Royal Mail is enhancing its ability to provide customers with data services by establishing a panel of experts. Dataforce is the first company to be recruited, following a tender process which will eventually build a panel of five partners.

Members will provide data solutions across acquisition, retention, data processessing, including cleaning and suppression, as well as creating single customer views. SMEs will be able to access services via the Royal Mail Web portal.

"The panel builds our credibility as a supplier of key services to the data industry. Going through the tender process means we are able to choose what we believe to be the best companies to meet the needs of our customers. We can now act as an independent broker and match clients with the most suitable specialist," said Colin Bradshaw, head of data strategy at Royal Mail.