Pricing & Classification DMM Advisory

Message board to keep postal customers informed of changes to mailing standards, services, and prices.

September 23, 2009

Intelligent Mail® Services Update

PostalOne!® Release 21.0.2: A software upgrade on October 4 will resolve the issue some Periodicals mailers have experienced accessing the Edition Weight worksheet, the Advertising Percentage worksheet, and the related master postage statements. This release will resolve the unexpected connection errors some mailers have experienced uploading Mail.dat files to the Postal Service™. The release notes for this upgrade will be posted on RIBBS™ on September 24.

PostalOne! Release 22: We will deploy a software upgrade for Full-Service on November 15 in PostalOne! Release 22.0 for the price change that will be effective November 29, 2009. This release will address functionality to support the discounts for Full-Service and enhanced Mail.XML® capabilities.

Mail.dat® 8-1, 8-2: The Postal Service will discontinue support of Mail.dat 8-1 with the implementation of PostalOne! Release 22.0 on November 15, 2009. Mail.dat 8-2 submissions via the current applet and batch submission methods will continue to be supported until March 2010. An alternate Mail.dat 8-2 submission method via the new Mail.dat Client will be available starting November 15, 2009. After the PostalOne! Release 24.0 in March 2010, the Mail.dat Client will be the only method for submitting Mail.dat files to the Postal Service. Mailers are encouraged to migrate to Mail.dat 9-1. Mailers unable to migrate to Mail.dat 9-1 should begin testing Mail.dat 8-2 using the Mail.dat Client starting November 15, 2009.

Business Customer Gateway Enhancements: Effective September 18, 2009, the following functionality was added to the Business Customer Gateway:
– Business Service Administrators can create service access requests on behalf of users they manage. This is available via the "Request Access" button on the "Manage User Access" page.
– Users can cancel a Help Desk service access request made on their behalf. This is available via the "Request Status" page.

2nd Webinar: Sunset of Mail.dat 8-1 & Migration of Mail.dat 8-2 to the MDR Client: The next Intelligent Mail Webinar is scheduled for Friday, September 25, 2:00-4:00 PM EDT. We will share the timeline for the retirement of Mail.dat 8-1. We will describe the new method for submitting Mail.dat 8-2 files via the Mail.dat Client. Reference the Intelligent Mail Latest News article on RIBBS to obtain the specifics for accessing the webinar.

Full-Service Intelligent Answers: We conduct weekly telecons entitled Full-Service Intelligent Answers. The calls continue this Friday from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. These calls are for customers who are testing file submission in the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) or for customers who have migrated to using Full-Service in production and have questions or are experiencing issues. Mailers can exchange information among themselves and postal experts are available to answer questions. If you are currently testing in TEM or have successfully completed the TEM process, but have not received an invitation to the calls, please contact the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085.

Intelligent Mail Symposium: The next IMb University is scheduled for Tuesday, October 6, in Columbus OH. The presentations from the July 16 symposium are posted on RIBBS under Presentations, Intelligent Mail Symposium 7/16/2009 Ft. Worth TX.

National Postal Forum: Save the date. The 2010 National Postal Forum is scheduled for April 11-14 in Nashville TN.

Assistance: Please call the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 if you have any questions or problems accessing the Business Customer Gateway, your accounts, or submitting electronic documentation. The PostalOne! Help Desk is accessible from Canada at no charge