The pace of change in the mailing industry has been fast. Print engines are getting faster, pieces are more targeted, finishing is ever more complex and the reach of workflows is getting broader. Pitney Bowes is one of the companies driving the changes, using the power of the web to drive through the entire mailing process from document creation to delivery with its latest product: P/I OfficeMail.
Pitney Bowes has a solid pedigree in the mailing sector. While many might know it for its franking machines, there is more to the manufacturer than meets the eye. From highly complex software products to enclosing machines, Pitney Bowes has built a strong market - and next in its sights is web-to-print.
While there are plenty of companies that have developed a whole host of web-to-print services, Pitney Bowes DMT marketing and product manager EMEA Nick Khatri believes that the OfficeMail service is the first one that actually handles the entire process from producing the document through to delivery.
"I think this is as close to somebody printing something off in the office, putting it in an envelope, putting a stamp on it, walking to a post box and posting it, that you are going to get," he says.
According to Pitney Bowes, European businesses are wasting around £13.2bn each year through inefficiencies in office posting. The hope is that OfficeMail will move firms away from their own DIY methods.
So far, so bold. But there is an impact on this for printers and mailing houses. In order for OfficeMail to work, Pitney Bowes will incorporate small, print-on-demand firms, as well as the giant mailing houses.
Flexible product
In a nutshell, OfficeMail works like this: a user emails their product to Pitney Bowes, which handles printing, mailing and monitoring in-house. The software can also be purchased by print and mail companies who can offer the same service ‘skinned' to look like an in-house offering.
"The key differentiator of OfficeMail is to offer a fully integrated workflow from submitting the document in the office environment to managing its production with fully document integrity and tracking at the lowest cost,"says Khatri. "Most organisations have driven cost and inefficiencies out of the production facilities that create high-volume documents such as statements, bills and invoices. The focus is now shifting to getting the same process and cost efficiencies from their office documents."
Pitney Bowes began working on the system in 2007 and it was running at an in-plant trial for a year before it's launch in Europe in May this year. It's initially aimed at blue-chip corporates, as well as large- to mid-size companies that have a need to reduce the cost of printing and mailing office documents. According to Pitney Bowes, the system eradicates a number of business issues associated with office mailing, including the inefficient use of worker time, the high cost of office printing, the high cost of postage and the environmental impact.
From PC to printer
Users create documents on an office PC and submit jobs for printing, inserting and mailing. Instead of being printed locally on desktop printers and manually processed, they are transmitted to an in-house print-and-mail centre or an off-site facility where similar jobs are aggregated for production.
The software brings together the items in centralised, bulk print and mail facilities. It can be used through a wide range of office packages such as Microsoft Word. The end-to-end product comprises of three components: document creation, composition and production. That final component incorporates job tracking, archiving, audit and reprint.
At the document creation stage, users can create documents at their desktop using a secure, "easy-to-use" web interface that links them to the production facility. Users choose the type of document they want to create, select the envelope type and class of postage to use and specify simplex or duplex and in black and white or colour. In addition, they can select paper stock or stationery type to use and specify any attachments.
The production stage simplifies document processing, printing, inserting and mailing. This includes everything from the workflow of the document to submitting jobs to printers, as well as full document integrity, automated folding, inserting and postage metering of the mail.
Finally, the back-end of the system combines web-based job tracking with audit and authorisation functions. This is where web-to-print really comes into its own, allowing any user, at any time, to check where the document is and what stage it's at in the production process.
Users can log on to a secure website to locate and track their mailings, preview them, view their status, change certain attributes and even cancel the mailing. A short-term archive of all the user's recent mailings and a log of when they were sent and to whom is also available. Essentially, a full record of every stage of the process is at the user's fingertips.
While it may look like a web-to-print system aimed squarely at businesses, Pitney Bowes is keen that print firms and mailing houses can also offer the applications as an additional service to their customers. One area that might appeal to that market is that a printer can rebrand the product as their own web-to-print system. For example, Cardiff-based McLays launched miPost - a service that was built on the back of OfficeMail.
Cost as paramount
Pitney Bowes argues that cost is the key driver. How much you pay for the product depends entirely on the number of documents a user intends to send. According to Khatri, if the customer is able to commit to a specific volume per term, the rate per document processed is considerably reduced.
He adds: "The pricing is comparable to existing solutions on the market."
Although OfficeMail is a relatively new product, there are a number of other products that offer similar advantages, but not the complete service. Khatri adds: "Existing products for postal optimisation, such as mail sortation and address cleansing that exist at the centralised print and mail facility, can be leveraged to reduce the overall cost of postage."
Other systems include document composition and multi channel (fax, email, text) delivery. But Khatri believes that the rivals in the market lack the kind of expertise that Pitney Bowes has. What gives OfficeMail the edge, he argues, is that it can provide users with a more in-depth workflow, allowing them to track all documents and spot the most cost-effective postal services that are available.
High-volume print firms that have developed their own system to attract additional volume into their facilities also offer a similar service, although these companies may have less knowledge of the software side of the process.
"As these organisation start to realise the true cost of office document production with the increasing cost of postage, solutions like Pitney Bowes OfficeMail offer significant cost saving without losing control and visibility of how these documents are created and mailed."
OfficeMail offers further evidence that web-to-print has come on leaps and bounds. With this service aimed squarely at mailing, Pitney Bowes hopes that its expertise in this area will give it the edge. It's a product that has come along at the right time; companies are looking at reducing costs and mailing is a costly area that can be overlooked. Add in the web capabilities and users may just have a product that not only saves them money, but also one that gives them access to a raft of data.
SPECIFICATIONS
Components
Document creation
Document composition
Document production
Price
For printer/mailhouse:on application
For user:: Dependent on use and amounts. The more a customer uses the service,the cheaper it is per product
Platforms PC
Contact Pitney Bowes 08705 252525 www.pitneybowes.co.uk
THE ALTERNATIVES
FLYDOCS
French company Esker's version targets invoices, reports and partner communications. It offers black-and-white or full-colour printing, as well as first-class postage.
Platforms PC or Mac
Cost Dependent on product
Contact www.flydoc.com +1 (0)800 368 5283
PDQ
This product allows the user to click directly through from a PDQ icon on their desktop. It's suitable for invoices, business letters, mailshots and statements. In addition, PDQ features a Management Report System.
Platforms PC or Mac
Cost First letter free as a test, prices start from 34p black and white and 39p colour per item
Contact www.pdqit.com
VIAPOST
The product features three different systems, depending on what the user needs. The driver system is ideal for volumes under 1,000, while Portal is for mid-volumes and API for higher volumes.
Platforms PC or Mac
Cost black and white letter will cost 27p + VAT, with an extra 4p+VAT for each extra page. A single page colour letter is 34p+VAT, with an extra 8p+VAT for each extra colour page
Contact www.viapost.com 020 7836 5105
