NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Respondents to a document management industry survey sponsored by Océ Business Services indicated that mail and shipping best practices can yield several important business benefits. One is reducing costs. According to industry estimates two percent of all mail is returned and the total cost of re-mail is $3 per mail piece. The need to update mailing lists is a constant challenge because about 17 percent of consumers and businesses move every year.
Another benefit is enhancing regulatory compliance in order to reduce risk. Océ highlights the following example of how a company implemented a strategy to enhance compliance by more efficiently processing high volumes of returned mail.
Enhancing Compliance
A financial services company recently acquired another company that provides credit card services. As a result of the acquisition, the financial services company was required to notify credit card holders of the acquisition and specify any changes to existing account terms, privacy rules and other issues. Soon after its first round of notifications, which totaled approximately one million, the company received roughly 188,000 pieces of returned mail.
Because it was not prepared to efficiently process the large amount of returns, which included extracting key customer account and address information, the company tapped Océ Business Services to manage the project.
The solution comprised the financial services company to send the contents of the envelopes in a scan-ready state to Océ’s eastern regional imaging center, where Océ scanned the documents. Océ deployed optical character recognition (OCR) technology to extract two key data fields – name/address and account number – into an Excel spreadsheet that was sent to the client. This spreadsheet provided the client with the supporting information it needed to establish that the company was in compliance with the customer account mailing.
Océ completed the return mail processing in five days, much faster than the financial services company could have accomplished. Based on those results, the client called upon Océ to manage a similar process for a larger account notification mailing, which resulted in 400,000 pieces of returned mail. This time, however, the company had Océ manage the entire process. Océ received and opened the envelopes; date stamped, scanned and applied OCR technology to the documents, and then provided the client with CDs containing the document images in PDF format. Once again, the client quickly had the back-up it needed to prove compliance in mailing notifications to over 2.5 million accounts.
Companies face Similar Challenges
Like the financial services companies, many organizations face similar challenges and could benefit from professional expertise to help them meet these challenges. Below are five questions offered by Océ Business Services that can help companies determine whether they might leverage additional expertise to help process return mail.
1. Does our company send large mailings to its customers?
2. Do we
see large amounts of return mail in our mailroom?
3. What happens
to the return mail?
4. Is there an opportunity to contain costs by
updating our mailing addresses to diminish the volume of return mail?
5.
Does our company need to establish proof of its compliance with customer
account notification mailing(s)?
For further information on mail management topics, visit www.ocesolutions.com.
About Océ
Océ is one of the leading providers of document management and printing for professionals. The Océ offering includes office printing and copying systems, high speed digital production printers and wide format printing systems for both technical documentation and color display graphics. Océ is also a foremost supplier of document management outsourcing. Many of the Fortune Global 500 companies and leading commercial printers are Océ customers. The company was founded in 1877. With headquarters in Venlo, The Netherlands, Océ is active in over 100 countries and employs more than 20,000 people worldwide. Total revenues in financial 2010 amounted to approximately €2.7 billion. Océ is listed on Euronext in Amsterdam. For more information, visit www.oce.com.
Océ Business Services provides high quality managed services and technology to manage, monitor and optimize document intensive processes so companies can improve operating efficiency and performance. Océ Business Services solutions span the document lifecycle and include records management, imaging, managed print services, mail and eDiscovery. Proprietary methodologies apply Six Sigma®. North American headquarters are in New York City and employment is about 5,000. Learn more at www.obs-innovation.com or follow us on Twitter.
Océ and Canon: Stronger together
In 2010 Océ joined the Canon Group of companies with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, to create the global leader in the printing industry. Canon develops, manufactures and markets a growing line-up of copying machines, printers, cameras, optical and other products that meet a diverse range of customer needs. The Canon Group comprises over 197,000 employees worldwide. Global net sales in 2010 were more than USD 45 billion. For more information, visit www.canon.com.
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked fourth overall in the U.S. in 2010†, with global revenues of more than US $45 billion and is listed as number six in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World’s Most Admired Companies 2010 list. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.
†Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.
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