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Nowhere is
Tracking A Document More
Important than at the Post Office
Some people may say that “intelligent mail” is an oxymoron, but that
is exactly what is the centerpiece of a venture at the United States
Postal Service (USPS) , which aims to not only improve and assure the
ultimate delivery of mail, but also to provide companies with a way to
tie backend data to a dynamic, re-engineered, Web-based, front-end
customer interface.
Working together, the USPS and vendors like Pitney Bowes are enabling
companies to re-engineer their flow of communications by capturing
customer interaction data from the document creation process, rendering
it both on the document and in control files that synchronize with the
feeds from physical flow data, and then providing the information via
browser-based reporting systems to key business processes.
As a result, Intelligent Mail can deliver significant benefits to the
enterprise by linking the document output process with finance and
treasury operations, call center functions, security tracking, and
marketing campaign management.
“Intelligent mail uses data-rich, machine-readable markers to give
each mailing piece a unique, trackable fingerprint,” says Karl
Schumacher, vice president, global strategy Pitney Bowes Document
Messaging Technologies. “The encoded information can be communicated
remotely to the postal carrier and to other interested parties. And
since the data can be easily incorporated into reporting, accounting,
and planning systems, Intelligent Mail makes the USPS mail channel
safer, more assured, and more data-rich than ever been before.
“Companies can leverage Intelligent Mail by utilizing two tracking
devices per document," he continued. "One is a piece ID number linked
either to an account or individual, and the other is a channel tracking
symbology, such as a Planet barcode. This tandem of data allows the
mailer to track the document through the entire create, produce,
distribute, response cycle. The aggregated data includes information on
the customer name/account, the status of the mail piece within the
document factory, and details of its movement via the USPS CONFIRM
database for both outgoing and incoming delivery.”
Pitney Bowes has taken this capability one step further by developing
a way to feed the data back into the enterprise via a Track and Trace
technology. This technology provides a means to verify mail piece
integrity, track on the piece-level, obtain proof of mailing and
acceptance processing, aid in fraud detection and collection efforts,
facilitate image archiving, integrate with customer call centers and
self-help resources, and provide early detection of undeliverable mail
as well as proactive delivery notification.
“Some industry observers believe that the thirst for data and details
related to customer interaction is so great that spending on CRM
initiatives will increase 10 to 15 percent this year,” says Schumacher.
“Indeed, nearly half of more than 100 firms surveyed by Forrester
Research report they plan to spend more than $750,000 this year on
marketing automation applications.
“Yet," he adds, "despite these investments, it is becoming clear that
improved processes and strategies, rather than just new software tools
alone, are the key to better call center performance. And that
integrating the essential data from the print/mail finishing operation
into the call center function may offer the best opportunity to unlock
the value of these continuing investments and initiatives in marketing
automation." |
Is an ADF for You?
The pat answer to who should implement an ADF is any company that generates
data, content, and information that needs to be personalized and
communicated with target audiences in various formats. Put the dictionary
aside and a more concise criterion for deciding if an ADF is for you is to
measure the value of your documents.
“You could say that the ideal customer is the person who prints half a
million pieces and up, but if those pieces are junk mail with only a .46
percent response rate, you don’t need to track that stuff,” says Bannor.
“You only need to start tracking direct mail when the value of the document
justifies it. There’s no threshold as far as the number of pieces printed,
but the threshold is in the value of document,” he adds. “If printing 20
documents a year, it is probably not worth putting in an ADF, but on the
other hand if you’re printing $25,000 to $30,000 worth of material a month
and each document is really critical to operation, you’d want some kind of
tracking capability. Even if I’m printing relatively few documents, but they
are very targeted, very focused mail pieces, I would absolutely want to know
they were sent and I’d want to be able to track them.”
Reducing costs is the major motivator for implementing an ADF, according
to David D. Day, director, solution sales, Sefas Innovation, Inc., Woburn,
Mass. The company's Open Print suite of software is an ADF management system
that provides document solutions via modules designed around the ADF
principles. “Document production costs are estimated within a range of six
to 15 percent of corporate revenue. In many cases the cost of postage alone
is greater than the entire IT budget. Employee costs are escalating as are
equipment leases. Customers are demanding tighter controls, especially in
the health care and insurance industries with HIPAA (Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) requirements coming on line.
Service Levels Agreements are becoming tighter so automated controls,
tracking, and reporting are required.”
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