Guest blog by Barley Laing, the UK Managing Director at Melissa #techUKdigitalPS
Barley Laing
UK Managing Director, Melissa
Barley Laing joined Melissa in 2014 during an exciting expansion phase of the California headquartered company.
As Managing Director, with 24 years of technology and data industry experience, his role is focused on meeting the customer onboarding, data quality and ID/compliance needs for organisations in the UK and worldwide.
The team that Barley heads up provides sales, data consultancy and technical support for their wide range of software solutions, which help organisations to achieve efficient data verification and management; and meet ID, Know your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements.
Under his leadership Melissa’s UK office has experienced double digit growth over the last five years in a row, including 21% in 2021. Over this period he has significantly grown the UK client base, which includes: the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; GCHQ; Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); BBC; BAE Systems; GSK and Mars.
The power of artificial intelligence (AI) is proving transformative in the public sector, from enhancing data-driven insight and productivity, to improving fraud detection and the user experience.
However, there are issues when inaccurate user data is fed into AI tools. It could result in gibberish, or worse, biased and inaccurate outcomes. This is commonly called AI induced ‘hallucinations’, which delivers poor results.
Data degrades rapidly
Quickly deteriorating data quality is a significant issue, with user contact data lacking regular intervention degrading at 25 per cent a year as people move home, die and get divorced. Then there are errors at data entry, with 20 per cent of addresses entered online containing errors; these include spelling mistakes, wrong house numbers, and incorrect postcodes.
The best way to avoid this, and maximise your AI efforts, is to have data verification processes in place at the point of data capture, and when cleaning held data in batch. All that’s required is simple and cost-effective changes to the data quality process.
Obtain address lookup technology
Address lookup or autocomplete services are valuable pieces of technology to use at the user onboarding stage. They provide accurate address data in real-time when onboarding by delivering a properly formatted, correct address when the user starts inputting theirs. Utilising such tools reduces the number of keystrokes required, by up to 81 per cent, when typing an address. As a result, the entire onboarding process is speeded up, reducing the probability of the user not completing an application to access a service, for example. This approach to first point of contact verification can also be extended to email and phone, so verification of these important contact data channels can take place real-time.
Undertake data deduplication
Deduplicating databases is important with many having duplicate rates of 10 to 30 per cent. It’s a big issue and often occurs when two departments merge their data and errors in contact data collection take place at different touchpoints. Whilst potentially confusing an AI application, duplication also adds cost in terms of time and money, particularly with printed communications. Furthermore, it negatively impacts on the sender’s reputation. Obtaining an advanced fuzzy matching tool to deduplicate data can help. By employing such a service, it’s possible to merge and purge the most challenging records and create a ‘single user record’ which delivers an optimum single citizen or customer view (SCV) that AI can make learnings from.
Commence data cleansing
Carry out data cleansing to highlight people who have moved or are no longer at the address on file. It’s a vital element of the data cleaning process, and therefore in supporting efforts with AI. As well as removing incorrect addresses, these services can include deceased flagging to prevent the distribution of mail and other communications to those who have passed away, which can cause distress to their friends and relatives. By utilising suppression strategies those in the public sector can save money, protect their reputations, avoid fraud and aid their AI activity.
Data cleaning SaaS platform
It has never been easier or more cost-effective to deliver data quality in real-time to support AI and wider organisational efficiencies. It’s possible to obtain a scalable data cleaning software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that doesn’t require any coding, integration, or training. Such technology cleanses and corrects names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers worldwide. It matches records in real-time, ensuring no duplication, and offers data profiling to help source issues for further action. A single, intuitive interface provides the opportunity for data standardisation, validation, and enrichment, resulting in high-quality contact information across multiple databases. This activity can take place with held data in batch and as new data is being collected, and can also be accessed via cloud API or on-premise, if preferred.
Unlocking the potential of AI to add value, deliver efficiencies and insight, is reliant on the quality of data fed into AI tools. Inaccurate data leads to AI ‘hallucinations’ with unreliable predictions and bad outcomes. Undertaking best practice data quality procedures solves this issue and helps to maximise the success of your AI efforts.
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Heather is Head of Central Government Programme at techUK, working to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government.
Prior to joining techUK in April 2022, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.
Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas.
Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.
Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.
The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!
Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.
When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!
Junior Programme Manager - Central Government, techUK
Charles Bauman
Junior Programme Manager - Central Government, techUK
Charles Bauman is a Junior Programme Manager in the Central Government Programme at techUK.
He supports the programme’s mission to represent the technology supplier community to the UK government and advocate for digital innovation to address public sector challenges. Charles helps facilitate market engagement, foster partnerships, and ensure that tech suppliers and the government work collaboratively to improve outcomes, deliver value for money, and enhance public services for citizens.
Before joining techUK, Charles gained significant experience in research, analysis, and strategic advisory roles. At H/Advisors Cicero, he specialised in public affairs and corporate communications, while at Verdantix, he supported sustainability research and advisory projects, focusing on regulatory and environmental challenges.
Charles holds an MSc in Theory and History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and an MA in Medieval History from King’s College London.
Charles enjoys volunteering with a think tank, reading, hiking, and spending time with his dog and family outside of work.
Programme Team Assistant for Public Sector Markets, techUK
Francesca Richiusa
Programme Team Assistant for Public Sector Markets, techUK
Fran serves as the Programme Team Assistant within techUK’s Public Sector Market Programmes, where she is responsible for delivering comprehensive team support, managing administrative functions, and fostering strong relationships with members.
Prior to joining techUK in May 2025, Fran built a meaningful career in the charitable and local government sectors. She worked extensively with both victims and perpetrators of crime, and notably led the coordination of Domestic Homicide Reviews across Surrey—an initiative aimed at identifying lessons and preventing future incidents of domestic abuse.
Outside of work, Fran is an avid traveller and a proud cat mum who enjoys unwinding with her feline companions.
