money-laundering and know your customer (KYC) services, has recently received major interest from the national press. Having entered the South West England and Wales regional heat of the Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge, the story of Tracesmart’s Managing Director and founder, Mike Trezise, caught the attention of the Sunday Times.

The Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge is comprised of several regional heats and receives entries from all over Great Britain. Each regional winner will receive the prize of a loan up to the value of £5 million interest free and be eligible for entry into the national final in which they could win the coveted title of “Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur of the Year”.

Of the approximate 160 regional entrants, Trezise was highly received – this standing and his company’s inimitable suite of services consequently caught the attention of the Sunday Times and resulted in an article highlighting Trezise’s success being published. Speaking from the company’s Cardiff Bay headquarters, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, “Whilst Mike did not rank quite as high as we would have liked, the resulting press coverage has been great – we have received many calls from companies interested in our services. This is an exciting time for Tracesmart as we are currently experiencing rapid growth and coverage in the national press is helping to fuel our momentum further.”

Entitled “On the right track” the article, published on the 12 October, depicted Trezise’s career up to the formation of Tracesmart in 2004, it also highlighted how the rise in interest surrounding the use of online services designed to trace people has helped the company to flourish. Discussing the current high levels of interest in people tracing Trezise commented, “I know from my own professional experience that tracing is somewhat of a niche business, yet the demand has increased exponentially since I was a tracer – the current economic climate where companies are keen to reunite individuals with unclaimed assets or trace debtors has spurned this growth.”

The Sunday Times feature also identified the wide spectrum of industries that Tracesmart currently service, a list which includes banks, universities, solicitors, accountants and estate agents amongst others; demonstrating the wide range of cross-industry applications that their portfolio of tracing, data cleansing and id verification services hold.

  • Tracesmart was formed in 2004 and supply a diverse range of consumer data cleansing, identity check and tracing tools to a wide variety of industries. Their client base ranges from SME to Blue Chip, who are all recipients of bespoke solutions, built around their specific needs.
  • The Bank of Scotland £35 Million Entrepreneur Challenge offers entrepreneurs throughout Great Britain the opportunity to be rewarded for their achievements and their businesses the chance for some much deserved exposure. The challenge aims to support driven, well established businesses that are aiming to grow and become dominant forces in their markets.
  • Michael Trezise is the founder and Managing Director of Tracesmart. With over 25 years tracing and fraud analysis experience his unrivalled knowledge provides the company with a distinct competitive advantage.
  • Owen Roberts is Tracesmart’s Communications Manager and has over 25 years in the creative and advertising industries including 7 years with the BBC. Owen recently joined Tracesmart with the view of keeping one eye on public relations whilst also overseeing business development projects.