How The Duke of Edinburgh's Award reduced costs and complexity by switching to Ideal Postcodes

The Duke of Edinburgh's (DofE) Award is a programme built to empower and help young people develop vital skills for work and life through volunteering, physical and skills-based activities, expeditions and residentials. It was created in 1956 by HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh. The DofE started in the United Kingdom and has since then expanded worldwide

The job market is continuously becoming more competitive, and getting certain higher degree qualifications and skills is important to build a career. The DofE Award is internationally recognised as a prestigious achievement respected by employers and universities.

Benefits of the programme include:

• Developing self-confidence and self-reliance
• New talents and abilities
• Leadership and team working skills
• Time management skills

This reputable programme is achieved by completing three progressive levels which young people can create by choosing volunteering, physical and skills activities, going on expeditions or even participating in a residential activity. In the end, participants can receive a bronze, silver or gold award.

The DofE is acharityworking with Licensed Organisations such as schools, colleges, youth groups and other institutions across the UK to run DofE programmes for their young people.

The DofE developed its own internal address search solution and handled the procurement of its addressing dataset directly from Royal Mail.

This solution worked well at the time, allowing for greater control and reliability of its address validation platform. However, as time went by, robust and cost-effective SaaS solutions like Ideal Postcodes have emerged to relieve organisations the burden of managing this problem.

We partnered up with the DofE to migrate its applications to use our data APIs, providing the charity with complete developer and account assistance through the transition.

We also worked with the DofE to understand its specific licensing requirements. We were able to match the DofE with the most cost-effective licensing solution that met its address validation use cases.

Finally, when the technical transition was complete, we also assumed the burden of liaising with Royal Mail directly to report licensing and fees.

By migrating to Ideal Postcodes, the DofE was able to free up resources to focus on delivering impact through its activities. We were able to help the DofE improve its address data currency, save time and free up team resources all the while reducing costs.

Specifically, the DofE was able to produce:

• A cost savings of roughly 30%
• A robust address validation solution, which is now updated daily
• Freeing developer resources from managing their internal address validation solution

A DofE Award is recognition of a young person's journey of growth and self-discovery. Supporting the DofE charity by donating would help transform young people's lives.