Optimizing Performance in the Mailing Arena
Accuracy, efficiency, and quality control are paramount concerns to any company involved in mailing and fulfillment.
Accuracy, efficiency, and quality control are paramount concerns to any company involved in mailing and fulfillment.
These companies are looking to technology to deliver an easy-to-use software interface, as well as efficiency, automation, and integration. From their vendors? They look for support.
For the business customer looking to direct mail to whet consumers’ appetites for its products and/or services, personalization and customization are a must, driven by variable data printing.
VDP is certainly a key factor in delivering high value, targeted direct mail, noted Susan Corwin, Rollem marketing manager. Adding customization to any printed direct mail product generally increase response levels.
Rewards programs continue to grow in popularity, and with offers from the grocery stores, auto dealers, and retail stores, the list is limitless, she added. “With the ability to capture and utilize customer data for targeted offers, direct mail can include a variety of means to share the ‘offer’ with the customer such as membership cards, discount cards, scratch-off offers, coupons and reply cards.”
There are a plethora of solutions available for the printer looking to integrate mailing into their service mix. Here are a few options.
Cloud-Based Programs
VeraCore solutions are entirely web-based and can be installed and maintained by its customers or hosted in the cloud. “In general, things are definitely trending towards cloud-based installation,” noted Sean M. O’Connor, director of marketing & strategic accounts, VeraCore Software Solutions, Inc.
“The cloud model eliminates the need for our customers purchase costly servers and the software components required to run the system. It also frees up technical resources because VeraCore is responsible for all system maintenance. In addition, it makes the security and performance of a highly-available enterprise class infrastructure available to companies both large and small.”
Tapping into the necessity for accuracy and efficiency, VeraCore tracks change orders and when the job is ready to be billed, pricing and postage information flows seamlessly onto the invoice.
Another trend is the increasing need for transparency. “Our customers’ clients demand easy access to information regarding their jobs, inventory, postage balances, fulfillment orders, and much more,” O’Connor explained. “VeraCore enables our clients to make this information available to their clients in real-time—24/7 in the form management dashboards and reports.”
VeraCore’s Business Management Solution provides direct mail service providers with a platform on which to run their business and includes estimating, project and job management, customer relationship management, production control and shop floor data capture, warehouse management, financial management and postage accounting, and web-based reports and dashboards.
The VeraCore Fulfillment Management Solution enables fulfillment service providers to manage both B2B and B2C fulfillment programs and includes storefront design, order management, warehouse management, pick and pack, kit assembly, store profile distributions, and web-based reports and dashboards.
Software
“AccuZIP wants our customer partners to fully realize the revenue generating opportunities mailing services represent,” explained Steve Belmonte, AccuZIP CEO. “Our products are priced and designed to allow our members to grow their business and keep their profits through our ‘Price Lock Guarantee.’ AccuZIP continues to lead the mailing software industry by building strong relationships and providing excellent products.”
AccuZIP’s price lock guarantees there is never an increase in price from what was paid at purchase.
“AccuZIP technologies provide mailers the ability to provide solutions across the mailing services spectrum,” said Mark Rheaume, AccuZIP national postal affairs director & partnership liaison officer.
AccuZIP6 software provides unlimited access to USPS Gold PAVE Certified postal processing (CASS, NCOALink and ANKLink), supports EDDM as a standard feature, and provides unlimited support and training. “It has been industry top rated in “ease of use” for three consecutive years and supports over 270 file formats that mailers can process quickly, accurately and efficiently,” Rheaume stated.
The full range of products AccuZIP produces and supports makes them unique, he adds. These include: mail tracking and reporting with AccuTRACE; contact data quality using web, FTP, and API solutions; and bi-directional communication from scan events between the mailer and the recipient with LIVINGMAIL.
SmartSoft’s address quality and postal presorting technology includes SmartAddresser 5 software, which is CASS and PAVE Certified by the USPS, ensuring the maximum postal discounts for a mailing, said Tony Tarpey, vice president of marketing, SmartSoft, Inc.
Delivering an intuitive design for ease of use, it manages the entire mailing process: list importing, address verification, deduplication, change-of-address processing, and mail presorting.
An integrated label and envelope designer lets the user pick from dozens of pre-designed layouts, or they can choose to design their own layout, to enhance clients’ mailpieces while boosting their revenue.
Job Scripting provides 24/7 unattended mail processing capability. “You can create a script for any job you perform repetitively for key clients so that the entire mailing process happens automatically, at any time and date you decide,” said Tarpey. The end result is increased productivity and lower labor costs, he added.
SmartSoft’s optional MailSpotter service lets users track customers’ mailings as they pass through the postal system using the Intelligent Mail Barcode. Clients can log into the printer’s branded portal to see when their mail is delivered, where, and to whom.
These products, commented Tarpey, help set you apart from the competition, and allow you to add a new value-add billable service.
Mailing Systems
During the DscoopX conference in Washington DC, Rollem showed its Mailstream, converting a two-up tri-panel direct mail sheet. “In just seconds, the sheet is converted to a folded, pattern-perforated direct mailer containing both coupons and a tip-on card, explained Corwin. “Compared to other methods where each process is performed individually, i.e., guillotine cutting of four sides, tipping unit, fold and possibly wafer sealing, the Mailstream delivers finished products, ready for mail delivery, all in one process with one operator,” she said. It meets postal requirements with three-sided gluing for closures.
In addition, when imprinting VDP addresses, the Mailstream maintains the sheet order. It may also be configured with optical recognition devices for further automation.
MBO America’s direct mail finishing systems feature modules from MBO and its partner companies, including Bograma and specialty finishing experts, Herzog+ Heymann. The versatility of the modular systems from MBO’s mailing solutions gives customers the ability to produce a huge range of direct mail products that help differentiate themselves from their competition, commented Ryan Manieri
marketing coordinator, MBO. Card affixing, tipping, plowfolding, gluing, die cutting, and inkjet printing may be incorporated as needed to produce simple or elaborate products.
Herzog+Heymann’s 091.1 transport system features for direct mail job applications include heat resistant vacuum belts that allow printers to mount hot-glue or dryer systems directly inline with other functions such as inkjet printing, tipping, plowfolding, or window patching. “The 091.1 also has ‘workload awareness’ in order to achieve optimum productivity throughout the duration of transport – meaning that as more products are added to the table, the system automatically compensates so maximum speed and control are maintained at all stages of transportation,” Manieri said. This is significant because producers don’t know the size variation or volume of their products from one job to next; the 091.1 system automatically adjusts to ensure maximum production efficiency for the job at hand.
The addition of die-cutting solutions from Bograma allows printers to produce more elaborate pieces like coupon books, pop-up mailers, or contour cut pieces that help create a distinct first impression. “The speed and precision of rotary die cutting make the BSR 550 servo rotary die cutter ideal for a wide range of paper stocks and die cutting requirements from 60 gsm - 20 point board,” Manieri explained. “Also, rotary die cutting allows the product to be finished without any ‘nicks,’ which would typically need to be removed in an additional process after a traditional flat-bed cut. The absence of nicks is significant because the edges of the finished product are smooth and clean—meeting the highest quality standards without additional production steps.”
As with all MBO finishing systems, these direct mail solutions can be configured for inline or near-line finishing, cutsheet or web presses, and digital or offset printed products, he added.
Xanté’s Impressia multi-media digital press & enterprise feed system for the mailroom/envelope printing market prints and addresses envelopes in one pass. “Our customers can print just what they need; they print and address them and take them to post office,” said Arthur Verwey, VP worldwide marketing/business development.
The press utilizes a Ricoh-manufactured engine and features print speeds that reach 78 full color #10 envelopes per minute (4,000 per hour). Users can print on many different media types including uncoated, coated, NCR, cardstock, and textured stocks on sheet sizes from 3.625x5.125 inches up to 12x49.6 inches.
“Our customers love the whole solution,” Verwey said. The system is driven by the iQueue prepress workflow, to manage complex digital files, and make critical color adjustments, and apply screening and imposition. iQueue workflow software lets the envelope print professional tackle variable data, barcode database, variable numbering, IMB, and makes sure the correct color is being used.
“It is pretty unique—it can do everything necessary to complete the envelope in one pass,” Verwey remarked. “It can run full color jobs, including variable data, in one pass.”
The system is pushing the envelope, allowing the mailer to create envelopes that stand out in the mail, adds Verwey. The envelope is the message; if you get something that is personalized, that is colorful, it is the first one you open, he said.
“Using Impressia, our customers are very successful with direct mail, as are we,” Verwey noted. “That you can add VD to their envelope; print the envelope and add VD in one pass is critical. And of course the color-matching feature is very important; if you are printing a business envelope and there is a PMS color in that logo, you want that logo to be that PMS color. iQueue software allows the mailer to print that PMS color.”
Self Mailers
Relyco offers direct mail products for processing single piece mailings as well as multi piece inserts. The company aligns with digital printer vendors, like Ricoh, Xerox, and Konica, and Delphax, which offers the first printer powered by Memjet technology, the elan 500, to provide specialty media and self-mailers. “We work with digital printer vendors to bridge the gap between paper and technology,” said Bruce Steinberg, president. “Together we create a really good solution for end users.”
Its stock in trade are pressure seal forms and equipment that let mail houses create and process one-piece self-mailers, without the use of an envelope. Direct mail houses use pressure seal for their single piece mailings to decrease material cost as well as processing time.
Relyco’s ULTRASEAL self-mailer pressure seal forms, used in combination with Formax pressure seal equipment and a digital printer, offer a process that is secure and streamlined, says Steinberg. Eliminating envelope inventory cuts costs and labor hours spent hand-stuffing those same envelopes—thereby increasing open rates.
To create the secure mailer, ULTRASEAL pressure seal forms have narrow bands of pressure-sensitive adhesive that work with Formax pressure seal machines to completely seal the edges of the piece to create the Post Office ready document. The company offers one-piece mailer shells, blank or customized, available on sheets and rolls and forms and envelopes for multi-page mailings.
