Postal Affairs Blog

                     Eight Tips for Implementing Intelligent Mail

Go ahead and admit it. You have been procrastinating on the whole United States Postal Service^® (USPS) Intelligent Mail^® (IM) thing, and now you are starting to panic. The November date for introduction of the IM discounts is just around the corner, and you have not even started your implementation plans.

Don’t worry, you are not alone! There are lots of people who have been putting this off, just like you. Some were skeptical about the whole thing and wanted to wait and see if it was actually going to happen. Others figured there would be lots of changes and revisions to the USPS plans, so they wanted to wait for the dust to settle a bit. And for many of you, quite frankly, IM just scares the bejezzus out of you!

Regardless of what category you fall into, you really ought to start thinking about your implementation plans for Intelligent Mail. Here are some tips for getting started:

1) Do some detailed analysis to determine which level, if any, of IM that you will be using. You will need to do this analysis to first identify whether IM will be of benefit to your organization, and if so, whether Basic Service or Full Service is right for you. The USPS does provide some on-line benefit calculators to assist in this process, but you will likely need to enlist a number of members of your team, possibly in various departments, to get a complete picture. Keep in mind that while IM is currently voluntary, that may not always be the case. There have been statements made by the USPS that the current automation discounts will in 2011 be available only for mailers using the IM barcodes.

• 2) Once you have determined which level of IM service is best for you, you will need to obtain a Mailer ID (MID), or if you use service providers, Customer Relationship ID’s (CRID). Virtually everything under IM will be transacted using the Business Customer Gateway, so you will want to access the USPS presentation on using the Business Customer Gateway if you are not already familiar with it. Once you have reviewed the presentation, you can then go online to apply for your ID’s.
• 3) Start printing the IM barcode on your mailpieces. Even if your internal systems are not yet completely set up to handle the IM transactions with the USPS, you should start printing the IMb’s on your mailpieces as soon as possible. Before you do that, however, you should have some printed samples of your mailpieces containing the IMb reviwed by your local Mailpiece Design Analyst to make sure there are no problems. This includes any sack, tray or pallet tags as well as mailpieces if you are the physical preparer of the mail.
• 4) Become familiar with Mail.dat and Mail.xml if you are not already. These are the two primary means by which electronic transactions with the USPS take place. You will need to make sure that your mailing processes are capable of producing at minimum mail.dat files, and ideally both mail.dat files and mail.xml.
• 5) Investigate your internal mailing processes, including any software or hardware, to insure that they are IM compliant. Work with your hardware and software vendors and service providers to assist you with this process. You may need to do some testing and possibly some hardware or software upgrades or replacements. If you have very sophisticated, automated mailing processes, IM integration may require some custom designed systems to insure seamless integration.
• 6) If you plan to take advantage of the free Address Correction Services (ACS^TM) in the IM Full Service Option, you should work with your database administrator, fulfillment house, or other service providers to determine how to incorporate the address corrections back into your database. ACS is much more complex under IM Full Service, and there is the potential to receive three different types of corrections, in three different formats, and at three different prices (not all ACS corrections will be free of charge).
• 7) Once you have your mailer ID, you should begin testing some transactions with the USPS using the Business Customer Gateway and the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM). This will allow you to work out any bugs in your internal systems and is also required for USPS authorization for IM Full Service. Once you have passed the TEM testing, you will be running tests in a parallel environment for a period of time until the USPS authorizes you as an IM Full Service mailer.
• If you plan on implementing the IM Full Service option, consult the USPS checklist for IM Full Service mailers. It is an exhaustive list of all the points you need to do in order to qualify for Full Service.

Intelligent Mail is indeed very complex, but it is not as scary as it seems. Take one step at a time, and you will make it through the integration process. Take advantage of the knowledge of others, such as colleagues, service providers, vendors and suppliers, USPS representatives and mailing associations. Most importantly, don’t procrastinate any longer, get started TODAY!

ACS Full Service: Will it REALLY work?

Some recent mailing industry discussions have involved all the uncertainties regarding Address Change Service (ACS^TM) services under Intelligent Mail^®. There is still a lot of confusion and miscommunication surrounding this topic. However, one element which is very fundamental is not being discussed, and unfortunately it could be a real show-stopper.

Many mailers do not realize that the USPS handles address corrections differently for the various processing categories of mail. One of the methods the USPS utilizes is a system called Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS), which reads the address during postal processing, bounces it against the USPS Change of Address (COA) database, and then automatically applies the new address and forwards the mail (depending on the class of mail and service endorsements) to the new address. The processing equipment used to process this mail is predominantly for letter size mail.

For mail that is not forwarded, the USPS uses a different method. In these cases, the address corrections are triggered at the mail delivery carrier level. When the carrier determines that the recipient is no longer at the address on the mailpiece, or that the mailpiece is otherwise undeliverable as addressed, the piece is sent to a Computerized Forwarding System (CFS) center for further processing. The CFS sites are where the ACS notices are generated. Before this is done, however, the mail carrier manually crosses out the barcode on the mailpiece so that the piece does not get re-directed to the old or bad address. Therein lies the problem. If the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) is obliterated by the mail carrier, it will not be able to be scanned at the CFS centers, which means that the USPS will not be able to process the address corrections in the Intelligent Mail environment.

Theoretically, it should be as simple as training all the mail carriers to stop crossing out the barcodes on this Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) mail. However, since there are tens of thousands of mail carriers across the country, the likelihood of this training getting accomplished quickly and thoroughly is not very high. This is particularly true given the financial straits of the USPS.

The November implementation date for the Intelligent Mail postage discounts is not all that far away. This problem is not being actively discussed, so how can mailers be assured that they will be receiving their address corrections when they convert to Intelligent Mail? This is particularly concerning for Periodicals mailers, who are required to receive and pay for address corrections through the USPS. Many Periodicals mailers have adopted the ACS service over the years as a method of reducing the cost of the address corrections. Since these mailers are already paying for address corrections through the USPS, very few utilize other methods of obtaining address corrections, such as NCOA^Link®, because of the additional costs. The free ACS service as part of Intelligent Mail Full Service is particularly attractive for these Periodicals mailers since they can now obtain these corrections free of charge, whereas in the past there was a charge per correction. Getting corrections for free, however, is no deal if the process results in not being able to get any address corrections at all.

An alternative is for mailers to continue to print the ACS participant codes and keylines on the mailpieces. This would allow the USPS to access this human readable data in cases where the IMb is obliterated or otherwise unreadable. However, this does not address the issue of the type of service requested by the mailer. Traditionally this would be indicated in the type of ancillary endorsement printed on the mailpiece (e.g. Change Service Requested). Under Intelligent Mail, however, the only endorsement permitted is Electronic Service Requested, so that would not be of any help in cases where the IMb is not readable. Also at issue is how these address corrections would be charged. Theoretically if the IMb is unreadable, the ACS notices would no longer be free but would rather be charged at traditional rates. However, if the USPS causes the barcodes to be unreadable, how will that be charged?

Mailers who plan to use Full Service ACS should be working with their mailing associations so that this concern can be communicated to the USPS. These mailers should also be working with their fulfillment suppliers or database managers to be actively participating in testing for the Full Service ACS program so that any potential problems can be identified quickly.

Everyone in the mailing industry wants Intelligent Mail to be successful, and only through timely communication can potential problems be identified and corrected quickly.

Monica Lundquist

Postal Affairs Manager

Window Book, Inc.