A Holistic Approach to Mail Processing – The Expansion of Postal Services

By John Buck, Vice President, Business Development, Parascript, LLC

Lately a big red warning flag has been waving high above the Postal industry. In a time when the industry is being affected by liberalization, deregulation, and the opening-up of competition, growing concerns of cost containment and improved efficiencies are heightened even more. While the position of national posts as the sole providers of postal services is threatened by other industries, Posts should look for opportunities that go beyond their central activities and traditional geographical markets.

Encouraged by the new market reality, entrepreneurial Posts are reorganizing their businesses, making strategic mergers and alliances, updating operations and diversifying products and services. In particular, one of the most innovative services, offered today and promising significant benefits to both customers and Posts, is the opportunity to digitize consumer mail. This service is an answer to the urgent needs of our modern and dynamic society, where individuals and corporations work efficiently in a remote mode.

This new service is based on the most innovative recognition technology that locates and reads areas of interest on mailpieces (including the recipient’s name and address, sender’s name and address, barcodes, labels, logos, and other data). The service lets subscribers receive text-based information via computer or cell phone for easy access and fast downloads. Based on data captured from the envelope, the mailpiece may be processed according to the customer’s requirements. For example, if it is determined that a mailpiece contains a bill, the customer may pre-establish instructions to allow it be opened, scanned, automatically recognized, presented to the customer to approve via a webform, and paid either via electronic communication network (ECN) or by generating a paper check against a customer’s checking account. One of the most important advantages of this service is the reduction of time for an action to be taken on a piece of mail. Consequently, the time it takes to process incoming payments can be greatly reduced.

It is logical that after being equipped with this most advanced and universal recognition technology and having the biggest pool of business customers, Posts can take it one step further and extend their services into the bank deposit business. Providing a lockbox service is a natural extension for Posts given that the vast majority of payments are made by mailed-in checks. The process entails reading data from a mailpiece, determining envelopes that require payment processing, extracting contents and processing the checks and stubs. Posts can rely on proven recognition technology that has been used for more than a decade for automatic proof-of-deposit (POD) and remittance processing to reliably read courtesy amounts (the check amount written as numbers) and legal amounts (the spelled-out check amount) with the highest recognition rates and accuracy. This provides additional advantages and benefits to service subscribers and helps to speed up check processing, allowing organizations to deposit large batches of checks the same day they arrive.

Today’s customers have become far more discerning, better-informed, and increasingly empowered to choose from a wide variety of highly competitive services. As a result, the process of acquiring and retaining customers remains one of the most significant challenges facing organizations today.

Posts can capitalize on providing services that are based on the same advanced technology they have been relying on to improve operations for more than a decade, with just a broader and more effective use of the data that flows through the mail stream. The ability to capture, analyze, and process this vast amounts of data has tremendous potential for providing a competitive advantage to posts, and revolutionizing the position and role the postal industry plays in our modern society.