As businesses and mail volume grow, it is imperative that mail centers remain efficient and adapt to the changing needs of the industry. How do they accomplish this? With effective mail automation solutions. We at Mailing Systems Technology were curious about why our readers selected the mail automation solutions they did. We asked around, and here are some of the responses we received.
Advanced Mail Solutions
From Tom Mackel, President
Advanced Mail Solutions (AMS) is a design, print, mail and support marketing company. With over 45 years of experience in the direct mail industry, AMS has grown to become one of the Largest Direct Mail Houses on the West Coast.
With strong leadership, a lot of hard work and a passion for customer satisfaction, Advanced Mail Solutions soon started processing millions of mailpieces a year while retaining the personalization and customer satisfaction the company was founded upon.
I selected AccuZIP6 as our primary database platform about 10 years ago. My decision was based primarily on the integrated CASS- and PAVE-certified presort capabilities of the program. At the time, most of the other programs had CASS and PAVE features as separate modules. The cost for AccuZIP6 as a complete and efficient answer to postal automation was far lower than anything else on the market. What I found after using the program for several years was that the technical support is consistently excellent. I typically received answers to my questions within a few minutes. Support staff provided me with several custom programming tools that run through the command window. The program has kept up with the myriad of changes that the Postal Service requires including real time NCOALink processing that is an absolute snap to use. AccuZIP6 has become a basic building block to allow our marketing company to survive and thrive in a very complicated and competitive postal processing world.
www.accuzip.com
From Andy Richings, IT Manager
Usually, when you have been operating a certain way for over 20 years, making a major change can be difficult. When we decided to consolidate our European print and mail operations at one central site and switch to more modern printing and document handling methods, we anticipated some not-so-smooth sailing.
Brittany Ferries is a big operation. We have seven ferries operating from
To support these operations and provide our customers with various documents, we had been operating six separate print and mail sites in
Group 1 Software and Pitney Bowes' technology provided the solution. By changing to laser printing and implementing a Pitney Bowes D13000 inserter, which works in tandem with Group 1 Software's DOC1 document management software, we were able to centralize all print and mail operations at our Plymouth site.
The DOC1 solution allows us to produce tailored documents based on raw XML data from our reservation system. We totally control the look and feel of the documents and add barcode information that informs the insertion process. The documents are then laser-printed and passed through the inserter, which reads the barcodes and adds appropriate inserts for example, insurance booklets or documentation about pet travel arrangements. The Group 1 Software/Pitney Bowes solution allows us to be sure that the right · documents and supplementary information are being sent to the correct client. Where once we had a variety of document formats, we now print everything in A4 size.
The DOC1 system also enables us to take bookings from our clients at our port kiosks. Travel documents identical to those we mail out are printed at the port site in less than 12 seconds. In the future, we plan to use the DOC1 solution to create PDF versions of our documents so our clients can retrieve them from the Brittany Ferries Web site.
The difficulties we anticipated in making the change never materialized. Working with Group 1 Software and Pitney Bowes, we moved effortlessly away from outmoded processes that had been in place for 20 years, and at the same time, created a path for future development.
www.g1.com, www.pb.com
IWCO Direct
From Jim Leone, VP Information Services & Value
Expansion Initiatives
IWCO Direct, located in
We established some clear goals for the software solution and for the selected vendor. We needed a solution that was easy to implement and use, had a solid reputation in the industry and could provide the necessary speed to meet our growth.
Our evaluation process was a deliberate and structured method to ensure that our selection was done as objectively as possible. A scoring process was created to assign weights to categories that included both objective and subjective criteria. Our criteria included form and function, customer service, speed of execution as well as ease of use. Once the appropriate weights for each criterion were assigned, Firstlogic was the clear winner.
Our decision was validated by customer issue that occurred during the selection process. We needed to verify some critical customer information, and our old system would have taken too long to execute the needed processes. We contacted Firstlogic's customer support, and one of their Solutions Engineers was assigned to the task immediately. They stayed with us all through that Friday afternoon and late into the night. In the end, we were able to process many millions of records within 24 hours (versus the several days it would have required on the mainframe system) and provide our customer with sound information. This incident showed us the commitment Firstlogic has to "partnership" and convinced us that they were the right choice.
Since switching to Firstlogic, we have seen a positive return on investment. Our productivity has increased significantly in the data processing arena with 20% less staff. Job turn times have also been reduced greatly, in many cases by 50%. Most importantly, our customers have benefited from better postal penetration in the presort process with better penetration to the five-digit level. Firstlogic was the right choice in our search for a solution that could grow with our business.
www.firstlogic.com
Ozark Mailing Services, Inc.
From John Braun
Selecting mailing software is one of the most important decisions a professional mailer can make. The software's capabilities will define what services can be offered; its design will determine how efficiently those services are provided; and the support behind it will help keep you up and running when you need it most.
Whether you're new to mail or an industry veteran, the following factors are just a few to consider when it's time to make this essential choice for your company. Imagine being unable to process a list because of its file format or wasting time manipulating incorrectly formatted data. We chose Mail Manger 2010 because it took those concerns off the table. A customer had a database with 290 fields, and Mail Manager 2010 was the only software which could open the file. That's why we switched: Without it, we would have lost the business. Not all certified software packages are necessarily equal.
When we were using our previous software, we would receive customer complaints stating address changes were not always correct. After comparing these changes to the USPS, it appeared they were being overly corrected (even changed on occasion).
Since switching to Mail Manager 2010, the complaints have ended. The reason: The ZIP + 4 matching routines in Mail Manger 2010 are licensed directly from the USPS to produce identical results to those generated by the Postal Service. BCC's customer service is superb and has been very helpful throughout our mailing environment.
We have made several requests and suggestions, which we thought would improve the Mail Manager 2010 experience, and have always been very impressed at how fast they · become actual features of the software. It's important to look for a solution that can meet today's needs and still adapt for future growth.
www.bccsoftware.com
QuantumMail.com
From Freddie Baird, Executive Vice President
The ability to handle a large volume of mail with very little human intervention sounds much like an impossible dream, to say the least. But the dream became a reality for our company, QuantumMail.com, in 2000 when we first integrated a data-quality solution from Melissa Data into our programs. QuantumMail.com, Inc., founded in 1986, is a privately held company headquartered in
The data solution was Melissa Data's Address Object, a developer's tool that enabled us to integrate real-time address validation directly into our Web site. Through our Web site, we offer customers 24-hour direct mail services. Our customers can easily upload their lists to our Web site for processing.
Address Object is used to clean up and improve the deliverability of these customer mailing lists, helping them save money on postage and printing.
The most common errors we find are incomplete or misformatted addresses. Because new names are added frequently, the lists must be address-checked any time they are used for mailings. Address Object definitely helps us streamline and automate the process an important tool since we have a massive database of more than a 100 million records.
Plus, using Address Object to clean and standardize our lists has helped us qualify for better postage discounts. Automation and the ability to integrate Melissa Data's programs into our network has been the biggest benefit to QuantumMail.com's operations.
But we like to go the extra mile. To further enhance our printing and mailing operations, our company also has been using another Melissa Data product since 1996 this software is called MAILERS+4. The program has become a vital source to our business, especially since we process millions of mailing pieces per month, both First-Class and Standard mail for our nationwide customer base. With such a massive mailing list, these types of programs help us manage our database more effectively.
In addition to the Address Object and MAILERS+4 programs, we also take advantage of change-of-address services from Melissa Data. Change of address helps mailers find the · movers in their lists. We also use USPS PLANET Codes, which tracks the whereabouts of mail.
www.melissadata.com
White Eagle Printing
From Lauren Casey, Circulation Manager for White Eagle Printing,
White Eagle Printing Co., Inc., is a 70+ year-old full-service commercial printing company. Dissatisfaction with our previous mailing software and searching for a new program lead to DataTech Smartsoft's SmartAddresser2020, complete mail list management software. Browsing through the Internet, we came across SmartSoft's Web site. Within days they were sold on the product and ready to implement the software into our business.
Ease of use and data accuracy were two key aspects that White Eagle desired in a new product offering so we could effectively provide the post office with the information it required. We needed a program that was more accurate, faster and easier to navigate through under tight deadlines.
SmartAddresser 2020 corrected many of the problems that White Eagle was encountering. Jaime Escarpeta, our VP of Sales and
White Eagle specializes in meeting the individual printing needs of its clients. With a demand of about 20,000 pieces per month, our regular clients include advertising agencies, print brokers and corporate associations such as pharmaceutical companies and financial institutions.
One feature that differentiated Datatech SmartSoft and convinced both Jaime and I on the product's capabilities was the live Webinar presented by Corry Casler, Regional Sales Manager for Datatech SmartSoft Inc. During the Webinar with Corry, she showed us a postage report using SmartAddresser2020, and we compared that with a postage report from our former software program. We noticed instant savings of hundreds of dollars.
Their offering of a free trial of the FastForward MUV update software was an added benefit that we weren't expecting.
We really enjoy using SmartAddresser2020 It has made our lives much easier and made dealing with the post office easier since we have more accurate documentation. Adds Jaime, "Our requirements are being met by your software and this makes the post office happy which makes me happy."
www.smartsoftusa.com
