As we’re making mailing and shipping easier and more convenient for consumers and small businesses, we’re also improving our technologies that benefit our commercial customers.
Mail Preparation, Addressing and Commercial Acceptance — Our continued adoption of Intelligent Mail and Full-Service technologies, which rely on the use of smart barcodes, has enabled improvements in the way we accept and verify commercial business mailings. We’ve reduced reliance on manual processes and moved into a digitized process flow. These capabilities will empower customers with a suite of tools enabling payment flexibility, preparation simplicity, ease of entry, multiple access points for account management and deeper visibility into their mailing status.
Additional value will occur through expanded use of Intelligent Mail barcodes with Full-Service by small business mailers. This allows the Postal Service to position these mailers for Seamless Acceptance, a process designed to use electronic documentation, mail processing equipment scans and scans collected through handheld devices to verify and validate proper mail make-up and postage.
Streamlining Customer Payment and Account Management Processes — Several initiatives in FY2015 improved our ability to manage customer incentives, contract pricing and loyalty tracking. At the same time, we gained deeper insights into how our customers use our products and their revenue contribution. New technical specifications, namely “Intelligent Mail Indicia Performance Criteria,” were published for PC Postage and meter vendors that will provide the Postal Service with improved product usage information. Improvements in payment and account management will reduce the current burden experienced by mailers in opening permits and managing accounts. “Mail Anywhere” functionality was made available to all mailers in spring 2014. Mail Anywhere allows the use of a single permit at mailing locations across the country and greatly simplifies the account management process for commercial mailers.
Click-N-Ship Business Pro — Click-N-Ship Business Pro is a downloadable software solution that enables small and medium business mailers to generate shipping labels with Intelligent Mail Package Barcodes (IMpb) and securely pay postage via electronic manifest files. It’s available free of charge for business customers who ship 50 or more packages (or multiple packages with a combined weight of 50 or more pounds) in a typical mailing.
In addition to generating shipping labels and paying for postage, the software provides easy-to-use database integration, tracking and reporting tools. Click-N-Ship Business Pro allows customers to access a broader range of shipping options than some other software solutions, including single-piece and non-presort packages, and services that include First-Class Package Service, Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and Parcel Select Nonpresort. This software solution has generated over $2.7 million in postage paid since its inception in November 2013, and brought in more than $3.9 million in revenue in FY2015.
