Mailing Systems Technology - July/August 2008 - (Page 16)

Operations Documents going from Overland Park to Reston each day and each costs $10 to ship, the total shipping would cost us $200 per day. If we put all 20 envelopes into a single mail pouch and send this as a single shipment that costs $30, then we have saved $170 per day. This is a small sum, but if we total the savings over an entire year over all lanes of traﬃc in both directions, then the total savings can be a signiﬁcant sum indeed. Second, this service enables desk-to-desk tracking of materials sent from one employee to another, no matter where within Sprint the two employees are located. This is a value-added service that an external carrier will never be able to oﬀer. Knowing when someone sent an important document — or when an internal recipient received a shipment — is a very useful service in some situations. Desk-to-Desk Tracking Sprint employees get desk-to-desk tracking of their shipments because the entire AIOM process is managed using a tracking system that is internal to Sprint. External carriers can only track shipments from the sender’s dock to the recipient’s dock. Our tracking system allows both the sender and recipient to check on the progress of the shipment each step of the way. Desk-to-desk tracking of accountable interofﬁce mail enables value-added services. For example, if your company processes all expense reports at a single site, then when an expense report is delivered to the expense report processing group, this can trigger an automated email to the sender saying, “Your expense report number 123 dated March 4 has been received at the Acme Expense Report Processing Center.” Proactive customer service like this lets employees know what’s happening as it happens and provides a higher level of service than would be otherwise possible. This reduces the need for phone calls and other disruptions to the expense processing center Editor’s Note: Sprint implemented an accountable interoﬃce mail (AIOM) service in 2003. This article explains why and how they did it and oﬀers some tips and techniques about how to implement an AIOM service in your own organization. Guarding Your Internal Create an accountable interoffice mail service in your organization By Robert Barrette But I Already Have a Pouch Mail System… We had a non-accountable interoﬃce mail system, too — and still do because not everything needs to be accountable. But as you’ll see, we also wanted to set up an accountable interofﬁce mail service, too. In order to make it successful, we had to overcome employees’ lack of trust in the non-accountable system and prove that they could trust the new AIOM service. There are two primary reasons why the average employee does not use internal services for important shipments: lack of trust in the internal option for reliable, on-time delivery and lack of visibility into the shipping process. A good internal tracking system should solve both problems using online shipping forms, barcode scanners, handheld computers with electronic signature capture and an intranet site for employees to track their AIOM pieces. The tracking system enables desk-to-desk tracking of materials sent from one employee to another, no matter where within Sprint the two employees are located. We set up an accountable interoﬃce mail service at Sprint for two reasons. First, the service has helped Sprint reduce its shipping expense by diverting individual carrier shipments between Sprint oﬃces into interoﬃce pouch shipments. If there are 20 individual envelopes 16 JULY-AUGUST 2008 | WWW.MAILINGSYSTEMSTECHNOLOGY.COM http://www.mailingsystemstechnology.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Mailing Systems Technology - July/August 2008

Mailing Systems Technology - July/August 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Peer to Peer The Economics of Inkjet Addressing Virtual Mailstream Management Guarding Your Internal Documents Top It Off With Training Implementing Digital Mail Saving You Money Kate’s Slate Products & Services Advertiser Index Sho Time Who’s Who Company Profiles BCC Software BÖWE BELL + HOWELL Collins Ink Corporation Datatech SmartSoft Endicia Hasler, Inc. Kern, Inc. Kirk-Rudy Mail Quip, Inc. MCS, Inc. Melissa Data MidSouth Technologies, a NPI Company Neopost NPI Parascript Pitney Bowes Inc. Rena Systems Satori Software, Inc.

Mailing Systems Technology - July/August 2008

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