Software and Database Management

1
Software and Database Management

• Presented By
• Michael Lloyd
• UNC Wilmington
• March 31, 2008

2
How to Select Mailing Software

• The objective when purchasing mailing software is
  to save time by eliminating preparation through
  automatically sorting mail and producing all
  proper marking and postal reports, and to save
  money by obtaining the lowest allowable postage
  rates that only mailing software can achieve.

3
What should Mailing Software Do ?

• Eliminates manual work for you!
• Automate Addresses for Discounts
• Certified your Address Lists
• Cleanses Address Lists
• Barcode Mailing
• Eliminates Duplicates
• Prepare required mail reports
• SAVE YOU MONEY

4
What I need to Know?

• Many software products promise to help you
  achieve your goals.
• They all seem similar, at least based on an
  overview of their product literature.
• Their prices vary, and sometimes greatly.

5
How much should it cost?

• That's a key question for most new users, and
  it's more complicated than the software's
  "sticker price" might suggest.

6

• Mailing software is typically available as a
  subscription for a specified period, usually
  annually.
• This is because mail preparation requirements are
  constantly changing to meet the requirements of
  the United States Postal Service.
• To keep up with those changing requirements,
  mailing software developers must continually
  modify the software.

7
Weighting the Cost?

• Some mailing software vendors offer different
  mailing programs to support different levels of
  need, usually classified as low end and high end.
• The low-end (also low-cost) programs can
  minimize your investment risk, allowing you to
  get your feet wet without full immersion.

8

• But you should make sure the transition from the
  low end to high end is simple and straight
  forward and without penalty.
• In some cases, that transition is equivalent to
  changing software vendors because there is no
  commonality between the low-cost and high-cost
  offerings

9
Stability

• Stability of the Software There are a lot of
  programs in this industry that frustrate users
  with glitches, crashing and erratic behavior.
• You won't read about this in the product
  literature. Research the product with those whom
  current utilize the product.

10
Subscription for Software

• Subscription costs for subsequent years are
  typically substantially lower than first-year
  costs. That makes the original selection of the
  right software for you, all the more important.
• You surely want to avoid paying that first year
  premium again, simply because your first software
  choice did not meet, or could not grow with, your
  needs.

11
Software and Data Topics

• Reports and Terminology
• Standardization
• Address correction
• Merge/purge processing
• Presorting
• Custom printing options
• Exporting and Importing
• Database management

12
CASS stands for Coding Accuracy Support System

• CASS certified software cleans up, corrects, and
  standardizes a mailing list.
• It will add missing ZIP4 zip codes, Carrier
  Route codes, Delivery Point Numbers, Line of
  Travel information as well as correct any invalid
  address, city, state, or zip code information.
• It will also put the address into the post office
  recommend standard format such as using the two
  letter abbreviation for state names.
• CASS software has nothing to do with sorting a
  mailing list or printing the mailing labels. That
  is done by PAVE certified software.

13
PAVE stands for Presort Accuracy Validation and
Evaluation

• PAVE certified software is bulk mail presort
  software that has been tested and certified by
  the post office for accuracy in doing different
  types of sorts and producing various types of
  postal documents.
• Presort software sorts your mailing list
  according to all of the rules and regulations of
  the post office and produces, among other things,
  the barcoded mailing labels, barcoded tray and
  sack tags, Qualification Reports, Postage
  Statements, and Setup Reports

14
What is DPV and LACSLink

• DPV stands for Delivery Point Validation. This is
  a method by which a specific address is
  validated.
• In the general CASS processing an address is
  considered valid as long as it falls within the
  range of addresses listed in the CASS database.

15
Delivery Point Bar Code
16

• For instance, the CASS database may give the
  range of valid addresses for Main Street in zip
  code 77002 as being from 1000 to 1090.
• If you have an address in your mailing list of
  1020 Main Street 77002, then the general CASS
  processing will consider this a valid address and
  assign it a Delivery Point Number even though
  there is a possibility that no such address
  really exists.
• DPV will double check that Delivery Point Number
  against another database to verify that 1020 Main
  Street 77002 is actually a valid address. If so,
  the CASS matching stands. If not, the address is
  not considered a CASS match and return a code to
  let you know why the address was not matched

17
What is eLOT ?

• eLOT stands for enhanced Line of Travel.
• eLOT Product was developed to give mailers the
  ability to sort their mailings in approximate
  carrier-casing sequence
• eLOT data is only used when doing Non-Automation
  (ECR Basic Carrier Route sorting)
• ECR mail can be for either Letter or Non-Letter
  (Flat) sized pieces and is sorted not only by the
  Carrier Route number but also by the eLOT number
  which puts the mail more or less into the same
  order that the Postal Carrier travels when
  delivering the mail.

18
(No Transcript)
19
What Reports will be Needed?

• Cass Form
• Pave Form
• Mail Sort list
• USPS Qualification Form
• Summary Information
• Job Summary

20
(No Transcript)
21
Good Quality Software Allows User To?

• Import Data
• Correct Address
• Find Duplicates
• Sort Mailing
• Export Data
• Print Reports
• Print Labels

22
Import Data
23
Sample Formatted Address List
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Address Correction

• Standardize an address, it give you back a
  complete form of that address.
• At the same time it should code for postal
  automation.

29
Merge/Purge and Duplicate Detection Software

• Tool for finding and removing duplicates.
• Search and match on many identifying information
  such as
• personal name
• address
• company name
• account number etc
• Ability to work with multiple lists at one time
  as well as suppression list options.

30
(No Transcript)
31
(No Transcript)
32
Presorting Mailing

• Sorting mail and preparing it in container so
  that it can be transported though the postal
  system.

33
(No Transcript)
34
(No Transcript)
35
Export data

• To transport data for use with media types (cd,
  flash, zip, variable data for example)

36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39
Printing Label and Tags

• You should be design files
• Use templates
• Order to print
• Design toolbox
• Customization of labels
• Easy set up

40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
(No Transcript)
43
(No Transcript)
44
(No Transcript)
45
(No Transcript)
46
Merlin - Mailing Evaluation Readability
Lookup Instrument VERIFIES

• Presort Mail Makeup
• Weight / Piece Count
• Barcode Readability
• Tray Label Accuracy / Paperwork
• Meter ID and Date / Permit Imprint
• Address / Barcode Accuracy
• Endorsements Rate Markings
• Mail Piece Dimensions

47
List Maintenance Features

• Delete record
• Modify Selected Records
• Filtering of records
• List Back Up
• Create Subsists

• define indexes.
• Identify duplicates
• Prints reports of duplicate records.
• Hide and Unhide

48
Popular Mailing Software

• AccuMail
• ArcList
• Bulk Mailer 5 Pro Standard
• MailRoom Toolkit
• Mail Manager
• PostalSoft Professional Suite
• PostalSoft Business Edition
• PostalSoft DeskTop Mailer
• ProSort
• SmartAddresser 2020