by Monica Lundquist, Window Book & OutputLinks.com

Part 4 of a Seven-Part Series

Click Here for Parts 1, 2 and 3

In Part 3 of this series, we explored the flexibility of Mail.dat, including sharing postage data with clients. In this article, we discuss the difference between Presort and Post-presort software.

Traditionally, presort software focuses on sorting the mail, according to very specific sortation rules dictated by the USPS, after address verification and standardization, and Move Update requirements have been met. While presort software serves a tremendously valuable purpose, this process is usually done in advance of the actual mailing, and often does not accurately reflect the actual mailing that occurs. As a result, it can be very difficult to accommodate last minute changes using presort software. The post-presort software imports Mail.dat files created during the presort process and verifies the files to ensure they meet the industry and USPS standards.  It allows you to quickly and easily manipulate Mail.dat files to generate accurate Postage Statements and other postal documents that reflect your actual mailings. In fact, the best post-presort system will support both Mail.dat and non-Mail.dat data formats.  Overall, Mail.dat transforms your current mailing operations by providing a standard format for exchanging postal data among in-house systems and end-users for acceptance, reporting and enhanced transportation planning.

In order to be the best in the industry, stay ahead of competitors and acquire new business, mail production houses must be able to handle complex large-volume mailings with tight deadlines. The solution is Mail.dat files combined with post-presort software to automate the mailing process.  Mail production houses that manage the production end of direct mail campaigns from start to finish can drastically increase their annual mailings by using post-presort software.  Post-presort software will help you save money and time, increase efficiency, and provide more complete customer service.

Powerful reporting for mailers and customers

One of the more intriguing uses of Mail.dat is to pass postage information from a presort program to another system that manages lettershop operations and does business management.  Ideally, your post-presort software should provide the link between your presort software and the business management software that you use for project, production, and warehouse management.   For example, your post-presort software should generate the data to update the final postage to your postage accounting system.  Although postage information is not usually stored directly in the Mail.dat file itself, postage is implied and can be calculated by good post-presort software.

Regardless of whether your internal applications are home-grown or commercially available products, your post-presort software should be able to output the final postage information, saving you time on data entry and increasing accuracy.  Post-presort software should also ‘verify’ postage statements as they are returned from the U.S. Postal Service.  This prevents accidental changes and deletions, and triggers the output of the final postage statement data.

Your post-presort software should help you keep track of everything you mail—both from Mail.dat and non-Mail.dat presort data.  Your software should store your postage data and make it easy for you to print reports and export that data for use in other internal systems.  Direct mail customers who are spending millions of dollars on postage per month need to know exactly what was mailed on their behalf, and on which postage permits for a particular date range.  In order to be competitive in today’s market, direct mail production houses should be able to report this data to their customers in both print (PDF) and electronic (CSV or XML) format, allowing the mail owner to reconcile their postage accounts to make sure that the Postal Service is withdrawing the right amounts from their permit accounts.  The electronic format is essential because it allows customers to import their postage usage data into their accounting systems for postage reconciliation, thereby avoiding re-entering data from the postage statement PDF’s or hard copies.

Save time and money

Post-presort software that works with Mail.dat files can save mailers time and money.  As we mentioned earlier, a job that incurs the cost of additional salaries—in some cases, requiring over 10 people for data entry—can be reduced to the cost of 1 or 2 people who are trained to use the software instead.  Comparing the cost of the post-presort software versus the cost of paying 10 additional people a year, the software pays for itself many times over.  Moreover, the post-presort software can handle more complex mailings, speeding up automation and reducing the risk of human error.

In Part 5 of this series, we will discuss how Mail.dat impacts the various entities in the mailing process and what it brings to the Intelligent Mail program.

For more on Window Book >>>.

Click Here for Parts 1, 2 and 3
Monica Lundquist is Postal Affairs Manager for Window Book, Inc.  She can be reached atmlundquist@windowbook.com.  Window Book has been helping clients manage their operations more profitably since 1989, and is the leader in mailing and shipping software for Lettershops, Corporate Mailers, Service Bureaus, and Mail Owners. Window Book’s best-in-class postal solutions include: Intelligent Mail Full-Service, PostalOne!, eDocs, Mail.dat, Mail.XML, FAST, Bound Printed Matter, post-presort data management, entry planning, drop shipping, postage accounting, postal documentation & statements, meter and stamp management, Express Mail^®and Priority Mail Open and Distribute, New Commercial Plus rates, eVS, Delivery Confirmation™, and manifesting shipping system.