Tag Archives: mailing services

Postage charges increased last April 2012 with a 1st class stamp costing 60p and a second class stamp 50p. In spite of these increases, many businesses mail out a constant stream of marketing letters, invoices, direct mail and obligatory customer letters and printing mailing services have never seemed more expensive.

If your company or organisation cannot reclaim VAT, your postage costs can only go one way and that is UP.

Businesses that rely on bulk mailings and use the royal mail’s bulk mailing services such as mailsort, presstream, walksort, cleanmail, packetpost, advertising mail, sustainable mail and standard tariff will have experienced rising mailing costs.

Irrespective of escalating postage and mailing costs there are a number of measures that an organisation can undertake to ensure the cost of print and mailing is kept at a reasonable cost level.

How?

By optimising all or some of the following.

Multi-channel distribution

Multi-channel distribution of business documents – your data file is broken down into those letters that are required to be printed and mailed, electronically sent or documents that need to be printed and then returned to a head office or delivered to regional offices all from one data file. Providing you with a complete printing and mailing service.

How can this work for my business?

Working with a mailing solutions partner who will advise you what the alternatives are and provide guidance on the best method to ensure your mailing is a success.

Whether it is getting those invoices out to your customers on time or a direct mail piece, a print and mailing solutions provider will take your data file containing names and addresses, extract the letters that are required to be printed and mailed, electronically send documents to those recipients and return those documents that are required to be internally distributed back to head office and regional locations.

To find out how to choose the right mailing solutions provider click here

DSA

DSA is the term used to describe mail which has been collected and distributed by a competitor of the Royal Mail but is delivered into the Royal Mail centres for final processing onto local offices. The cost savings per envelope depending on weight can be substantial saving companies as much as 0.24p per envelope.

Electronic

Not quite as straightforward to get your customers to accept the fact that you will be communicating with them solely via email and not every one of your customers will want to receive an electronic bill, statement or letter for all sorts of different reasons but as long as you follow the process I’ve outlined here you can see your postage costs reduce substantially.

Beware, your customer’s perception may be a negative one.

If you are wanting to drive your mailing costs down by moving to an electronic system of sending out your documents you need to be aware that some customers will view that you have effectively passed the costs of processing and in many cases, printing to your customer.

If they don’t have an effective accounts payable/invoice processing system then there is the manual processing of your document at the customers end resulting in additional work.

Aside from the print and mailing solutions there are also known desktop mailing solutions.

How does this work?

Easy really if you click here there’s more information on how the system can help you reduce your mailing costs or click here to find out how mailing on a budget can make a difference to your organisation.

Finally…

Avoid the use of C4 envelopes

Avoid having to use 1st class Royal Mail

Maximise your discounts by using downstream access mailing

Use a hybrid mail solution like the one described above.

For more information on hybrid mailing solutions click here

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Hybrid Mail, Managing Print Costs, Print and Mail Services

Hybrid mail solutions. How to mail out your letters on a budget!

March 29, 2012 Caroline 1 Comment

From PC to Post – Print and Mailing Solutions made easier.

With the privatisation of the Royal Mail in October and the volume of letters delivered over the past five years in decline by 25% and expected to keep going down between 7-8% year on year postal services are on the decline.

The use of electronic methods of communication are on the increase and letter volumes are spiralling downward.

By 2015 it is estimated that the Royal Mail will have lost 40% of its business. (Hooper Report)

Postal trays are empty and the bulk of mail is carried by email servers.

What does the future hold for companies that still have a need to post out obligatory letters and forms or a few letters they might want to send out each week or month?

Although paper usage is declining paper isn’t going anywhere.

Whilst I have one foot firmly in the paper and the other in the paperless/electronic camp the fact is paper remains a recyclable, renewable and reusable substrate.

Recognised as the 7th largest industry in the UK, print provides a positive and meaningful purpose and retains a notable place in our business and domestic lives.

If you want to be able to continue to mail out customer letters there has to be a more cost effective viable mailing alternative!

Hybrid mail solutions

Are a unique online mail management solution for all your letter printing and mailing requirements.

How does it work?

When you generate a letter in-house you need five things, a PC, a printer, an envelope, paper and a way of posting out your letters i.e. a stamp or by franking the envelope.

Hybrid mail takes away the hassle of the above as the only two elements needed are a PC and internet access.

The envelope, paper, printing equipment and the distribution are managed at a secure remote location and the process is completed for less than the cost of a second class stamp depending on whether you are printing in colour or single/double sided print.

It’s like having your own print and mailing services company a click away and it can manage any letter an organisation sends out from an insurance renewal policy, customer marketing letters, post cards in fact any customer interfacing document you regularly send out to your customers.

Hybrid mail will save time, reduce postal costs and minimise your carbon footprint.

How does the mailing solution work?

Hybrid mail services allows you to enter your mailing requirements via a website.

It is an online interface enabling you to upload letter files using pre-determined templates. You can upload your document in word format (.doc, .pdf, .rtf) personalise it by adding logos and key marketing messages, change the layout, proof each step of the way and then the rest is done by the hybrid mail provider.

By taking word documents or PDF’s a mail merge is performed using your uploaded data and letter they are then printed and posted for less than the cost of a stamp.

With no contract or minimum order restrictions this makes the perfect mailing solution for small to large companies.

Hybrid mail offers a great way to reduce your in-house print and mailing costs because right from the press of a button you will know exactly what the mailing will cost. There are no extra costs and no hidden extras.

Is it eco-friendly?

Yes. Using large volume printers which are more efficient and using paper bought from sustainable sources means save money because it reduces paper, printer and toner cartridge usage.

Businesses can expect to make impressive savings with no upfront costs required.

A PC or laptop, a file of names and addresses and the letter or letters you wish to send are all that is required to be up and running!

It couldn’t be simpler!

Our print-2-mail service is easy to use and free to set up. Call us for a demonstration

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Hybrid Mail, Print and Mail Services

3 Ways to Reduce Postage Costs

August 9, 2011 Caroline Leave a comment

If you still mail out letters and bills there are some options that will save time and money

Businesses rely heavily on the Royal Mail in spite of the internet and the availability of sending documents electronically.

The UK Royal Mail increased their charges from April 2013 and businesses who use a multi-distribution method for delivery of their customer letters such as post and electronic delivery will no doubt have felt the impact of the postage costs on their bottom-line.

Despite the increase and depending on what volumes you mail out in a month there are 3 ways that can help you reduce the expenditure.

Using a print and mailing service provider offers a number of tangible benefits that will save you time and money. You can read more about how the service works here.

Use DSA (downstream access)

DSA is the term used to describe mail which has been collected and distributed by a competitor of the Royal Mail but is delivered into the Royal Mail centres for final processing in to local offices.

The cost savings per envelope depending on weight can be substantial and savings can be up to 13p per envelope using 2nd class mail. (Price will vary subject to weight)

Good Database Management

By ensuring that your data is current and reliable removes the issue of duplication.

Many companies over look the importance of recording their customers address and contact details and this results in duplicated addresses and most likely duplicated invoices arriving on the customers door step.

Maintaing your billing database (clicking on the link here will explain why data cleansing is important for your business) on a regular basis shows best practice and will save time and money and it doesn’t have to be a costly exercise.

A print and mailing service provider can check for errors and duplications using de-duping software.

Address Inaccuracies

Sending invoices or statements to an incorrect address or defunct address can be costly!

Not only does the invoice go unpaid but the invoice then has to be re-printed and mailed out again effectively doubling your postage charge and increasing the processing and print time.

Incomplete addresses result in items being undelivered unless there is a return address on the envelope which will ensure the item is forwarded to the originator of the envelope.

But incorrectly or incomplete addresses means that the invoices have to be painstakingly checked and re-issued correctly. This takes up valuable company resources and slows cash collection too.

If you are faced with the challenge of getting your documents out on time there is an alternative solution called hybrid mail. If you click here you can find out more about what the service can do to speed up the mailing out process.

If you call Digital Print Management on 01234-271156 and ask for Caroline or drop us your email address here one of expert advisors will talk it through with you. What best suits your needs when it comes to mailing out your documents.

Managing Print Costs

Invoice Processing. How to automate the process

July 13, 2011 Caroline Leave a comment

Invoice processing and printing.

There are many companies still choosing to print these time critical documents in-house.

Choosing an end to end invoice processing and scanning solution will speed up the accounts payable process.

Why?

Here are some well documented reasons…

Because its too expensive to outsource.
Because we don’t want to give up control.
I want our envelopes post marked with our address details.
Because the Directors want to retain control of the print and despatch of our statements/invoices

If it’s taking you and your company too much time to process and generate your invoices and statements then you really should think about automating the processing by opting for a print services provider.

A printing mailing service provider specialises in the process, printing and inserting of invoices and statements.

Let’s look at the above points in more detail.

Twenty years ago outsourcing this onerous task would have been cost effective for the for high volume generators of statements and invoices.

Today, technology has changed and improved to such a degree that any company generating a few hundred invoices will benefit from tangible cost savings in postage and processing especially when this is weighted against the costs of doing it in-house factor in over ordering of stationery, consumables, maintenance fees, inserting machines and employees who are involved in the process too.

Retaining control – The question that needs to be addressed is do you trust your billing software to output the correct data? Are you painstakingly checking certain customer invoices for errors or omissions prior to actually sending them out?

Even if you have specific customers that require you to check prior to sending most, if not all mailing services will have a medium with which you can isolate those documents view and approve prior to print or sending electronically.

Envelope details – this is given as most print companies will suggest that the outer envelopes will be pre-printed with a return address, company logo and postage indicia in the corporate colours.

Company Directors are insistent in keeping the process in house – Next time the accounts department process the monthly, weekly invoice or statement run ask the Directors to spend time in the department just to see what’s involved in the process.

Present them with a time V cost analysis report that you’ve done in advance, costs both visible and invisible should be shown then see what response you get? I’d be very surprised if they didn’t exhale sharply and respond with “really it costs that much!”

What are the benefits of automating the process?

If your company regularly sends out invoices and statements in a paper format as well as providing electronic billing then you will benefit from having this process automated.

The outsourcing of invoice and statement printing is not as complicated as you think.

By understanding a company’s billing cycle, how the information (data) is extracted out of the accounts system and how to send the data are taken care of by the mailing partner.

If managed correctly by the printing services company the cost savings will be evident.

For example by speeding up the processing time i.e reducing the time taken to despatch bills or statements, receipt of a datafile on day 1 can result in despatch the same day, which can have a dramatic impact on the DSO (days outstanding).

There is minimal time spent by the company once the data file has been emailed because the mail service provider does all the work.

Pre-sorting your bills and statements specifically for Royal Mail or DSA (downstream access) will offer huge savings on postage.

Outsourcing this non core business activity enables you to have the option of sending paper based items and an electronic version as well – multi channel distribution.

The data file can be pre-sorted for bills and statements that are required to be printed and posted or to be electronically sent.

In effect, your only concern is ensuring the upload of the information file. This is the only part of the process that your business truly gets involved in.

The biggest advantage of outsource bill and statement printing is that your outsource provider does all the work associated with printing and prepping of your invoices and statements for mailing.

You also have the flexibility to change the layout and format of your documents because most outsource printers can print in colour at the same time as printing the statement or invoice information therefore implementing a form change becomes effortless!

Most customers have come to expect paperless billing and it is cheaper than sending a paper version.

There is also a compelling argument to outsource the processing of your electronic bills and statements.

Of course there is always the option of implementing a complete end to end invoice processing scanning solution.

For more information about how invoice processing and scanning solutions can streamline your company process then click here for more information.

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What do you do, how do you manage the process of billing your clients? Let us know your thoughts so we can share it.

Hybrid Mail, Managed Print Services, Print and Mail Services, Print Management

Print and mail service. What to look out for in a print and mail services company.

June 30, 2011 Caroline Leave a comment

Many companies manage a steady stream of mail including marketing letters, bills, promotional items you name it, none of us are immune from receiving them!

But processing, printing, folding and sending these items is a costly and time consuming exercise. Factor in higher UK postage prices which came into force in April 2013 with a standard first class stamp for letters weighing up to 100g now at 60p and a second class stamp at 50p making it even more costly for companies to stay in touch with their customers.

The personnel involved in these processes would be better served in being re-deployed into other business activities which are revenue orientated.

Optimising the skills of a print and mail services company will improve and manage your paper flow more efficiently and ensure that the envelopes actually reach either the consumer or the customer.

In the present economic climate, this is one area companies should be evaluating to look at reducing their print and mailing costs by working with a managed outsource print provider.

Despite growth in paperless solutions, companies still require a reliable way of ensuring that their critical documents reach their intended destination! Using a managed service provider, organisations are likely to reduce the hidden costs associated with actually processing an invoice or statement.

Big postage cost savings can be made using DSA (downstream access) rather than the traditional route of the Royal Mail these savings can make a huge difference to companies who rely on a steady stream of invoices, statements and marketing material being posted out each month.

A Print and Mail services provider has the technological resources, investment in mailing kit, hi-speed printers and the technology infrastructure in place to manage volume mailings.

Coupled with account management your print and mail service now becomes a manageable and structured process with the print and mail of invoices and statements at month end or the posting of a promotional mailing campaign designed at attracting new customers.

The process is organised, planned and represents effective management of a companies resources and time.

Quite simply an organisation can spend a lot of effort trying to keep up with the demand with requests for copy documents or marketing information if they do not make use of an established managed print and mail service provider.

By outsourcing, the company can transfer these chores to an organisation that is expert in delivering mailings every day.

A managed print and mail service will in the long run ensure your paper flow is manageable, timely, effective and delivered to the right person at a cost that you will find surprisingly inexpensive!

For more information or to get a quote click here

Find us on twitter @DigitalPrintMgt, Facebook and Pinterest or connect with us on linkedin and google+

If your company or organisation cannot reclaim VAT, your postage costs can only go one way and that is UP.

How?

Multi-channel distribution

DSA

Electronic

How does this work?

Finally…

Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and connect with us on Linkedin

Related posts:

From PC to Post – Print and Mailing Solutions made easier.

Hybrid mail solutions

How does it work?

Hybrid mail will save time, reduce postal costs and minimise your carbon footprint.

How does the mailing solution work?

Is it eco-friendly?

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Connect with us on Linkedin and Google+ for all our news, features and updates!

Related posts:

Good Database Management

Address Inaccuracies

If you call Digital Print Management on 01234-271156 and ask for Caroline or drop us your email address here one of expert advisors will talk it through with you. What best suits your needs when it comes to mailing out your documents.

Related posts:

Invoice processing and printing.

There are many companies still choosing to print these time critical documents in-house.

Why?

Here are some well documented reasons…

Let’s look at the above points in more detail.

What are the benefits of automating the process?

Please follow us on twitter, we need more likes on facebook and google+ please, or connect with us on linkedin for all our news and updates. Alternatively, subscribe to our updates via email.

Related posts:

Many companies manage a steady stream of mail including marketing letters, bills, promotional items you name it, none of us are immune from receiving them!

Related posts: