SEAMLESS ACCEPTANCE + INFORMED VISIBILITY = IMPROVED TRACKING AND TRANSPARENCY By Kurt Ruppel and Bob Rosser
As you strive to evaluate the effectiveness of your multi-channel campaigns, Seamless Acceptance and Informed Visibility are two tools that will help you greatly.
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ver the past several years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has introduced a number of technologies to streamline mail entry. These tools provide obvious advantages for the USPS in terms of efficiencies, automating mail entry, and verification operations; however, they also provide benefits for mail service providers (MSP) and mail owners as well. USPS programs such as Seamless Acceptance (SA) and Informed Visibility (IV) are the engines providing the data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of direct mail programs and to effectively integrate direct mail into multichannel marketing campaigns. The data provided by SA and IV allows mail service providers to: } Ensure they are meeting customer requirements and expectations } Ensure customers are getting value from their postage spend } Keep mail in sync with other channels and operations } Drive continuous improvement in mail acceptance performance } Reduce errors
SEAMLESS ACCEPTANCE DATA FUELS INFORMED VISIBILITY SA automates mail entry using unique barcodes on each mail piece, handling unit (tray, bundle, or sack), and container (pallet). These unique barcodes, combined with electronic documentation (eDoc) for mail make-up and payment, are the drivers that fuel enhanced understanding of mail performance. SA is built on the data from the Full-Service and eInduction programs. Scans from mail processing equipment (MPE) are compared to the eDoc, confirming that it accurately represents the physical mail presented to the USPS. Mail quality is tracked on a monthly basis against thresholds for accuracy of various data types, rather than on a mailing-by-mailing basis based on physical examination of the mail. SA has been open to all mailers since the spring of 2017. IV leverages nesting information in eDocs to enhance raw MPE scans to provide greater intelligence throughout the USPS processing network. Unlike earlier mail tracking programs Confirm and IMb Tracing, IV adds visibility to handling units, containers, transportation, and letter carrier movements to the mix of data