The Story of Allies Computing Ltd

The story of Allies^® began over 22 years ago in an un-insulated attic in Norfolk when Dr Peter Allies, a software consultant with an interest in problem solving and scientific computing, moved to the area and started to look for work.

In September 1987 Peter bought an off-the-shelf company whilst employed on contract work at the London Stock Exchange. At this time he was joined by Lorna (now Rev Dr Lorna) Allies, and the two of them undertook a wide variety of jobs in the local area.

One of these jobs proved to be highly significant: it was a statistical system for the Pathology department of the local James Paget Hospital, required to meet government reporting targets. This successful project led to further work for the hospital and by the summer of 1990 Peter was asked to help them comply with the new NHS Internal Market which would be mandatory by April 1991.

It soon became clear to Peter that the patient address database would benefit from checking for correct Postcodes, and that cleaning the address data in this way was key to a successful system to handle the internal market. This was Peter's first contact with Royal Mail's address database (Address Manager) and the associated PAF^® Utilities. Following development, the system went live and James Paget Hospital was one of only two hospitals in the country to meet the government target, the other being West Suffolk Hospital who also took Peter's system through a recommendation. As a result of this work, PostCoder Batch was developed, an address cleaning tool which then became a product in its own right.

In January 1991, with an eye to the future marketing of PostCoder^®, Peter changed the company name and Allies Computing Ltd was officially established.

In November 1993 Lorna and Peter moved house, and as the company had operated from the house, it moved as well and gradually started to grow. As the Company started to mature, Lorna's and Peter's strong beliefs in openness and honesty shaped the way the company was run and the types of relationships held with suppliers, employees and customers. This created a culture which is uncommon in today's business world and which resulted in the best possible working environment for staff whilst also meeting customer needs.

Over the years, PostCoder Batch sold steadily. At first it was mainly to hospitals, which had an urgent need to clean up the monthly lists of patients. By starting with low quality address data Peter had unwittingly been thrown in at the deep end with regards to the address matching problem. Other companies had started from the rapid addressing approach, but had not developed a suitable matching engine where the Postcode was not known. Since all hospitals were in more or less the same boat, Peter had an advantage in producing a greater percentage of matched addresses with PostCoder^®, and at a reasonable price.

As non-hospital customers came on board, there was greater emphasis on business addresses rather than just residential, and Peter and Lorna identified an emerging market for accurate addressing within the UK business marketplace. In November 1994 Allies^® started to take the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF^®) and designed their own database structure, matching engine and access routines. As a result, our PostCoder Batch software was altered to use this new database.

Providentially for us, the contract to produce Royal Mail's Address Manager came up for renewal in 1997, and we tendered for this in spite of being only four strong as a company. Royal Mail put their trust in us, and we didn't let them down. (We later found that it was our sheer enthusiasm and love for the problems of addressing which won the day!) The PAF^® on CD product, now renamed UK Addresses, has been produced by us quarterly since the middle of 1998 and we have never failed to deliver on time. We have also won several Royal Mail supplier awards to endorse our quality and commitment towards the Royal Mail.

Early in 1999 we started to produce our first Windows product, the desktop PostCoder Pro. At about the same time, the PostCoder API Professional went on sale.

By this point the Allies^® team were seven strong and becoming too large for the house, so in September 1999 we took an office in a converted barn in the nearby village of Framingham Pigot. We were there for just eighteen months (then thirteen of us) before moving to a larger office on the same site.

Over the next few years the company turnover and staff numbers grew. With 17 employees presently, we have companies using our software all over the UK and at many locations overseas, with more than 12,000 individual users of PostCoder^®. Our Web service, demonstrated by the free Postcode lookup, is one of our most popular and fastest growing products. We still hold the development contract for Royal Mail's UK Addresses and continue to add products to the PostCoder^® range in addition to looking for new opportunities.

We continue to strive to exceed customer's expectations in terms of service and support as well as product cost effectiveness. For example we offer free software trials and unlimited free technical support for all trials and licences. We welcome all feedback, whether it is positive or negative, and we will use it to improve our products and processes.

To this day Lorna's and Peter's values of openness, honesty and ethical beliefs are installed in the company and run throughout everything that Allies Computing do. We believe in providing a secure and friendly environment for our staff to work in, and look after their best interests, as well as our customers.

To see what our recent activities have been please visit our news page.

Images kindly supplied by TourNorfolk.co.uk.