SPECIAL Delivery

NOT EVERY in-plant offers mailing services for its clients. Prior to 2005, for example, the in-plant at The Stelter Co.—a marketing firm in Des Moines that works with non-profit organizations—simply shipped printed material back to clients or handed it over to an outside vendor.

But Dan Manderscheid, who joined Stelter in October 2004 as a mail processing specialist, says that outsourcing mail didn’t make sense given that the company was otherwise a one-stop shop with artists, Web designers, editors, legal counsel, marketing professionals and print operators on staff.

In January 2005, Stelter purchased an inserter, two address printers and Pitney Bowes SmartMailer software, and began processing mail in-house the following month.

“I had used SmartMailer 12 or so years ago at another company, so I was somewhat familiar with the system,” says Manderscheid. “What we liked about the system was its user friendly features, especially the set-up ‘Wizards.’ These make it fast and easy for us to set up and import data files, process the files, de-dupe the mail list for matching names and addresses, and set up the presort for the postage statement.

“Setting up the envelope addressing is also easy to use and modify. We like that the system accepts many different file types. Although we mostly receive comma-delimited or Excel files, we do import text files and tab-delimited files.”

Manderscheid says that over the past 18 months the in-plant has discovered many SmartMailer features that weren’t among the initial selling points, such as changing the upper/lower case status of data, assigning company names to addresses, and merging salutation, first name, last name and suffix fields into a single field.

The ability to create different sort lists became a huge plus in late 2005.

“The post office was not accepting mail for the hurricane affected areas of New Orleans,” says Manderscheid, “so we created a list called ‘omit names,’ which contained the ZIP codes for which the post office was not accepting standard mail. We could then easily sort out ZIP codes that needed to be omitted from the mail list.

“Purchasing the equipment has given us greater control and flexibility over when jobs are processed,” he says. “Now with our on-site capabilities, we can turn jobs around 25-50 percent faster versus sending the jobs to a vendor.”

Automatic Automation

For in-plants that offer mail services, automation software is a must-have item due to its ability to maintain and update list databases, correct addresses based on data supplied by the vendor and USPS, and—perhaps most important of all—save your shop and your customers big bucks thanks to discounts available for presorted mail.

Aside from improved address quality and a higher end-user response rate to mailings, Gary Boyd, manager of Printing and Copy Services at Iowa State University, says that the BCC Mail Manager 2010 has reduced his shop’s labor costs by 50 percent.

“Last year, we generated over a half-million dollars in savings for our customers,” says Boyd. “We have been very satisfied with the software, its cost, and the support from BCC. They continue to add new features and options to the software and their services.” He specifically mentions the software’s flexibility and BCC’s online training as outstanding features.

Mail Sorting Time Virtually Gone

Joe W. Morin, manager of Production Printing for Colorado Springs School District 11, also lauds the savings that postal software brings.

“Previously we were mail-merging through word processing software,” he says. “Mail sorting time has virtually been eliminated through the use of our AccuZip mailing software, effectively reducing labor by five or six hours each week, which equals approximately $5,500 annually. Obviously, the improved speed allows for shorter throughput times and greater processing volume.

“We’ve also experienced positive benefits for our customers by minimizing postage rates on each job request, leading to an estimated postage savings of $10,000 annually,” adds Morin. “For a full chargeback in-plant shop, this is huge for both customers and our bottom line.”

Morin praises AccuZip for being intuitive to use with easy template setup and having real-time customer support both prior to the purchase and in online demonstrations.

“AccuZip also has the ability to take control of your desktop to walk you through any issue,” he says.

Sorting Out the Software

You might be ready to automate your mail handling, but don’t sign up with the first company that walks through the door. Consider the following for each software you review:

• What the initial system and quarterly updates cost. Says Morin, “The annual maintenance agreement ($750 for AccuZip), which includes all software updates/patches and quarterly updates from the USPS, is a must.”

• Whether the software works on a mainframe, a desktop system, or both.

• Whether you need all the bells and whistles or a basic setup.

• Whether technical support is available locally or only over the phone.

• Whether the software is compatible with your printing equipment.

• Whether the software requires computer training or has user-friendly features.

• Whether you can purchase national change of address (NCOA) records and process them automatically.

You might not find everything you need in one system, and sometimes it’s hard to know what you need before you start using the software. Joe Morin says that for his next software purchase he’d like to see an online help screen that offers suggestions or alternative ways to complete tasks.

Dan Manderscheid has a wish list of features that he wants to see, including a better address identification system (to automatically correct misspellings of common street tags such as Drive, Boulevard, Trail and Terrace), a way to position address blocks more accurately based on the size of the largest address, and a connection between the cost of ink cartridges and address lists in order to determine a more accurate cost per piece.

Whatever you decide upon, Joe Morin says, “Mail automation software is a must to maximize mail room efficiency, postal rate discounts and delivery verification. For an in-plant, it makes good business sense to offer this as a cost-saving, value-added service—in essence, moving your in-plant one step closer to one-stop shopping.”IPG

What’s On The Market?

Start your research by examining the goods from these software vendors:

AccuZIP

Product: AccuZIP6

Description: CASS* and PAVE** gold certified software that queries one million records in a split-second and hits presort speeds of more than 80 million records per hour. An all-inclusive mail system with more than 100 search conditions.

BCC Software

Product: Mail Manager 2010

Description: Make all your presort choices on a single screen, ensure the best postal discounts, and receive bimonthly software updates to keep your files current. PAVE** certified in 26 presort categories and CASS* certified for five different USPS codes.

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