Mailing Systems Technology - February 2008 - (Page 26)

PRODUCT APPLICATION BCC SOFTWARE Integrated Track N Trace provides a seamless OneCodeConﬁrm channel for BCC’s Mail Manager 2010 users The value of mailpiece tracking has been proven many times over, but an imminent technology shift at the USPS means those mailers will soon have to ﬁnd a new delivery monitoring service. As the Postal Service moves from POSTNET to the information-rich Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB) — a transition set to become ﬁnal in January 2009 — the old Conﬁrm program, facilitated by PLANET Code technology, is being replaced by OneCodeConﬁrm, an IMB-reliant process that uses Intelligent Mail’s greater data-storage capacity to enable convenient individual mailpiece tracking. BCC has positioned itself as an early entrant into the OneCodeConﬁrm market with Track N Trace, a proprietary service fully integrated into Mail Manager 2010, the company’s ﬂagship presorting and list-management software product. While PLANET based Conﬁrm service will still be available for the rest of 2008, “IMB will be required before you know it,” said Jim Mann, BCC Vice President of Customer Service. “The steps involved with implementing Intelligent Mail barcodes into a mailing operation require advance planning. 2008 is going to be an important year for thinking ahead.” BCC recently introduced Track N Trace processing as an alternate to Where’s My Mail, its longtime Conﬁrm offering, but the inherent advantages of the new service clearly outweigh the old. Because Conﬁrm cannot accommodate individual mailpiece speciﬁcation, Where’s My Mail users typically seed their mailing jobs with PLANET codes to draw reliable assumptions about delivery timing. Using the IMB, however, Track N Trace can easily supply every mailpiece in a job with a piece-unique code that is recorded by USPS scanning equipment at each stop between delivery by the mailer at the entry Post Ofﬁce and the last stop before its ultimate delivery point. The deeper piece-by-piece information generated can aid in assessing past mailing performance and predicting future delivery schedules. “PLANET Code tracking was a good system, but it forced mailers to make assumptions about the delivery and timing of their jobs,” Mann said. “Track N Trace takes the uncertainty out of the equation.” Integrated Track N Trace provides a seamless OneCodeConﬁrm channel for BCC’s Mail Manager 2010 users. After a First-Class, Standard Mail or Periodicals class job has been presorted, users who have purchased a Track N Trace subscription can open a jobpreparation wizard within 2010 that walks them through the process of obtaining IMB data that will be printed on each label with the address data. A conﬁrmation email provides a link to the secure BCC site where delivery reports for that job, and any mailing arranged by that client, can be accessed at any time. Track N Trace reporting data is returned daily to the BCC site from the USPS, based on whatever BMC, SCF or 5-digit ZIP scanning has occurred on pieces in that mailing. (Reports are preserved on the site, or may be downloaded into various common ﬁle formats.) As postal regulations become more complex and competitive margins among professional mailers become tighter, Mann said, mailers increasingly seek out any edge that can sharpen performance. “Mailpiece tracking is like insurance—you might not realize how valuable it can be until the ﬁrst time you lose a mailing, or some equally serious event. But with it, you can help advise customers how long a mailing will take, or help yourself with delivery problems that can come up. And they come up all the time.” 26 FEBRUARY 2008 | WWW.MAILINGSYSTEMSTECHNOLOGY.COM http://www.MailingSystemsTechnology.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Mailing Systems Technology - February 2008

Mailing Systems Technology - February 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Peer to Peer How to Green Your Mail Center Adopting an Automated Document Factory Warning! Avoid Negative Financial Impact More Productivity, Less Expense BCC Software Formscan A Smooth Transition Kate’s Slate Products & Services Advertiser Index Sho Time

Mailing Systems Technology - February 2008

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