Mailing Systems Technology Sep/Oct 2020

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 MailingSystemsTechnology.com

HOW DOES YOUR MAIL CENTER COMPARE? PART ONE OF OUR ANNUAL WAGE & OPERATIONS SURVEY RESULTS. PAGE 16

IMPLEMENTING INKJET? MISTAKES TO AVOID WITH CAPACITY AND CAPABILITIES PAGE 10

IMPROVING YOUR MAILER SCORECARD PAGE 14

THE FUTURE OF MAIL: VIRTUAL ON-DEMAND MAILING SERVICES PAGE 28

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | VOLUME 33 ISSUE 5

DEPARTMENTS 05 Editor's Note

A Season of Uncertainty

By Amanda Armendariz

06 Real-Life Management Our Greatest Investment: Our People!

By Wes Friesen

16

20

08 The Trenches

The Mail Center’s Role in Inkjet Conversions

By Mike Porter

10 Inkjet Info

Implementing Inkjet: Mistakes to Avoid with Capacity and Capabilities

By Karen Kimerer

24

28

Postal Holiday Rate Hikes in Effect Soon

FEATURES 16 The State of the Industry

How did this last year treat mailers and their organizations?

Part one of our annual survey takes a look at wages, certifications, and more.

By Amanda Armendariz

20 Automating the Shop: Print Services Simplified

By Bruce E. Little

24 You’ve Got (Business) Mail… at Home

Full contact intelligence reaches B2B campaign targets in the office or on the couch.

By Greg Brown

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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

12 Guest Column

By Rob Martinez

26 COVID-19 and the Mailing Industry

Understanding the impact and planning for the future: Insights from leading industry experts

28 The Future of Mail – Virtual OnDemand Mailing Services

14 Software Byte

Improving Your Mailer Scorecard

By Jeff Peoples

SPONSORED CONTENT

By Adam Lewenberg

13 Intelligent Lockers Provide On-Campus Contactless Delivery 22 4 Ideas Showing How Color (and more) Can Improve Your Direct Mail & Customer Communications

EDITOR’S NOTE VOLUME 33, ISSUE 5 MAGAZINE STAFF President Chad Griepentrog Publisher Ken Waddell Editor Amanda Armendariz amanda.c@rbpub.com Contributing Writers Greg Brown, Wes Friesen, Karen Kimerer, Adam Lewenberg, Bruce E. Little, Rob Martinez, Jeff Peoples, Mike Porter Audience Development Manager Rachel Chapman rachel@rbpub.com Advertising Ken Waddell 608.235.2212 ken.w@rbpub.com Design Kelli Cooke

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A SEASON OF UNCERTAINTY

BY AMANDA ARMENDARIZ

A

s we head into another month of living in the midst of a global pandemic, and with no end in sight, things certainly feel different this fall. For many of us, our children are learning virtually instead of in a school building, and for those students who have returned in person, their days are often structured much differently, with masks, social distancing, and smaller class sizes the norm. The travel industry is still seeing a decline as more people elect to stay home in an effort to slow the spread, and trade shows are likely off the table for at least the next six months. Many offices are still requiring their employees to work from home for the foreseeable future. Who could have expected all these changes at this time last year? It certainly seems like every aspect of life has been impacted, and the mail industry is no different.

Volumes have dropped significantly since the start of the pandemic, but there seems to be a renewed upswing now that we head into the election season and the holiday shopping season. Of course, a contentious election season will likely mean that even more content goes out to voters’ mailboxes than normal, which will be a boost for the mail stream. There has been much media coverage regarding the USPS’s ability to handle the surge of the mail-in ballots, given that many people are choosing to vote by mail ahead

of time this year in order to avoid going out in public due to COVID-19. However, since mail-in ballots have already been sent out in some states, it is likely that people will either drop off their ballots at the voting location in person, or they will mail them in far ahead of time. So while the USPS will certainly see a surge in ballots compared to previous years, I would bet that it won’t be an eleventh-hour deluge like some are speculating.

But given that 2020 is stepped in uncertainty, I suppose no one really knows. What I do know is that the dedicated workers of the United States Postal Service will do their utmost to keep the mail — both political and otherwise — flowing to its correct destination, regardless of how many pieces they are handling. The Postal Service truly is an essential American institution, and I know that its employees will step up to the plate in the face of this uncertainty, just as they always have in the past and will continue to do, no matter what the future holds.

As always, thanks for reading Mailing Systems Technology.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

5

REAL-LIFE MANAGEMENT

OUR GREATEST INVESTMENT: OUR PEOPLE!

BY WES FRIESEN

H

arvey Firestone once said, “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” If you agree that people are truly the most valuable resource of any organization, then Harvey’s quote rings true. We need to invest in our people by helping them learn, grow, and develop. There are a number of good business reasons that support investing in the growth and development of people:  Increases employee productivity  Reduces turnover  Helps retain and attract talented people  Helps our teams and organization be more successful by being better able to serve our stakeholders Let’s explore some key principles on investing in our people well, by developing and helping them to learn and grow.

6

doing it. We can embrace vulnerability; people respect humble leaders that are trying to keep learning and developing themselves. Robin Sharma counsels us, “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.”

3. Reinforce the value of learning and growth. Discuss with employees what they would like to accomplish, and work with them to identify learning goals and strategies that will help them fulfill their ambitions. A positive side effect from our employees’ development is they will be adding more value to the organization at the same time they are improving themselves (a real win-win!).

Key Principles to Develop People 1. Make developing people a priority.

To make developing people a true priority, we need to be intentional, schedule time, and make it happen. We need to develop and execute specific plans and strategies on how to develop people — then follow through, including making our meeting times with employees a priority so they feel we truly care about them.

4. Participatively create individual development plans. Collaborating with an employee on creating an individualized development plan is crucial. The plan can cover three to five specific learning and development goals over the next 12 months, and for each goal, one or more specific actions can be identified to help achieve that goal. A simple example: a learning goal may be to “Become more proficient at Excel,” and the action to meet the goal could be to complete an Excel class.

2. Be a good role model. We can be transparent about our own need to learn and develop, and share how we are

5. Focus on maximizing strengths.

Credible research over the past 20 years has demonstrated that individuals and

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their teams are better off when the majority of development is focused on maximizing strengths (as opposed to trying to fix weaknesses). One of my favorite authors on this topic is Marcus Buckingham, who has written classic books like Now Discover Your Strengths and Standout. His books contain free strength assessments. One of those can be found on marcusbuckingham.com/ gift-of-standout. Another excellent book is Tom Rath’s StrengthFinders 2.0.

6. Consider the 70:20:10 model. A trio of industrial psychologists developed this model, which suggests that 70% of learning and development occurs in context of real-life and on-the-job experiences, tasks, and problem solving.

Twenty percent comes from formal or informal feedback, mentoring, or coaching; and 10% comes from formal training.

All three categories are important and can be incorporated into the individual development plans.

7. Delegate well. Given that up to 70% of learning and development comes from real-life and on-the-job experiences, delegation is a great tool to provide those opportunities. Tips to delegate well include delegating tasks that are within the skill set of the employee, even if a bit of a stretch (some stretch is a great way to learn!); ensure clear expectations; and offer help but avoid micromanaging.

After any learning experience, it’s very helpful to ask questions to help people gain perspective and learn from both their successes and failures. Three good questions are: “How was your experience?”

“What did you learn?”

“What would you do differently next time?”

8. Provide feedback and acknowledgment. We know from our experiences what research tells us — people crave appreciation and recognition, so let’s give that out. Positive feedback reinforces learning and incents people to keep on learning and developing. People also need helpful constructive feedback when mistakes happen, so they can turn mistakes into learning opportunities and move forward.

9. Use team meetings as learning opportunities. We can use time at some of our existing team meetings for learning,

such as inviting guests to share useful information. We can also share key takeaways from recent articles, books, blogs, webinars, seminars, conferences, and classes we have learned from. And we can have team members share their recent learnings too. We all know team meetings can be B-O-R-I-N-G, so let’s spice them up with some practical learning!

10. Understand and use relevant tools: There are a wide array of tools we can use to help our employees learn and grow, including university and other classes, seminars, webinars, online learning, and special assignments, to name a few.

Following are a few specific methods we can consider: Coaching: Coaching involves a more experienced or skilled individual providing an employee with advice and guidance intended to help the employee gain new skills, improve performance, and enhance the quality of their career.

Mentoring: Mentoring typically matches less experienced employees with more

experienced employees through formal or informal programs. The goal is to help the less experienced employee gain new skills and therefore improve performance.

Cross Training/Job Rotation: These programs are intended for participants to broaden their skills by having the opportunity to perform job tasks other than those currently assigned.

Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment: Job enlargement involves expanding the employee’s job by adding more tasks and duties, typically at the same level of complexity (example: have the employee who prepares report ABC also prepare report XYZ). Job enrichment builds more depth to an employee’s job through more control and responsibility (example: have employee who prepares a report also present it to management).

Jack Welch counseled, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

One final recommendation: if you are considering books to read on this topic,

another one I suggest is John Maxwell’s most recent entitled, The Leader’s Greatest Return. My best to you as you make your greatest investment into the people — they (and you!) will be glad you did.  Wes Friesen (MBA, EMCM, CMDSM, MCOM, MDC, OSPC, CCE, CBF, CBA ICP, CMA, CFM, CM, APP, PHR, CTP) is a proven leader and developer of high performing teams and has extensive experience in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. He is also an award-winning university instructor and speaker, and is the President of Solomon Training and Development, which provides leadership, management, and team building training. He is the Industry Co-Chair of the Greater Portland PCC. His book, Your Team Can Soar! has 42 valuable lessons that will inspire you, and give you practical pointers to help you — and your team — soar to new heights of performance.

Your Team Can Soar! can be ordered from Xulonpress.com/bookstore or wesfriesen.com (under Book) or an online retailer like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Wes can be contacted at wesmfriesen@gmail.com or at 971.806.0812.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

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THE TRENCHES

THE MAIL CENTER’S ROLE IN INKJET CONVERSIONS

BY MIKE PORTER

M

8

ost of the emphasis on switching to an inkjet printing platform is naturally on the print operation.

Before selecting a new printing platform, organizations spend a great deal of time researching questions about print speeds, substrate support, color reproduction, and data streams. But those rolls or sheets coming from the new equipment must be finished. The speed and efficiency of a new inkjet press won’t matter much if the operation experiences a workflow log jam caused by poorly matched finishing equipment or the mail center has difficulties managing the final steps.

Representatives from the mail center should have a seat at the table when your organization contemplates a switch in printing platforms. They can provide a perspective on the overall workflow that others may overlook. Here are a few things to consider:

while they wait to be processed? Inkjet ink is absorbed by the paper, which could change the way it behaves as the moisture content decreases. Will you have to expand your storage/staging areas?

Capacity Most organizations that invest in inkjet presses do so in anticipation of higher productivity. They can print more pages in less time. You must analyze this increase and assess the capacity of your finishing equipment. Will you need more folder/inserter machines or faster ones? More shifts?

How’s the labor market? Will you be able to recruit enough operators to run the added machines? Is there room for expansion?

Perhaps finishing capacity isn’t a problem because you have allowed enough time to do the work with your existing equipment and crew. However, that may mean printed materials will sit for longer periods of time between printing and finishing. Is your facility climate-controlled to prevent pages from warping or curling

Comingling Some printing organizations have had to combine output formerly printed as separate jobs into larger work units more conducive to efficient high-speed press operation. But those productivity improvements in the print center can complicate downstream operations.

Comingling involves several factors. If performed as simply a chain of one complete job followed by another, comingled jobs can be manually or automatically separated for the mail inserters. The mail center can continue to account for the processing of each job, and they can track individual documents with their current methods.

If, however, the pages from multiple jobs are interspersed in the print file, the task becomes more difficult. Mail

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Cut-Sheet to Continuous Switching from cut sheet printers to roll-fed inkjet presses is a popular strategy. The speed and productivity of web presses make them attractive options.

If your finishing equipment ingests cut sheets, you must make adjustments.

If printing roll to roll, you will need to attach front end unwinders and cutters to the mail inserters. Is there enough space for added components? Room to transport the rolls through the facility from the presses to the inserters? Will you still be producing some jobs on the cut-sheet printers? If so, which is better?

Dedicated finishing equipment for each format, or dual channel inputs?

center personnel, document designers, and technical resources must agree with print production analysts about how to mark the documents with barcodes. They need to discuss the mail piece data files sent to the inserting systems and how they work with Automated Document Factory (ADF) software. Document re-engineering software may be necessary to move address blocks on some pages so they fit a window envelope common for all the documents in the combined run.

Self-Mailers High-volume direct mailers printed in full color are great for direct marketing applications. Just be sure they allow for the application of glue lines or glue spots, perforations, and meet all postal requirements for paper weight, folds, and stiffness.

Imposition Continuous roll printing opens the door to new document layouts, such as page lengths not possible with cut-sheet printers. Wide rolls accommodate multiple-up pages. How you position those pages will make a difference in the cost and productivity of the finishing operations that cut the pages, fold, bind, or insert them.

Inline Finishing Envisioning a workflow that features inline finishing? Be sure to consider factors like color saturation, density, and drying time. The inline finishing equipment must handle the freshly printed material without smearing or jamming.

It’s Not Just About Printing Organizations tend to focus their attention on the changes inkjet will bring to their printing operations, but don’t always consider the impact on downstream components and processes. The professionals in the mail center can provide valuable information that will ensure the conversion to inkjet proceeds smoothly. Avoid unexpected delays and expenses by thinking through the entire document workflow, including mail operations, before deciding about inkjet press purchases.  Mike Porter at Print/Mail Consultants helps his clients meet the challenges they encounter in document operations and creates informational content for vendors and service providers in the document industry. Follow @PMCmike on Twitter, send a connection request on LinkedIn, or contact Mike directly at mporter@printmailconsultants.com.

find new business (the right business) to fill the capacity while simultaneously helping your customers recognize how they can gain from it so you can minimize the need for price cuts.

INKJET INFO

IMPLEMENTING INKJET: MISTAKES TO AVOID WITH CAPACITY AND CAPABILITIES

BY KAREN KIMERER

I

n storytelling and when writing a screenplay, there is almost always a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Another way to put this is that there is usually an Act One, Act Two, and Act Three.  Act One hooks you, grabs your attention, and creates excitement.  Act Two is usually the messy part — it introduces the protagonist, creates anxiety, and often presents daunting information. As exhaustive and painful as it can be, Act Two is necessary to tell a complete, balanced story.  Act Three solves the problem, smooths out the wrinkles, and/or provides resolve.

Ironically this three-act structure often mirrors the experience of implementing a new production inkjet press. This article summarizes all the “Acts” involved in acquiring an inkjet device, and also explores some of the pitfalls that may be encountered along the way.

Act One The foundation has been set — you determine that a production inkjet press will help your business and solve many challenges with production and on-time 10

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delivery. You select a technology partner, make the investment, and implement a new high-speed inkjet press. Everyone is excited about the new opportunities and manufacturing improvements that inkjet promises. Even if the investment is sound, however, a big “a-ha” or even “uh-oh” moment can arise with little or no anticipation… bringing us to Act Two. Act Two The protagonist will generally show up after just a few months of running your new press. You might realize that the transfer of work from offset to digital toner merely moves tasks from one device to another. Perhaps the implementation helps you save labor costs, gives you the capacity to grow, and prints the applications that you transfer quicker and more efficiently. It is also likely that your profit margins will increase, but maybe your revenue has not — and now you have a LOT more capacity than you imagined. It’s possible that your current customers will fail to see the value of your investment and continue to request discounts or lower prices. Although inkjet might have solved some of your problems, you are suddenly faced with new challenges: you must

Act Three Now comes the good part — most of your problems have been solved, you have educated your customers about the value of your investment, and they understand that it can ultimately deliver better business results for them. Your sales team has a renewed interest in your capabilities as well as the confidence and insight they need to engage in new opportunities.

The Complete Story Production inkjet presses continue to grow in popularity. In fact, Keypoint Intelligence’s latest forecast data indicates that US production inkjet placements are expected to rise from 901 units in 2019 to 2,211 units in 2024, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.7%.

In time, nearly every key player in the industry will be leveraging the expansive technological changes and advantages that a production inkjet press can deliver.

At the same time, however, placing value on the device and the technology behind it is old school thinking. It’s natural to want to talk about your new capabilities, but such a discussion will only confuse most of your customers and prospects without reference. You must examine your current product offerings and map the value of your new capabilities to your customers’ needs.

When print service providers were asked about the biggest surprises they encountered after installing a new inkjet press, nearly all reported that although they expected to have more capacity, they had no idea that an inkjet press would deliver so much capacity. Many also cited that age-old problem — customers simply don’t know what they don’t know, so the capabilities of the new technology are often underutilized and underappreciated.

While it’s ideal to focus your sales efforts on finding more business to fill the new capacity, you will likely encounter several challenges. First, this is a very competitive market. Most of the customers that require printing services will already have a provider, so attracting their attention, holding it, and eventually bringing them on board can

take time. Furthermore, your salespeople will need proof that the “new” press will be able to deliver what they promise.

New technology should generate energy and enthusiasm, but this excitement can often be thwarted simply because the rep doesn’t have enough confidence in the change.

This puts the focus back on the relationships you have with your current customers to fill that capacity more quickly. It is likely that they already enjoy the relationship and service you offer, so this is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the value that comes with an inkjet press. Even so, merely sharing the news of your latest investment will bring no value to them. In fact, articulating the value that you can deliver in terms of “better, faster, cheaper” might very well encourage your customers to explore other offerings — you certainly won’t be the only provider that’s making this claim!

The thing that truly matters in today’s business environment is helping your customers achieve better business results. Teaching your clients how your new capabilities can provide better communication and experiences with

their customers is the first step in filling the capacity gap. Once print buyers understand the benefits that they can achieve with personalization, full color, and faster time-to-market, they will often uncover additional print opportunities that need to be transformed.

Customer education remains a muchneeded area of focus in our industry. This is even more the case when it comes to leveraging inkjet technology. Instead of pointing out that your new press is faster and less costly to operate, inform your customer that you finally have the capabilities to deliver highly personalized printed content in full color that can drive more sales when used correctly.

This approach can help you avoid pitfalls like underutilized capabilities and overlooking the immediate abundance of capacity.

The Bottom Line Businesses that invest in production inkjet technology must refrain from using words that might damage the value they deliver. Start by omitting terms like “better, faster, and cheaper” from your vernacular. Make a list of exactly how

you can improve the effectiveness of the work that you are already providing to your customers. Teach, provide examples, demonstrate case studies, suggest best practices, and find solutions to help your customers get more from their print spend. Although this has been said before, it bears repeating — bypass technological conversations, no matter how excited you are about the features and functions of your new inkjet press. Walking into a conversation with nothing but technical jargon will not communicate the value of your new capabilities. Instead, focus on the single most important thing that your customer wants to hear… the business outcome that your solutions can help them achieve!  Karen Kimerer is Director of Keypoint Intelligence — InfoTrends’ Business Development Strategies service. She has experienced the many challenges of expanding current market opportunities and securing new business. She is well-versed in 1:1 marketing, web-to-print, direct mail, book publishing, supply chain management, data segmentation, channel integration, and photo products.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

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GUEST COLUMN

POSTAL HOLIDAY RATE HIKES IN EFFECT SOON

BY ROB MARTINEZ

O

n Friday, August 14, the United States Postal Service announced temporary price increases, effective October 18, 2020 through December 27, 2020.

Increases are quite significant and are as follows:  Parcel Select (DDU entry): Up to 7.5%  Parcel Select (DSCF entry): Up to 9.1%  Parcel Select (DNDC entry): Up to 6.7%  Parcel Return Service: Up to 7.9%  Parcel Select Lightweight: Up to 13.3%  FCPS: Up to 9.1%  Priority Mail: Up to 5.7%

package volume was Parcel Select, although many may not recognize the postal product name. Shippers are more likely to recognize popular brand names that handle the front end of the Parcel Select product, like UPS SurePost, UPS Mail Innovations, FedEx SmartPost, OSM Worldwide, and DHL eCommerce. Collectively known as “consolidators,” these companies perform and enjoy “workshare incentives” from the Postal Service for collection, sortation, transportation, and deep induction within the USPS network for final-mile delivery.

In addition to consolidators, mega shippers like Amazon have enough volume to induct Parcel Select packages directly within the USPS delivery stream. The deeper the induction, the bigger the postal discount. Businesses that induct directly will likely be forced to eat the added costs in this day and age of inflated consumer expectations for free — and fast — delivery.

Businesses that induct directly will likely be forced to eat the added costs in this day and age of inflated consumer expectations for free – and fast – delivery.

The USPS delivered 6.2 billion packages in 2019, including more residential delivery volume than FedEx and UPS combined. The majority of the postal 12

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

Most of the contracts between the USPS and workshare partners (called Negotiated Services Agreements) include language that allows the Postal Service to pass along exigent rate increases. Therefore, it’s very likely that companies like UPS, DHL, and FedEx will be adversely impacted by the temporary postal rate increases. However, it’s very likely that any increases incurred by Parcel Select consolidators will be passed along to their customers.

In many cases, these rate increases represent a profit opportunity for the consolidators. Historically, consolidators have applied postal rate hikes to their published pricing in the same percentage. As an example, a one-pound machinable Parcel Select shipment is $3.19 (USPS published rate) when inducted at the DDU — that’s the rate the Postal Service would charge a consolidator to deliver a package inducted at the DDU. That same shipment, going to Zone 5 using UPS SurePost, is $10.17 (published rate). While UPS gets a deep contractual discount from the USPS, let’s draw this comparison out using published rates for illustrative purposes.  Postal increase to workshare partners: $3.19 plus 7.5% temporary increase = $.24 increase to UPS  Potential UPS increase to customers: $10.17 plus 7.5% temporary increase = $.76 increase So, in essence, UPS will be taking a huge profit ($.52 or 5.1%) on the USPS increase!

Details of the postal rate increase are available at https://about.usps. com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0814-usps-announces-temporary-price-increase.htm. 

Rob Martinez is Founder and Co-CEO, Shipware. He invites shippers who need help either deciphering the impact of these postal rate increases to costs or need assistance warding off increases from consolidators to contact him via email at rob@shipware.com or call 858.879.2020 Ext. 114.

APPLICATION ARTICLE

INTELLIGENT LOCKERS PROVIDE ON-CAMPUS CONTACTLESS DELIVERY

By Jason DeStratis

Social distancing has forced businesses to rethink how to get their products into customers’ hands without touching hands, and forced schools to execute reopenings that straddle the line between in-person education and public health. The latter has implications across all corners of campus. Mail centers, for example, handle thousands of mail pieces any given day, interacting with countless students or staffers for deliveries. How can schools and businesses carry on essential mailing and shipping while minimizing risks? The solution lies in contactless delivery and pickup via intelligent lockers.

Intelligent lockers for schools & offices For students and faculty who aren’t returning to campus — or for schools that are opting for virtual learning — shipping mail to home addresses may be the best way forward. But that won’t work for those living or working on campus. Schools need a hybrid approach: one that offers outbound shipping for off-campus, and contactless delivery and pickup for those in closer proxim-

ity. Intelligent lockers fulfill this need.

Here’s how it works: Place the package in the locker. The recipient receives a notification that it’s ready for pick up.

Then they pick it up. That’s all. No interacting with another person, and because the lockers can be installed outside, there’s no need to go in the mail center for pickup. The person dropping off the package and the one picking it up never meet; the locker itself is the only go-between. And 24/7 camera monitoring, and barcode-scan or keypad entry requiring user-specific codes to open, guarantee security and privacy.

This has major health and safety benefits for recipients, who can get their mail at their own leisure, while making conditions safer for mail center employees, too. Intelligent lockers enable workers to deliver packages and mail faster, freeing up space in what are already cramped quarters. That eliminates the risk of trips and falls and also significantly decreases package volumes, making it quicker and easier to find mail.

This convenience applies for other workplaces, too. Employees who need to either pick up office mail or other assets, like a work computer, can have it dropped off in an intelligent locker for safe, contactless delivery.

Intelligent lockers for retailers Intelligent lockers also provide contactless delivery solutions to essential businesses like pharmacies, convenience stores and retailers, ensuring customers get non-perishable supplies without ever having to interact with another person. Make the order online; the order is placed inside the locker; the store notifies the customer it’s ready for pickup; the customer picks it up. No lines, no going inside the store, no fretting about keeping six feet apart.

Businesses and schools can leverage intelligent lockers to address health and safety concerns without compromising on efficient product delivery or mailing and shipping. Their weather-resilient design ensures they work well both outdoors and indoors. Camera monitoring and code-specific entry offer security.

And built-in tracking and reporting provides an extra layer of accountability, making it easy to determine if and when an order has been picked up.

Jason DeStratis, Director Product Management Parcel and Locker Innovation at Pitney Bowes has been building innovative products for enterprise organizations for over 5 years.

www.pitneybowes.com/us/lockers

SOFTWARE BYTE

mail service provider, you often have no control over how and when your clients use address hygiene tools, so it is a good idea to routinely educate your clients on the importance of address list cleansing.

IMPROVING YOUR MAILER SCORECARD

BY JEFF PEOPLES

A

s we move closer to the mandatory Seamless Acceptance compliance dates in 2021, mailers who have not previously participated in Seamless Acceptance are working on improving their Mailer Scorecard results. The Seamless Parallel period of the program is the perfect opportunity to closely monitor your Mailer Scorecard and implement processes to improve your scores.

Common Mailer Scorecard Errors While there are many verifications performed by the USPS for Seamless Acceptance, there are some errors that tend to occur more frequently.

By/For errors: This data is meant to identify to the USPS the parties who are responsible for preparing the mail (the “By”) and the owner of the mail (the “For’). Common errors include invalid or incorrect Mail Owner and/or eDoc Submitter data. Keep in mind that this data appears in multiple fields in the Mail.dat file, so make sure the information is not only valid and correct, but that there are no conflicts between these data fields.

MID/CRID errors: Mailer Identification (MID) and Customer Registration Identification (CRID) data is used for numerous purposes in both the Intelligent Mail 14

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(IM) barcode and in the eDoc. Errors can occur if this data is invalid, incorrect, or if the data is conflicting in various Mail.dat fields, or between the IM barcode and the Mail.dat file.

STID errors: Service Type Identification (STID) is used to identify the types of service that the mailer is requesting from the USPS. Errors can occur when this data is incorrect, invalid, or conflicting.

Undocumented piece errors: This is one of the most common errors, and it means that the IM barcode scans from the individual mail pieces cannot be tracked back to any eDoc submitted within the last 45 days. To the USPS, this means that there is no proof that these pieces were paid for. Keep in mind that these errors can be reported in situations where the source of the error is another mailer or the USPS. Nevertheless, the burden of proof is on you if it shows up on your Mailer Scorecard.

Move Update errors: Although address hygiene tools have been around for decades, surprisingly, there are still many dated address lists being used for mailings. The Move Update error occurs when individual mail pieces are scanned and the USPS detects a Change of Address (COA) order for that address that is 95 days to 18 months old. As a

Preventing Errors The best way to improve your Mailer Scorecard results and avoid assessments is to be proactive. Assess your mailing workflow and identify points of weakness and opportunities for improvement. Work with your software providers or service providers to review software settings, parameters, and default data. Analyze the interaction and communication between the presort, production, and post-presort functions in your operation. Many times, making simple changes in one area can greatly improve the quality or productivity in another area. Keep a detailed log outlining the creation of your unique IM barcode assignments. This is a lot of work, but it is invaluable if you are hit with undocumented piece assessments.

Create a roadmap of areas identified as needing improvement, then prioritize and schedule projects to resolve the issues.

Don’t forget to implement periodic audits to ensure that your improvements are being utilized routinely and correctly, and to identify future improvements.

Resources The USPS has many resources available on the PostalPro website to help you understand the Seamless Acceptance verifications and your Mailer Scorecard.

Software and service providers offer many tools to help monitor your Mailer Scorecard, generate IM barcode uniqueness logs, create undocumented piece audit reports, and proactive tools to verify your data before you go into production or submit files to PostalOne! 

Jeff Peoples is founder, president, and CEO at Window Book. With over 30 years of innovative postal solutions that make using the Postal Service easier and more profitable for mailers and shippers, he has done presentations at many industry events, including GraphExpo, the National Postal Forum, Postal Customer Council meetings, and more.

THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY How did this last year treat mailers and their organizations? Part one of our annual survey takes a look at wages, certifications, and more.

By Amanda Armendariz

I

always enjoy going through the survey results and analyzing the direction of trends year after year, and this year was no different. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 has impacted mail centers quite significantly, both in terms of personnel and in terms of continuing education opportunities; the National Postal Forum being (rightfully) canceled certainly was a big blow to the industry, as that is the main event that mail professionals attend for training.

On the bright side, wages for all positions increased compared to the past two years, and the average length of time in the industry increased as well. That’s always an encouraging sign, since we know that there has been a lot of talk regarding people retiring and it being difficult to fill the ranks with younger people. So the longer people can stick around in the mail center, the better (and I’m sure the increased wages help keep people around).

As always, a huge “thank you” to everyone who completed this survey; we really do appreciate it! In our November/ December issue, we’ll have part two of our survey, which examines attitudes and opinions towards the current happenings in our industry (like declining mail volume, the new Postmaster General’s operational changes, etc.). We look forward to sharing those results with you, as well!

Number of Full-Time Employees 4% Supervised 4% 8% 0-5 6-10 11-15

60%

24%

16-20 20+

As is usually the case in our annual surveys, the majority of our respondents’ mail center managers supervise five or fewer employees. However, the number of managers who supervise 20+ employees went down quite significantly compared to last year.

Certification

5%

CMDSM

Mail Center Managers

EMCMP

Male vs. Female

56%

44%

The percentage of mail center managers who are female went down slightly compared to the 48% from last year.

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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

23%

8.51%

10% CMM

A bright spot in this year’s survey: The number of mail center managers holding certifications increased dramatically. Last year, only 2% held the CMM certification, so this year’s number represents a five-fold increase. Now, we always need to make the disclaimer that it’s not necessarily people from the same companies completing our surveys every year, which could explain some of the year-over-year differences, but still, this increase is highly encouraging. Hopefully, we will continue to see these numbers continue to rise!

Average Salary and Time in the Industry

Managers and the Economy 100

The average salary of a mail center manager in our survey this year is $64,825, an increase from last year’s $60,987. The average mail center manager in our survey has been in the industry for 22 years, a definite increase from last year’s 16.

90

Forty-eight percent manage other departments or functions, which is a continued decline from the 54% last year and the 64% in 2018.

60

Not surprisingly, given that we are in the midst of a pandemic, not even half of our respondents said that the economy hasn’t affected them this year (62% answered this way last year). Of those that were affected, 24% had to take on additional responsibilities, compared to only 16% last year.

80 70

50

48%

40

$64,825

30 24%

20

20%

10

&

22 Years

4%

0%

0

4%

0%

Has had no effect

Salary freeze

Took on additional responsibilities

Working additional hours

Other

Number of mail managers decreased

Salary concession

Continuing Education 100 90 80 70

What type of training did managers have access to/plan to attend in the past 12 months?

60

Only 36% of respondents reported that they think that their managers will have access to any sort of training (whether in-person or virtual) within the next 12 months.

50 40

43.48%

43.48%

30 20

21.74%

21.74%

21.74%

10 0

0%

National Postal Forum (if it hadn’t been canceled due to COVID-19) National mailing “schools” National industry or associationspecific mailing conference (MSFA, NACUMS, Non-profit, DMA)

Local PCC conferences/meetings

8.70%

4.35%

13.04%

4.35%

8.70%

4.35%

0%

4.35%

Vendor’s user conference

None, due to budget cutbacks

Other non-mailing national conferences (i.e., management training courses)

None, didn’t find the time to attend

Other non-mailing local conferences Online continuing education classes On-site continuing education classes

None, training is not allowed for supervisors None, everything we had planned to attend was canceled due to COVID-19 None, no training needed this year MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

17

The Lowdown

Supervisors

 Forty percent of our respondents have supervisors in the mail centers.

100

 Seventy-eight percent of the supervisors are male.

90

Impact of the Economy

80

Not surprisingly, the number of respondents who reported that the economy had no effect on the supervisors’ positions decreased significantly compared to last year.

70 60

 When it comes to certifications, 13% hold the EMCMP, but none of the supervisors in this year’s survey hold the CMM or CMDSM.  The majority of our supervisors (67%) supervise between one and five employees.  The average salary was $51,111, an increase from last year’s $48,595.

50 40

44.44%

 On average, these supervisors have been in the mailing industry for 17 years.

30 20

 Only 11% supervisor other departments or functions.

22.22%

10

11.11%

11.11%

11.11%

0%

0

0%

Has had no effect

Salary freeze

Took on additional responsibilities

Working additional hours

Salary concession

YES 62.50% NO 37.50%

Number of supervisors decreased

Do you think that supervisors will be able to attend national training, whether in-person (if offered) or virtual, in the next 12 months?

Other

Training & Education 100 90 80

What types of continuing education/ training did supervisors have access to in the last 12 months?

It is encouraging that whether in-person or virtual, almost 2/3 of our respondents reported that they expect their supervisors to receive some sort of formal training this year.

75%

70 60 50

50%

40 30 25%

20 10 0

12.50%

12.50%

12.50%

12.50%

0%

0%

National Postal Forum (if it had not been canceled due to COVID-19)

Local PCC conferences/meetings

National mailing “schools”

Other non-mailing national conferences (i.e., management training courses)

National industry or associationspecific mailing conference (MSFA, NACUMS, Non-profit, DMA) 18

12.50%

25%

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

Vendor’s user conference

Other non-mailing local conferences

0%

Online continuing education classes On-site continuing education classes

0%

0%

None, training is not allowed for supervisors

None, due to budget cutbacks

None, everything we had planned to attend was canceled due to COVID-19

None, didn’t find the time to attend

None, no training needed this year

Average Wages of Mail Center Staff

Non-Managerial Staff

Entry-level

Inserter operators

Highest hourly wage

Mail handlers

2018 - $15.88

2019 - $15.52

2020 - $16.75

2018 - $15.68

2019 - $14.80

0

2020 - $18.45

 Only 12% have an employee incentive program, a decrease from last year’s 26%.

2018 - $15.28

5

2019 - $16.00

 Twenty-two percent are represented by a union, up from 12% last year.

2020 - $18.17

10 2018 - $20.33

 On average, they’ve been employed in the industry for just under 14 years, a definite increase from last year’s 9.5 years.

2019 - $20.70

15

2020 - $21.24

 Sixty-one percent of non-management staff are male.

2018 - $14.02

20

2019 - $13.64

 The annual turnover rate is 8.8%, which is almost double last year’s 4.5%.

2020 - $15.25

25

The Lowdown:

Addressing machine operators

Staff and the Economy

Staff and Training Opportunities

33.33%

33.33%

0%

5.56%

16.67% 50% 27.78% 11.11% 0% 44.44%

5.56%

11.11%

16.67%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 100

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 100

Existing staff work additional hours

Attend local PCC meetings/conferences

Off-site equipment training provided by vendors

Salary freeze

Existing staff do additional tasks

Attend national mailing conferences

Layoffs

Other

On-site equipment training provided by vendors

None; non-managerial staff do not get training beyond on-the-job training

Has had no effect Salary concession

Other

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

19

By Bruce E. Little

AUTOMATING THE SHOP: PRINT SERVICES SIMPLIFIED

U

niversity print shops occupy a unique position within the education ecosystem in that they provide a myriad of essential services without notoriety or understanding from the public they serve. Students, staff, and faculty alike print and copy promotional materials, course materials, and the assignments to guide the curriculum. Many departments send major high-volume print projects to the shop, often with a short turnaround time. Print services teams around the country have started to expand their offerings to include advanced options such as digital design and services, promotional marketing collateral, and off-campus mailing. These tedious tasks are done by a beleaguered staff that often must rely on their own revenue efforts to fund their budget. The team accepts the enormous amount of work, knowing that every action they take must be timely and cost-efficient.

Automating tasks within a logistics platform represents one of the simplest ways to ease any operation’s staff’s workload.

Service requests, print assignments, task management, and shipment confirmations can be fulfilled automatically by an intuitive platform with a personalized workflow that reflects your team members’ unique needs and work patterns. If an automated system is applied correctly, there is an almost guaranteed likelihood that your staff will save valuable time and reallocate their efforts to more complex tasks. To engage in measures that save your workforce time, you must first discern which tasks within your facility should be automated.

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Let’s discuss a few options for automation: Service Requests Many print shop managers dread the ever-mounting number of print service requests that their team receives. Many of them have more than enough staff to handle a steady number of requests but may not have the capacity to monitor the influx of calls, paper requests, and in-person requests. It is for this reason that print service requests are an excellent candidate for automation.

Printshop managers can utilize an in-building logistics platform to streamline all their incoming requests. Students and faculty alike simply log on to their centralized portal and fill out a print request form. The forms capture all necessary details, such as the number of printed pages, color, paper type, and binding options, and sends the request directly to the print shop manager(s), which reduces the need for paper forms, but it also reduces call volume and misprinted orders.

Print Assignments and Task Management Print shops often receive a tsunami of print jobs and related tasks.

Without a robust management system, staff may simply not be able to keep up. Every print shop manager tries to equally spread tasks among their team members to ensure that no one is overloaded, and all jobs are complete. An easy way to ensure work equity among staff is to automate incoming assignments within a

task management system. Managers can configure their software to assign jobs only to available staff members and assign specialized projects to staff members uniquely fit to execute them.

By utilizing an in-building logistics platform, print managers can oversee staff productivity and quickly identify any jobs behind schedule or incomplete. In addition to increasing visibility, using software to monitor each step of the fulfillment process ensures that your operation is 100% efficient.

Many print shop managers dread the ever-mounting number of print service requests that their team receives. Many of them have more than enough staff to handle a steady number of requests but may not have the capacity to monitor the influx of calls, paper requests, and in-person requests.

Delivery and Shipment Confirmations As mentioned above, nothing is more important in a print shop’s operation than visibility and accountability in the services the staff provides. Many print shops don’t have a way to ensure their print jobs were delivered, resulting in costly reprints. Using a logistics platform will allow for greater visibility, even at the final stage of the printing process — delivery and shipment. Managers can configure their software to track jobs that need to be delivered internally or prepped for shipment to another location. For internal deliveries, jobs are automatically routed to appropriate staff members’ handheld devices. Upon delivery, automatic prompts can ensure that the operator collects a signature to close the accountability loop. For external shipments, a staff member packages the print job and sends an email notification to the recipient with the tracking information. Automation works hand-in-hand to complete each task and to confirm that each shipment is handled correctly.

Though print shops are critical to university operations, very few schools subsidize the budgets of these operations. Maintaining a budget that stays consistently in the black requires the careful assignment of staff time to ensure efficiency. Like every other facet of university administration, print shop departments need to operate as efficiently as possible to allocate their capacity to more extensive and more complicated tasks, such as promotion, public awareness, and marketing. With so many things on their plate already, print shop managers should look for opportunities to automate simple tasks and processes to provide their staff with a higher capacity to focus on revenue-generating operations.  As Vice President of Emerging Markets, Bruce E. Little is responsible for developing international business as well as managing channel partners. He has over 20 years of experience in the mail and package tracking industry.

Bruce joined the SCLogic team in 1999 as the Vice President of Channels and has also held the titles of Vice President of Sales and General Manager before becoming the Vice President of Emerging Markets. Bruce has presented at many industry conferences such as NPF, MAILCOM, IFMA World Workplace, NACAS C3X, and NACUMS. MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

21

SPONSORED CONTENT

4 IDEAS SHOWING HOW COLOR (AND MORE) CAN IMPROVE YOUR DIRECT MAIL & CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS How can I get better results from my direct mail and customer communications? How can I best “catch the eye” of my customers and prospects?

These two questions are most likely on your mind every time you create a new direct mail campaign or when you are developing new printed customer communications. There are, of course, many ideas that can help you get the answers that will help get the results you want.

This sponsored content section brings you four ideas. Each solution provider has shared their concept for how color (and more) can help you achieve part of the answers you need. Check out each of the following companies and their solutions and then follow up with them by email or with a phone call.

Looking to grab attention with your direct mail campaign by adding color to your messages and promotions?

Do you need to print your entire mail piece in one single pass, including a color logo and monochrome text?

Want to enhance customer awareness, and improve the response rate of your communication? Buskro has just the color print solution for you!

Building on over 25 years of proven inkjet performance and experience, BUSKRO has expanded its suite of color inkjet printers to include a full process color print system: The Quantum 4C. Offering high-speed, single-pass variable color printing for your direct mail and variable graphics applications, The Quantum 4C delivers an exceptional 600x1200 DPI color image up to 4.25” of vertical coverage. Equipped with Compose IQ color management software, the

22

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

printer has all the necessary tools to mix and combine color and monochrome variable information to form an image that includes both fixed and variable color graphics, PDF files, text, barcodes, and postal indicias.

Mounted on a stable print platform and offering optional LED pinning lamps to optimize UV ink results, the Quantum 4C delivers excellent color registration to produce high-quality, crisp, and vibrant color images to your mail pieces and customer communications on a wide variety of substrates. www.buskro.com sales@buskro.com 905.839.6018

With facilities in the U.S., Spain, and Japan, Kao Collins is a leading provider of inkjet solutions.

Through the development of ecofriendly solutions, Kao Collins seeks to maximize opportunities where inkjet can provide value and facilitate growth. Since 1980, the company has introduced innovative solutions that enable customers and OEMs to reduce costs, increase productivity, and expand offerings to various markets — graphics, commercial print, packaging, labeling, and consumer products.

Kao Collins formulates and manufactures innovative inkjet inks for high-speed, single-pass printing, including water-based, oil-based, solvent-based, UV-, LED-, and EB-curable technologies.

Kao Collins remains committed to Yoki-Monozukuri implemented from the consumer/customer’s perspective so that we may strive for the wholehearted satisfaction and enrichment of the lives of people globally. www.kaocollins.com info@kaocollins.com 513.948.9000

Any savvy marketer knows that full color printing on direct mail pieces attract more attention and increase chances of a response. However, printers and mailers face many challenges on how to cost effectively produce customer communications, particularly in short runs.

Kirk-Rudy’s new FireJet 4c is an all-in-one four color inkjet printing system that combines the heavy duty transport Kirk-Rudy is famous for, along with the quality and reliability the industry expects from Memjet technology.

The FireJet 4C can print A3+ and A4 cut sheets in full color (CMYK) at 1600 x 1600 dpi and can print at speeds up to 150 feet per minute.

The newly designed user-replaceable printhead has been engineered to provide a longer life — approximately 120 liters — and outstanding image quality across a broad range of porous,

Standing out in a direct mail campaign is challenging enough with nearly 60% of the household mail already being marketing materials.

However, printed pieces that invoke a sense of quality or uniqueness increase retention and response rates.

Which is obviously good for your clients and for gaining repeat business.

OKI’s C9 digital printers and DP+ envelope systems make it easy to produce high quality and creative pieces with press-like output across a wide range of media types, sizes, and paper weights. And OKI’s digital workflow offers: Quick turnaround times; No pre-print setup costs; Variable Data Printing; Fiery Server options and more.

The revolutionary C942 goes beyond 4-color printing by adding a 5th station for applying highly dense white toner that opens a world of

uncoated offset, inkjet-treated, and inkjet-coated media. Memjet’s new DuraFlex technology uses aqueous pigment inks that produce a high quality, durable image.

The FireJet 4c is the profitable alternative to the smaller desktop, toner-based digital color printers, as well as the high cost digital presses on the market today. This mid-volume work horse produces cost-effective, profitable mail pieces from day one.

To learn how the FireJet 4c may be the solution for your digital color printing needs, visit our website, or contact a dealer near you. www.kirkrudy.com info@kirkrudy.com 770.427.4203

CONTACT INFO BUSKRO www.buskro.com sales@buskro.com 905.839.6018

Kao Collins www.kaocollins.com info@kaocollins.com 513.948.9000

Kirk-Rudy www.kirkrudy.com info@kirkrudy.com 770.427.4203

opportunity in terms of creativity and revenue. Printing with WHITE gets attention. And OKI’s White Toner technology appears ink-like, with excellent contrast and hiding capabilities on dark stocks. Easily apply stand-alone white text such as calligraphy-lettering, or even images and graphics printed on dark media to gain a renewed level of attention.

Now more affordable, the OKI C942 and C942DP+ Envelope Press with 5-color CMYK+White offers the widest range of creative output at the most competitive price. www.okidata.com procolor@okidata.com 972.891.3304

OKI www.okidata.com procolor@okidata.com 972.891.3304

YOU’VE GOT (BUSINESS)

MAIL… AT HOME

Full contact intelligence reaches B2B campaign targets in the office or on the couch. | By Greg Brown

D

irect marketers face a new challenge with many of their business targets working at home. Thanks to the coronavirus, in the office or on the couch are very nearly the same place, at least in terms of direct mail campaign strategies. Reaching business targets, who may or may not even regularly see their usual business mail, means getting smarter and more efficient in enhancing business contact data with consumer information such as home addresses. In this sense, the lines between B2B and B2C are blurred and have created a different reality 24

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

that demands integration of new channels such as residential mailing. There is opportunity as well — not only is the physical nature of mail reassuring for solo and displaced workers, it is more prominent than ever when received at the right location as volumes of mail have continually declined over the years. These factors are creating a direct marketing moment, keeping professional mailers on their toes and working smart to capitalize on new value.

Work Is Where the Home Is As more and more people work from home — both temporarily and with the potential

for permanent workplace change — it is tougher than ever for direct marketers to reach prospects at the right place. B2B campaigns today must address the question of how to connect with B2B leads and customers in more of a B2C setting, using residential mailing as a channel for the first time.

Consider that those working from home have limited or zero access to their business mailboxes, a shift potentially driven by a range of factors such as reduced convenience, revised priorities, and even company or workplace policies. Mail may be collected much less frequently or per-

haps not at all, and mail center procedures likely avoid forwarding mail to remote workers. Marketers may know a piece was delivered, but they have no such confidence the piece was seen.

Where time-sensitive materials could once be followed up with a workplace phone call, in this case no one may be “home.” Or rather, that is exactly where they are — this paradigm shift is making it imperative to enhance customer records with residential data that was never before considered necessary or even appropriate to reach a B2B campaign target.

Mail Means More Now Why is mail more relevant and worthwhile to direct marketers today? There is less competition in the mailbox than ever before, and today’s B2B target benefits from the same direct marketing values as consumers. The audience is not only captive but also seeking stability and connection in a deeply disrupted personal and professional environment. And daily mail links the individual to the outside world — its physical nature is reassuring.

A remote worker’s day may not necessarily be oriented around receiving the mail, but its arrival is a consistent moment of connection in an anxious world, getting attention as a familiar and often welcome outreach.

These deviations from standard practice are likely not going away anytime soon.

More and more businesses have recognized the pandemic as a sort of litmus test for companywide remote working, as well as a departure from costly urban settings.

This has opened a new window for marketers, but also a new challenge to locate the right people at the right location.

Getting Smarter with Identity Matching Full contact intelligence is the ideal approach, offering linkage of personal and professional data for a single contact. For example, marrying a robust consumer database with a spectrum of third-party datasets allows marketers to locate John Smith at XYZ Company and connect the dots to reach him at home. With identity cross-matching, marketers can locate a residence, along with associated emails and phones for the named contact.

Identity matching technology draws on an individual’s known details to complete missing elements, enabling organizations to build more thorough customer records.

In this scenario, missing gaps in contact records are used to flesh out a single view

$1 $10 $100 Consider the 1-10-100 rule when valuing data quality operations and technologies.

With the right tools in place, it costs an average of $1 per record to verify data at the point-of-entry. Costs jump to about $10 per record when cleansing occurs intermittently once data is held within your ERP or CRM systems, for example to correct, update, and deduplicate records via batch processes. When no data quality operations are in place, costs leap to a whopping $100 per record, including the cost of lost opportunities, ranging from wasted time and materials, unfruitful marketing efforts, poor reputation, and ultimately, lost customers.

of the customer. All it takes is one piece of data, such as an email address, phone number, or address to find and verify more information about an individual. Powerful but readily available tools offer this unique ability to determine whether associations between different elements, such as name and address, are on target. This increases accuracy by ensuring a valid and correct link between the data and identity of individual customer contacts. With the capability to compare incoming customer and prospect data against multi-sourced datasets — including telecom data, USPS datasets, title and deed information, financials, GIS, and more — marketers can verify an identity, amend addresses, and append missing contact information. The result is a greater level of intelligence that accommodates the new blurring of B2B and B2C marketing strategies and channels.

Global data is critical to the identity matching process, and fortunately today’s marketers have access to huge amounts of data from customers via an expanding number of touchpoints. Ideally, records must be sourced from a full spectrum of global datasets containing billions of active and historical records; these are then combined with millions more datapoints that may be referenced only in proprietary data stores. This is great news for marketers aiming to deliver standout personalized customer communications.

It is, however, important to note that this high level of attention to data quality

and management must be maintained as an ongoing priority. Without regular intervention, customer data degrades at two percent each month or as much as 25% annually — this has the potential to waste a quarter of the year’s marketing budget each and every year.

Creating A Direct Mail Moment Good data is clearly worth the effort, particularly for direct mail, known for converting better than any other type of marketing in an omnichannel strategy. With the addition of tools such as tracking or Informed Delivery, marketers know where their mail is and when it is expected for delivery — excellent guidance in embarking on the rest of an overall campaign.

With people craving security and community, receiving mail has evolved into a welcome experience. And with the better data connections empowered by full contact intelligence, marketers can capitalize on this unique moment in the world — offering value to customers and prospects, and improving both their B2C and B2B programs and results. 

Greg Brown is Vice President of Global Marketing, Melissa, provider of global data quality and address management solutions that span the entire data quality lifecycle and integrate into CRM, e-commerce, master data management, and Big Data platforms. Contact Greg at greg.brown@melissa. com or via LinkedIn. MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

25

COVID-19 AND THE MAILING INDUSTRY A t a time of great uncertainty in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, businesses across the country and world have had to re-imagine their operations. The mail and print industry is no exception — and has faced some unique challenges as an essential industry.

Usually August means we at BCC Software are hosting our annual User Conference, Information Exchange, but obviously this year called for postponing our in-person conference to next year.

In an effort to facilitate the learning that takes place at Information Exchange, however, on August 12, we held a webinar entitled “Understanding COVID-19’s Impact on the Mailing Industry,” where we talked with different industry representatives to understand how this pandemic has impacted them and what they think the future holds.

26

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

Insight from the staff at BCC Software and other industry experts

Initial Effects At the beginning of the pandemic, mail volume experienced a steep decline. This was in direct relation to so many businesses shutting down operations. From the software side of things, the number of lists processed daily dropped dramatically. Carlos Moreno, Director of Postal Compliance and Mailing Services with Shamut Communications Group, described the experience from an MSP perspective. “Right away we had 8-9 jobs canceled. We understood why, even though it was disheartening.”

Michael Plunkett, President of PostCom, shared, “Nobody escaped unscathed — there were impacts across all products and mail classes.” Saturation mailers were the most severely affected as local establishments such as restaurants and contractors halted their mailings. “Marketing Mail is still not doing well, and

Periodicals saw a double-digit decline. However, First-Class Mail, especially Pre-Sort, did relatively well, but even that experienced impacts.”

Industry Impact Initially, the industry was swept up into a multitude of confusion regarding the exact nature of essential business. “Communication is so critical and early on it was confusing — there were so many unknowns,” said Mr. Plunkett. Once the USPS released its letter on March 22 deeming not only itself but its network an essential business, this helped clear up some of the initial misunderstanding — but now businesses in the industry found themselves learning how to operate in a pandemic as an essential entity. At PostCom, they focused their attention on getting as much information for their members as possible. While so many businesses in the industry were dealing with severe work disruptions, they did not have the time to devote to overall network operations.

Staying Informed Recognizing the need for information, the USPS decided to hold meetings three times per week with various industry leaders and representatives. Steve Monteith, Acting Chief Customer & Marketing Officer for the USPS, helped lead these meetings. “There was a lot of give and take. The USPS focused on what we knew, while the industry participants would share what they had been hearing. We solved a lot through these calls.” However, while technology does allow for increased attendance to virtual events, all four speakers lamented the current inability for face-to-face interactions. As Mr. Monteith said, “I miss the interaction. You get a lot out of the face-to-face. Being able to go up to people and ask questions directly just isn’t possible in a virtual setting.”

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314-853-5867

What Comes Next Collectively, the panelists agree that the end of 2020 will see an increase in mail volume, and they expect 2021 to return to normal. The contentious fall 2020 election season is likely to break mailing records, both from political and election mail standpoints.

Additionally, while we may be entering an unconventional back to school season, school supplies will be needed nonetheless — and back to school mailings are likely to increase as a result.

Speaking from the MSP perspective, Mr. Moreno said that he has already seen things starting to come back. As businesses are starting to re-open, clients are starting to turn back to their yearly mailings. Additionally, local universities are ramping up their mail campaigns as the back to school season approaches. Mr. Plunkett agreed, and thinks the contested election will lend itself to political mail, especially with so many states becoming battlegrounds.

Mr. Montheith assured attendees that the USPS is ready for a record fall mailing season. “We are starting to see things get back on track, and we are starting to get more of our normal network as things begin to open up.”

Chris Lien, president of BCC Software, expressed feeling “bullish” about the fall mailing season, especially thanks to the election. While October tends to be the highest mailing season of the year, list processing was already increasing in August.  BCC Software understands the criticality of staying informed in this industry, which is why they are making this webinar available to all who want to watch it.

To watch the webinar for yourself and to learn more, visit https://bccsoftware. com/informationexchange/webinar/ today!

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

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THE FUTURE OF MAIL – VIRTUAL ON-DEMAND MAILING SERVICES

By Adam Lewenberg

The key to making ondemand mail services work is the simplicity of the interface to share data and to define the job requirements.

I

f we have learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that people work everywhere. This will impact the future of mail because while documents still need to be generated, it is not efficient to do this when working out of your home, in small offices, in a flex office space, and without the proper equipment, staff, and expertise. There are new technologies and services that can make this easy by either pushing mail to internal onsite production facilities or to third-party providers that can streamline your production needs. Let’s explore both options to give you a better understanding of what is available.

How the Services Work There is typically a simple interface that connects the originator of the mail piece to onsite or offsite production mail facilities. Large repetitive jobs can be preset by the vendor so they are configured once and stored for the future. Other projects — which could be anything from a single

piece to hundreds of thousands — can be configured on demand and as needed with a simplified virtual print driver that can configure jobs easily.

To manage the production needs from many different types of documents and user requirements, the envelopes are standardized to a large single or double window to accommodate the destination and return address. This eliminates the need for preprinted envelopes being stored and managed. Also, if you have documents that do not conform to this type of address layout (for example, insurance documents) a cover sheet can then be created in the correct format to be added before the core document.

Since the mail is created through this electronic system, controls can be added that add value to the output. These include the following:  Mail Integrity: By placing 2D barcodes on each page, you can make sure the proper number of sheets are being inserted. This is especially important in

Figure 1

variable page mailings like invoices or statements.  Address Validation: This ensures that each piece matches the USPS database.  Mail Automation: This speeds items through the postal system.  Savings/Postal Discounts: By having items come out with USPS barcodes, in specific sort order to qualify for automation rates, or by consolidating higher volumes of mail and bringing to a presort service, you have access to greater savings and discounts (as shown in the chart in Figure 1).

The Virtual Print Driver The key to making on-demand mail services work is the simplicity of the interface to share data and to define the job requirements. There are new virtual print drivers that can make this easy.

When you go to print a document to your local printer, a dialog box comes up that lets you select what printer you want to use, how many copies, etc. The mailing virtual print driver works in the same way.

When you hit print, you would select a virtual printer from this same menu. Once selected, a mailing screen would appear

that would define how the item is to be prepared. Here are the main items that you would need to select:  Job name (if it was preset from previous mailings).  Where does the address appear that needs to show through the window of the envelope?  Is there a variable number of pages per document set (such as an invoice where someone gets a one-page document and the next customer receives three pages) and what is the item that changes per set to identify the end MailingSystemsTechnology.com | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

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of one document and the start of the next?  Are there additional inserts/business reply envelopes that need to be added?  The size of the envelope that needs to be used.  Is the document to be printed in color or black and white?

Is there a risk to outsourcing your mail from a client or compliance requirements standpoint? Some industries have higher regulations and need to ensure control. Many of the outsource providers will have high levels of security through HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, or SSAE18 certifications, but it should still be validated around your specific needs.

Onsite or Offsite One of the main decisions you will need to make is, do you have this work sent to an onsite production facility or do you use an outsource provider? To help answer those questions, here are some items to consider:

What is the cost difference of insource vs. outsourced mailings?

There are many items to consider in that analysis regarding staff, real estate, equipment, postage, supplies etc. that need to be considered.

Do you have any internal production facilities that can process mail for the field locations? Do they have the proper equipment, technology, staff, and expertise? Are they able to process mail at automation rates and/or do you have a relationship with a presort service? Does your inserter have the ability to read barcodes to insert variable page documents with integrity to make sure the right count is going into each envelope? Can you scale as volumes increase by taking on mail from other locations and departments?

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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

How is a solution going to managed?

This has to do with communicating the value to your field locations, education on what is available, managing questions, and reporting on usage and cost. We have found there has to be some central management in place to oversee the program or it will not be successful in the long run.

Could there be a hybrid model where offsite mail services are used for specific jobs, to manage peak periods or for disaster recovery?

Regardless of the direction you choose, there are many software options, for internal mail or the providers and costs associated with outsourced providers. We recommend doing a formal bid with multiple providers to find the best solution at the lowest cost.

The good news is, there are now ways to mail from anywhere with an internet connection. Imagine needing to send out marketing mailings or invoices while at home, and with a few clicks, it is done. This will allow your organization to mail with the highest integrity, at the lowest postage costs and with the deepest levels of visibility to get your projects out the door in the fastest ways possible.  Adam Lewenberg, CMDSS, MDC, President of Postal Advocate Inc., runs the largest Mail Audit and Recovery firm in the United States and Canada.

They manage the biggest mail equipment fleet in the world and their mission is to help organizations with multi-locations reduce mail and parcel related expenses, recover lost postage funds, and simplify visibility and oversight. Since 2011, they have helped their clients save an average of 58% and over $61 million on equipment, presort, avoidable fees, and lost postage. He can be reached at 617.372.6853 or adam.lewenberg@postaladvocate.com