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April 21 2013 05:51 PM

Window Book Postal Concierge--The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) announced an update to the software used on PostalOne!, which will be implemented on April 21, 2013 for the Production environment and on April 22, 2013 for the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM).

PostalOne! outages
In order for the USPS to install and test these software updates, PostalOne! will be subject to a maintenance window during which it will not be available to mailers. For the Production environment, there will be a PostalOne! outage from 12 midnight through 9 a.m. CT, Sunday, April 21, 2013. For the TEM environment, PostalOne! TEM will be unavailable from 7 a.m. through 3 p.m. CT on Monday, April 22, 2013.

Why the update?
The USPS periodically makes updates in the software for PostalOne! to incorporate enhancements and bug fixes to the software. Major changes are performed when there are significant changes to postal rates or regulations, such as when the USPS increases their prices in January each year. There are usually at least four PostalOne! software updates during the year: January, April, July, and October. There may also be interim updates to PostalOne! for immediate fixes or other system issues.

Handling Change
When these types of changes are announced, it is important for mailers to pay attention to the outage periods so that you can make adjustments in your mailing operations to accommodate the outages. Also, it is important for mailers to download and install the USPS Mail.dat® Client software (also sometimes referred to as MD Client or MDR Client) as soon as it is available. This software is available for download from the Business Customer Gateway web site. Mailers also need to make any associated updates or configuration changes to software that interfaces with PostalOne! once the Mail.dat Client software has been updated. For example, if you use DAT-MAIL's eDocs Manager (previously known as eDocs Monitor), you will need to edit the configuration for this in the Window Book Automated Automation Scheduler. There will be a required update to the Window Book Automation Scheduler in order to read the new format of the XML Status Receipts that you will begin receiving after installing the new Mail.dat Client software. An update notice as to when the new version of the Window Book Automation Scheduler is available will be sent under separate cover to Window Book clients.

Resources
The USPS sends out notifications of all PostalOne! outages and software updates using the DMM Advisory. You can subscribe to the DMM Advisory by sending an email to dmmadvisory@usps.com. In addition, detailed information regarding the changes in the PostalOne! software are available on the USPS RIBBS web site. Also available on the site are the planned release schedules for these updates. Window Book offers our Professional Services to users who may need assistance to download and install the Mail.dat Client software from the USPS, or to make any necessary updates or configuration edits to your Window Book software when these PostalOne! updates occur.

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Well there you have it. See you next week for another informative Postal e-Tip!
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