Mailing Systems Technology - January/February 2009 - (Page 26)

trends GETTING TO KNOW Mail.dat As IMB implementation nears, learn how to improve efﬁciency and reduce costs By Wallace Vingelis ing, including: postage statements, PS-8125 drop-shipping forms, Qualiﬁcation Reports, Manifest Mailing System Reports, bag/ tray tags as well as pallet placards. Mail.dat facilitates electronic veriﬁcation and acceptance of the mail as well as the electronic archival and retrieval of past mailing statements and data. Mail.dat also enables more informed decision-making when planning the transportation of your mail. s the implementation of the Intelligent Mail program in May 2009 draws closer, mailers are looking longer and harder at ways to improve efﬁciency and reduce costs. Many of them are discovering the beneﬁts of the Mail.dat ﬁle speciﬁcation from the International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance). And for those of you who are considering taking advantage of the Intelligent Mail Full Service option, Mail.dat is one of the few ways allowed by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to submit mailings electronically to the USPS PostalOne! system. (Another method is through the Wizard Web Services, which will convert to another IDEAlliance speciﬁcation, Mail.XML, in the fall of 2009. Mail.XML will be discussed in a follow-up article in the next edition.) The information presented here is a basic Q&A format designed to provide an introduction to the Mail.dat speciﬁcation, how it can beneﬁt you and your bottom line and maybe dispel a few myths. A Other than to submit to PostalOne!, why should I generate Mail.dat ﬁles? As the industry standard, Mail.dat enables individual mailers and the mailing community, at large, to function more efﬁciently and cost-effectively because when presorters generate Mail.dat ﬁles for their mailings, they increase the opportunities for mailers and others in the production chain to take advantage of this valuable information. As this data becomes more widely available, its usage continues to grow in letter shops, printing facilities, logistics companies and among mail owners themselves. As greater efﬁciencies are achieved through the use of Mail.dat, costs and processing time will be reduced industry-wide. What is Mail.dat? Mail.dat is a ﬁle speciﬁcation that combines information from a number of sub-ﬁles to provide a detailed summary and description of a presorted mailing, and as previously discussed, is an integral part of communicating with the USPS PostalOne! system as well as communicating with other organizations in the mailing supply chain. Mail.dat is created during the presort process, either by presorting software processing name-and-address lists or by comingling equipment sorting already-assembled mailing pieces. No matter how the sortation is performed, the details that make up the mailing are recorded in the Mail.dat ﬁle set for that job. Does using Mail.dat compromise recipients’ conﬁdentiality? No. While using Mail.dat provides a detailed summary and description of a presorted mailing, the only information not included in a Mail.dat ﬁle set are the names and addresses of the intended recipients, so conﬁdentiality is assured. What are some of the beneﬁts of Mail.dat? The information in Mail.dat ﬁles is extremely useful in mail veriﬁcation and acceptance, electronic data storage, transportation planning and postal document preparation and reporting. Mail.dat feeds sophisticated reporting to the USPS, letter shop clients and internal departments. The data can be used, for example, to create all of the documentation required by the Postal Service for a mail26 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2009 a www.MailingSystemsTechnology.com As a First-Class mailer, can Mail.dat beneﬁt me? While many recognize that Mail.dat offers signiﬁcant beneﬁts to mailers of Standard Mail — particularly drop-ship discounts and the ability to communicate electronically with supply chain partners — the Mail.dat ﬁle set also presents those mailing First-Class Mail an opportunity to exchange mailing information electronically with the rest of the supply chain and the Postal Service. First- http://www.MailingSystemsTechnology.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Mailing Systems Technology - January/February 2009

Mailing Systems Technology - January/February 2009 Contents Editor's Note Real Life Management Software Bytes Employing Technology Everything IMB Ship It Best Practices What You Think From the Source Combat "Do Not Mail" Getting to Know Mail.dat How NOT to Run Your Operation Reality Check New Products & Services Advertiser Index Pushing the Envelope

Mailing Systems Technology - January/February 2009

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