Outsourcing Mail Services

From TODAY Magazine-

Does It Make Sense For Your Company?
By John Walsh

“Time is money.” Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote rings true
even today, as every company makes decisions on what services to outsource and which ones to keep internally. Key factors that always seem to come into play when deciding whether to outsource include time and cost – how much time is spent on the activities internally, and how much would it cost to have a third party perform those activities? This certainly applies to the mail department, as many of you know. All other factors aside, who doesn’t want to save time and money on mail services? Many companies have found that outsourcing theirmail services can save quite a bit of time-intensive labor – but not all companies qualify for outsourcing.We encourage you to re-evaluate your mailroom operations and consider all the possibilities in order to maximize time and money. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the main issues to consider while evaluating your mailroom operations. And if you decide that outsourcing might work for your company, we also provide a more in-depth look at the technology offerings and capabilities of mail services providers. Investigating Your Mailroom Operations Take a closer look at what kind of mail your company is currently sending. Is it Priority, First Class, Standard, media mail, or bound-printed matter? Are you sending brochures, catalogs, lightweight mail, electronics, or bills? If you mail personal items such as birth certificates, licenses, payment coupons, stock certificates, or other items of this nature, your company is probably better off keeping mail services in-house, since many personal items must remain First Class and cannot be handled bymail services providers, as dictated by U.S. Postal Service regulations. Other mail, however, might qualify for outsourcing. How much does your outbound mail typically weigh? If your company is currently shipping items First Class through the U.S. Postal Service, consider outsourcing your mail operations to a mailexpeditor that can help lower costs while ensuring that your mail under a pound is delivered in a timely fashion. Also, many mail providers specialize in certain volumes or types of mail. Take a look at the mail providers’ qualifications for types and sizes of mail, and consider where the mail is going – will it be mailed overseas or somewhere in the United States? Rates and qualifications differ based on where the mail is headed. Consider the frequency of your mailings. How often do you send mail? Is it on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis? Do you have one large mailing two to three times a year? Depending on the frequency of yourmailings, it is imperative to evaluate how much time your staff is putting into the process of preparing mail. Also think about how your mail is processed. Examine mail operations from the start – from creating mail pieces to applying postage and sorting. How much time, energy, and cost goes into this process, and how many people are involved in the process? Mail services providers shorten the process by taking your mail, applying postage, sorting, and picking up the mail for distribution to the post office for final delivery to the destination. The value or time sensitivity of your mail items should dictate the level of security and visibility into your mail activity. Do you need to know where your mail is at each point in transit? Would you like a regular report of activity? Mail providers may offer a status report so that you are always aware of where the mail is, at any time.

Implementing Outsourced Mail Service OK, so let’s say you’ve examined your internal mail operations and you’ve researched different mail services providers. You’ve decided that your company’s mail meets postal regulations and you plan on outsourcing some but not all of your mail operations.

What’s next? Once you have agreed to start using a mail services provider, a
sales representative will come out to get your account set up. You will get a proposal with rates and materials for setup. Then, you will fill out forms that list the types of mail and specifics about the mail that you’re sending. The last step in this process is to set up the
shipment tracking system and establish lines of communication with your mail provider to ensure you are constantly aware of what is happening with your mail. This fast and easy process usually takes just a few days. And you might just end up saving anywhere from 10 – 50% on your postage. Now, you may be wondering how mail services providers can offer these cost savings and streamlined services.

The answer, in part, is technology. Technology Offerings Mail services providers can provide the convenience and ease that many companies come to appreciate. For instance, many providers offer technologically advanced processing and sorting systems that expedite themovement ofmail pieces. UPSMail Innovations has such a technology – the Automated Processing System (APS). APS is an advanced technology system that significantly cuts down on manual handling during mail processing. APS includes both hardware and software applications. As pieces of mail are passed through the APS, the equipment measures the mail’s length, height, and thickness while the address is scanned. The measurements and address are stored in a database and filtered through a software program, which evaluates how to route the mail piece before applying postage. Approved by the U.S. Postal Service, APS technology identifies what type of automation the Postal Service should require for the piece, easing its induction into their system and promoting the U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to achieve 100 percent automation compatibility. APS provides a variety of benefits for customers, including– but not limited to – overall cost savings on postage and overall mailroom cost reduction.

In addition to processing and sorting capabilities, many providers offer online delivery confirmation and tracking so that customers know exactly where their shipment is in transit. UPS Mail Innovations has a service called the Accurate Reporting and Tracking Systems (ARTS™) that allows you to view shipping reports by date range, shipment control number, or cost center summary. The report that customers receive enables them to have quick and easy
access to shipment data; customer service at their fingertips; financial management tools; and distribution management. Mail services providers can provide tracking capabilities that
allow visibility of mail pieces, from the pick-up spot to the final destination. In addition, mail services providers can often provide electronic invoicing for customers so that bills can be sent to all cost centers in a fast, streamlined manner. This reduces in-house costs because one e-mail is sent to all end-users. Overall, mail services providers offer the latest technology and services that can help businesses save time and money. Now that’s a winning combination.

John Walsh is Vice President of Business Development for
UPS Mail Innovations www.upsmailinnovations.com.

An Apple a Day---Teamwork and Recognition are Key

by Dan Bolita editor TODAY Magazine

I ran into a friend at a trade show recently. We got to talking about the various shows we attend and how some are easier for exhibitors than others. She told me of her experience at a certain “Windy City” which carries a long-standing notoriety for having particularly challenging contract labor. As many of TAWPI Forums & Expo exhibitors know, because TAWPI’s annual event has been in this unnamed Windy City, there is a reputation that in order to get anything done, skids (and palms) should be greased. So, this mild-mannered exhibitor came to her event (for the record, not a TAWPI event) with a stack of crisp $100 bills, prepared to tip and toke in order to get her barges moved and bales lifted. As it turned out, she had also brought a sizeable quantity of McIntosh apples to be shared at the booth, and quite naturally offered them to the journeymen whose services she needed to hustle freight. Much to her surprise and delight, the stack of dollar bills were never needed. The crew of rugged roustabouts (which, isn’t derogatory, I checked) were so enchanted by the offering of fresh fruit, that they gave her freight the special handling she’d thought only U.S. currency could provide. Which got us thinking about what motivates people?

Obviously the money part is important, and few could continue working without it, some of the best incentives don’t cost a thing. The manual tasks of automated processes can be pretty tedious. Data entry, document prep, and forms correction are demanding jobs. With high turnover and low morale a frequent challenge, keeping skilled staff is a constant battle. The most successful managers identify the importance of employee recognition. Just as an apple can get pallets of freight moved, a word of thanks can motivate a skilled data entry team. Equally important is having those workers view themselves as a team. Two managers—both long-time TAWPI members—come to mind. Wes Friesen, manager of revenue for Portland General Electric, and our retired Board Chair Ken Yokum, both of whom genuinely engage with people, form teams of motivated staff, and know the value of kind word. Many of the attendees at the upcoming TAWPI Forums & Expo (August 12 -15, Boston) are heads of data entry, imaging, and forms processing departments. If motivating staff is a challenge, and stacks of U.S. currency for random disbursement is in short supply, I encourage you to network with your peers. I know that Wes will be there, and who knows, maybe Ken will make a cameo appearance. Ask them advice for team-building, incentives and awards.

You may also want to bring some ripe apples.....

How BOC’s Costs Create Opportunities for Check Processors

From (Digital Transactions - May 8, 2007) .

The back-office conversion e-check code has been live for nearly two months now, and, as many predicted with its March 16 debut, it came in like a lamb. There have been few, if any, high-profile product launches or other splashy events associated with the new automated clearing house payment option. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t activity going on behind the scenes. Banks and processors are ramping up a host of new payment services that offer BOC and check imaging. One of those is Plymouth, Minn.-based Solutran Inc., a specialty check processor that is preparing to roll out an outsourced BOC product called SPIN, for Solutran’s Point-of-Sale and Imaging Network. Michelle E. Kocur, manager of product development, tells Digital Transactions News that a “top” retailer that she won’t name yet started a 60-day test of SPIN on Sunday, and more SPIN clients are in the pipeline. “There’s a lot of great momentum,” she says. Under rules set by ACH governing body NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association, BOC lets retailers scan checks in their back offices to capture magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line data and submit the resulting files for settlement as ACH debits. The code gives retailers an e-check alternative to NACHA’s older point-of-purchase, or POP, code. While leading retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is a POP fan (Digital Transactions News, April 17), many stores haven’t adopted POP because of its consumer-notification and staff-training issues and the perceived need to equip every lane with scanners. Press reports portrayed BOC during its long incubation period as a simpler, less expensive alternative to POP, but that’s not always true, according to Kocur. A national retailer with hundreds or thousands of stores could still spend millions of dollars equipping each store with back-office scanning/imaging gear costing $1,500, along with $500 for needed software. Plus, because of possible returns, many retailers feel the need to store paper checks for a short period even though the rules don’t require them to, thus creating security issues and the need to either get a shredder or hire a shredding service, Kocur notes. Straight BOC “was a hard business case to make to them,” she says. Solutran’s resulting solution was for retailers to outsource the whole operation to it through SPIN. Since the large retailers the processor works with all scan their checks for verification and guarantee purposes, the MICR information can be uploaded daily to Solutran for ACH submission. The paper checks would be shipped to a Solutran facility for imaging and destruction, with ACH-ineligible items matched with the appropriate MICR data and cleared under the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century (Check 21) through image-exchange networks. Solutran also would handle the digital archiving of images and the destruction of paper checks. Solutran clients using SPIN would still have some direct costs with BOC, including posting signs and printing receipts informing customers about the e-check option. But the idea of outsourcing is falling on receptive ears, even though larger retailers have to go through lengthy approval processes to change their current payment systems, according to Kocur. “There’s a lot of interest, absolutely a lot of interest,” she says.