Statement from Allies Computing about the 2009 licence

The Address Management Unit within Royal Mail is in the process of reviewing the PAF^® data licencing terms and pricing. In September 2009 a new licence agreement will be released to the market and all of our products and services will have to comply with these terms. Royal Mail does not wish to disrupt the marketplace but there will be some changes to the current terms and pricing, and we are expecting some positive changes.

As part of this process, there will be an opportunity for Resellers (such as Allies Computing Ltd) and End Users, to respond to the proposals which are planned for release in November/December 2008. Royal Mail is encouraging feedback on the new proposals and this page will be updated in November 2008 to advise you how to submit your feedback. Unfortunately this does mean that Allies Computing cannot confirm what licence terms will be available from September 2009 at the present time, but we endeavour to keep our customers up to date as best we can.

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Licence options from 1st September 2007

The new licencing options from 1st September 2007 can be broken down as follows:

*The Royal Mail System Licence becomes valid at 34 users for Premise level PAF^® data but we choose to limit your fees at 26 Users for your advantage.

Please Note: All our prices include the Royal Mail Licence fee due for the data licences specified on your licence agreement. On purchase you will be required to agree to this Licence Agreement, which incorporates the Royal Mail PAF^® licencing.

If your requirements are not covered in the above table, please on +44 (0)1508 494488

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Licence options up to 31st August 2007

The licencing options we offer can be broken down as follows:

Please Note: All our prices include the Royal Mail Licence fee due for the data licences specified on your licence agreement. On purchase you will be required to agree to this Licence Agreement, which incorporates the Royal Mail PAF^® licencing.

If your requirements are not covered in the above table, please contact our sales team on 0845 644 8111 or +44 (0)1508 494488

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Key Licence changes being implemented 1st September 2007

After over a year of consultation between Royal Mail, their Direct Customers and their Value Added Resellers of PAF^®, Royal Mail has recently released their new Licence Agreement. This contains the terms and conditions under which PAF^® can be provided to End Users from 1st September 2007.

In addition to those listed below, there will be further changes made in September 2008 and September 2009. Royal Mail's aim is to increase the quality of PAF^®, make enough profit to maintain it and to make their charges fairer to both small and large businesses alike.

The new Licence will be implemented for existing customers at their point of renewal after 1st September 2007 and annually thereafter. New customers after September 1st will automatically be signed up to the licence in place at the time.

The main changes to be implemented from September 2007 are:

1. Lower Per-User charges
2. The point at which a System Licence applies is now 34 Users for Premise level PAF^® data and 28 Users for Thoroughfare level PAF^® data. Postzon data remains unchanged at 20 Users. This will in turn raise the price for system licences*
3. The Per Click Licence has been withdrawn for internal use by the End User. However, the Licence is offering restricted use of up to 500 transactions per company per annum. Royal Mail are using this restricted licence to test the marketplace.
4. The Per Click licence costs for use of Premise level address data is increasing.
5. An Associated User Network Licence is available for 10 or more associated organisations linked to the same central system. Conditions apply**.
6. If you take PAF^® data directly for mailing purposes, you should update your address data at least quarterly.
7. Software/services delivered via a Web service can now be purchased on an annual licence rather than solely on a per-click basis.

These are the key changes. For a more detailed explanation of the licence, or how the changes might affect you, please see the details on our licence page or .

We would like to advise you that we have been in constant communication with Royal Mail throughout their review and have been trying to ensure that the licence is fair to all our customers. This includes our continued support for an unlimited use of the Per Click licence for internal purposes. We hope to continue this process and we would be happy to hear your comments and feedback.

We will as always work hard to ensure that these changes are made as painless as possible for all our customers and to remain as flexible and customer focused as we can. As part of this, we would also like you to know that we have not taken these changes as an opportunity to increase our charges across the board, but have tried to maintain our fair and competitive pricing.

*The Royal Mail System Licence becomes valid at 34 users for Premise level PAF^® data but we choose to limit your fees at 26 Users for your advantage.

**Please contact us for more details.

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Notification of staged licence changes over next three years

We would like to advise that after a considerable period of consultation and discussion, Royal Mail has decided to change the method of licensing the Postcode Address File (PAF^®). In summary, annual licensing will move from a fixed price per user, capped at 20 users per system, to one in which banded costs are applied and there is no upper limit. Different rules will apply for public access websites. This change was announced on September 1 2006, and will be implemented in three phases.

On September 1 2007 the first price change will occur. In broad terms, the Royal Mail licence fee per user will drop and the cost of a system licence will increase. This means that the point at which a system licence applies will occur for a greater number of users than the current 20. On the same date, the price of the per-click transactions will also change, and the rules governing the use of per-click costing will be tightened.

The second change will take place on September 1 2008. Although we do not yet have the details, we understand that the per-user price will drop further and the system cost will again rise.

The third and final change will take place on September 1 2009 with the abolition of system and multi-system licences and a move to a fully banded pricing system. Again, we do not have the details at this time, but Royal Mail has stated that its objective is to move to a licensing regime which is fairer to entry-level users but on the whole is revenue-neutral.

The prices will come into effect on the renewal date following the changes. Thus if your renewal date is March, then the September 1 2007 prices will apply to your renewal in March 2008 etc.

Accompanying the final change, Royal Mail is terminating all existing licences and requiring a new one to be signed with effect from September 1 2009. We are obliged under the terms of our contract with Royal Mail to notify all of our customers that their agreement with us will cease on that date and must be replaced by a new contract, which we will draw up in due course and when we have the necessary details.

All users of PAF^® are affected in exactly the same way, however PAF^® is delivered.

If you have any questions, please call our Sales Team on 01508 494488 or email us at

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