PrintingNews.com

The Challenges We Face

One of the biggest challenges for printers who offer mailing services is a slew of new postal regulations in the first half of 2009, including a price increase, Move Update compliance, and the mandatory use of a longer "smart" barcode with more information to track every piece of mail. The USPS will implement the Basic and Full-service Options of the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) on May 11 of this year. When the new regulation takes effect, printers need to have retrofitted their systems with new print heads to accommodate the longer barcode from 11 to 31 digits of information.

To be successful, printers need to become a liaison between their customer and the post office, said Mary Ann Bennett, president and CEO of The Bennett Group Inc., a training and consulting firm that specializes in the development and delivery of educational products for the mailing industry.

"Become a mail piece design analyst," Bennett continued, "that will enable you to provide more services to your customers. A smart mailer will teach their customer base how to design their mail pieces. In turn, this will generate postage savings for the customer and reveal new revenue streams for the printer. The post office offers over 3,000 postage discounts; printers need to identify for their customers these incentives to produce a mail piece that can claim the largest postage discounts from the post office."

Making it Work

Successful printers who offer mailing and fulfillment advertise their expertise and efficiency to gain customers. For example, Offset Impressions Inc., a Reading, Pa. commercial printer, just introduced its new division known as OI Advantage 2 in February, that provides full-service mailing, fulfillment, and distribution capabilities.

Offset Impression claims it can maintain full control of print production from disc to distribution, as well as offer the consultative ability to tailor print projects so they move more quickly from file to the mail stream. At the new OI Advantage 2 facility, the staff has the equipment to manage all their clients' mailing, fulfillment (including creating kits and Pick and Pack services) and distribution of their printed products.

"Mailing and fulfillment is brand new to our company," said George Ruth, president. "We began to look into these services in August 2008. The process included purchasing and refurbishing the building next door, hiring an individual to manage the operation, and purchasing the pallet racks, inkjet equipment, and all the other various materials and equipment necessary. The biggest challenges were the purchase of software and the appropriate equipment. Since we began with purchasing used but refurbished equipment, it took some time to find the right equipment for us. Also, getting the building constructed in the appropriate way to handle this additional workload took time. Getting the proper permits, contractors, and all that type of stuff was more than frustrating. Also getting our external and internal communication systems (fiber optics) in place took extended time."

Currently the new division has added about 3-4 percent billable time to the overall operation. But also, as hoped for, the addition of these services has brought new customers that have added volume to the print facility as well. Ruth expects that the new division will, over the next five years, increase sales/revenues for the entire company by 22 percent, and increase print sales by 12 to 15 percent. He notes they haven't closed the gap on the building overhead, but have captured the return-on-investment from the equipment purchased and the personnel hired to fulfill production.

"It's especially important to have trained professionals help companies with the U.S. Postal Service requirements, which change constantly," said Ruth.

"Companies need to follow new mandates for address hygiene, requiring extra attention to detail. Experienced personnel at Offset Impression's new 43,000-sq-ft facility maintain full understanding of these requirements. There are so many fine details concerning fulfillment that it is often misunderstood. One of our most important attributes is taking the confusion out of the process. We help our customers through the maze of understanding postal regulations, mailing and printing specs."

Finding Opportunities

New postal regulations that present discounts for consolidating mail are encouraging big growth in co-mailing. In early March, Fry Communications and Brown Printing enhanced its co-mailing abilities. By teaming with logistics firms and integrating new varieties of mailing list processing software to digitally controlled finishing lines, these printers are extending the reach and range of offerings to a wider range of clients.

Competing publishers who share the same printer may find their mailings are co-mingled in the finishing line, speeding delivery and accruing savings to both. Fry Communications, Mechanicsburg, Pa., even extended the co-mailing savings to non-print customers, acting as a mailing consolidator for other printers' clients. Brown partnered with an external logistics firm, ALG Worldwide Logistics in Wood Dale, Ill., and its sister company Print and Mailing Solutions (PAMS). With this partnership, Brown has more than doubled its co-mail volume and more than tripled overall co-mail capacity. With the increased volume, customers will realize greater postage savings. In addition, Brown will be able to offer additional capabilities which include expanded trim size range, significant improvements to inkjet font capabilities and positioning, improved polybag capabilities and tighter in-home delivery windows.

"This additional co-mailing horsepower is a great benefit to our customers who have readily embraced it in view of rising postal rates and continued discounts offered to efficient mailers," said Steve Grande, Fry's vice president of sales. "A few years ago we needed to convey to customers the benefits to consider co-mailing; today on-site co-mailing is a de-facto requirement in the vast majority of all customer inquiries." Fry's on-site co-mail facility also recently announced its ability to co-mail poly-wrapped products. On-site co-mailing provides for expeditious mail processing and compressed "close to in-home" cycles for mailers.

In another boost to mailing, insert printing giant Valassis has decided to distribute its coupons by mail and discontinue the insertion of its printed coupons in several newspapers throughout Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Maryland, and Texas.