September 30, 2009

Intelligent Mail Services Update

GREAT WEBINAR OPPORTUNITY – Full-Service ACS™ & Mail.XML^® Messaging: Full-Service ACS is one of the primary benefits of implementing the Intelligent Mail® Full-Service option. Mail owners can receive change of address and nixie information at no charge.

We will offer our next Intelligent Mail topical Webinar on Friday, October 2, 2:00-4:00 p.m. EDT. The session is entitled Full-Service ACS & Mail.XML Messaging. We will discuss Full-Service ACS and provide in-depth explanations of how to utilize Mail.XML messaging to initiate the Full-Service ACS feedback.

The link, phone number, and meeting ID for this exciting presentation are posted on RIBBS™>Intelligent Mail Services>Latest News.

Our original Full-Service ACS presentation is posted on RIBBS and entitled Full-Service Benefits: Full-Service ACS.

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 are posted on RIBBS>Intelligent Mail Services>Latest News>PostalOne! Release Notes.

Guides & Specifications Updates: On October 9, updated guides will be posted to RIBBS. Highlighting principal enhancements only: A Guide to Intelligent Mail for Letters and Flats, Section 4 was enhanced to more fully describe the data and data-distribution methods available to Full-Service customers. The User Access to Electronic Mailing Information Reports Guide Volume II, Full-Service Address Correction Data Elements (Exhibit B), per industry request, two new fields were added to the layout of the ACS download report: the old address delivery point ZIP Code^® and the new address delivery point ZIP Code.

On October 2, the USPS^® will publish the updated draft of the Postal Service Mail.dat Technical Specification on RIBBS>Intelligent Mail Services>Guides to enhance the description of existing file validations, enhance the description of the PostalOne! Release 22, and describe the use of the USPS Mail.dat Client to upload Mail.dat 08-2 files, which will be available November 15. Industry comments sent to imb@usps.gov will be considered for the updated version until October 6. The updated version will be published October 16.

Child Postage Statement Issue: Some mailers have experienced delays in processing large volume electronic statements especially those that generate a large number of child statements. The Postal Service is aggressively pursuing a reengineering strategy for processing jobs that produce large numbers of child postage statements. This strategy focuses on continuing to provide the data required by mailers and the Postal Service without generating child statements.

Full-Service Intelligent Answers: We conduct weekly telecons entitled Full-Service Intelligent Answers. The calls continue this Friday from 1:00-2:00 p.m. 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.

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.