Situation

Tunstall’s philosophy is simple. To protect, support and care for people by providing healthcare technology and services that enable anyone requiring support and reassurance to lead an independent life. Tunstall Healthcare systems enable older people and those with long term needs, living in their own homes or in sheltered housing developments to receive help if needed, 24/7. To receive the alerts from the users of telecare systems, Tunstall develops and markets PNC6 which is a call monitoring and management system used by organisations operating their own response centre. The database within the PNC6 system securely contains the contact information of everyone who subscribes to the response service plus details of contacts, key holders and responders. This means that when a call comes into one of the many PNC6 response centres, across the UK, the operator can contact the most appropriate person depending upon the nature of the call. If it’s a serious incident that requires the emergency services, the operator will ensure that help is sent immediately. Tunstall also operates its own response centre called Tunstall Response, which responds to alarm calls from all over the UK. In a 12 month period, the centre receives in excess of 1.5 million calls. It, like many of Tunstall’s customers, also uses PNC6. Prior to the launch of PNC6 in 2009, all contact details stored on the system were entered directly from information provided from a variety of different sources. This meant that there was a possibility that any errors in keying-in an address were not immediately apparent. This becomes critical when you consider that a slight error in a postcode could result in help being dispatched to the wrong street or even the wrong town.

The solution

When Tunstall was working on the latest iteration of its call monitoring platform, PNC6, it approached technology partner Experian QAS to help resolve the data validation issue. The solution was QAS Pro, the address verification software, which was integrated into PNC6. QAS Pro automatically validates addresses at the point of data entry, correcting errors in any part of the address, and flagging up serious errors where manual intervention is required. The operator can also populate an entire address field from just the postcode and plot the physical location of the caller by exporting the result into a Map-aware application. This improves both the accuracy and speed of response. Tunstall was impressed with the results and, on the back of this successful partnership, it was identified that Tunstall Response itself could also benefit from Experian QAS. The software is now used within its own monitor response centre.

The results

Since QAS Pro was integrated into the PNC6 solution, response centres have been able to validate resident address details, as well as contact details of relatives, key holders and responders, at the point of capture. This ensures that vital time is not lost sending carers or the emergency services to the wrong address.

Future plans

Experian QAS will continue to integrate into future releases of PNC software. Also, there are discussions in place to provide Tunstall’s international offices with address verification, including their particular country dataset.