It is surprising how closely integrated software and hardware have become in the mail center over the years. It has now gotten to the point where the software side of the equipment business is actually stronger than the hardware side. Mail finishing equipment manufacturers have all made multiple acquisitions of software companies in the interest of keeping their hardware business viable.
Several software companies make a good living by taking older, relatively "dumb" hardware and adding software intelligence to extend the hardware's capability. The ultimate convergence of software and hardware in mailing equipment is the latest technology in "intelligent inserters." These machines read a barcode on each lead document, cross-check the code against a database and then use the database information to control the rest of the inserter's operation for that mailpiece (i.e. how many pages to put in the envelope, what other documents need to be inserted in that specific envelope, etc.).
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Several software companies make a good living by taking older, relatively "dumb" hardware and adding software intelligence to extend the hardware's capability. The ultimate convergence of software and hardware in mailing equipment is the latest technology in "intelligent inserters." These machines read a barcode on each lead document, cross-check the code against a database and then use the database information to control the rest of the inserter's operation for that mailpiece (i.e. how many pages to put in the envelope, what other documents need to be inserted in that specific envelope, etc.).
Download the PDF to read more!
