Title of Mail Center of the Year Awarded to the State of Colorado

The State of Colorado's Integrated Document Solutions (IDS) was selected as IPMA's 2012 Mail Center of the Year. This award, established in 1999, recognizes an entire corporate mail center for outstanding improvements in the areas of new technology, cost savings and processes. "We are very honored and excited to receive this award," IDS Northern Regional Manager Mike Lincoln explains. "To be recognized by our peers and in-plant community is truly humbling. We would like to thank our division leadership as well as all our partners both internal and external for the opportunities and support they have given us."

IDS, which offers assistance to all government entities under the State of Colorado's umbrella, has made huge advancements in establishing itself as a full-service document management/publishing agency. "It has indeed been an amazing year of growth and evolution, reinventing ourselves to meet the ever-changing needs of today's government," Lincoln notes. "We have established a position of relevance, and are no longer viewed as the mailroom, but rather a key strategic partner to all of our customers in local municipalities, counties and state agencies."

Major Strides in 2011

The mail team implemented several strategies:

·         An estimated $1.6 million was saved in postage with the installation of a new Pitney Bowes Olympus letter sorter that allows for 5 digit presorting.

·         The addition of a Flat Manifesting System paid for itself in less than 9 months, saving the taxpayer a minimum of $100,000 in postage during 2011.

·         Productivity increased by 30% thanks in part to a new inserter, letter sorter and inkjet printer.

·         By presorting flats with the new Pitney Bowes EZ Flats system, these items now qualify for postage discounts.

·         Hand labor and set-up time on the floor inserters have been minimized by adding a tabletop inserter.

·         A new electronic ordering system was created to allow customers to include with their mail request the bill code, mail rate and contact information. These elements have aided in processing mail jobs more efficiently.

·         Each job submitted by customers is now analyzed to identify any avenues that could be pursued to deliver a savings in postage, labor and materials.

·         The implementation of daily production meetings has significantly increased communication among customer service, mail and print.

Looking at Mail Cleansing from a New Perspective

Problem:

In the past, in order for government agencies to receive presort discounts; they ran the mailing pieces through the National Change of Address (NCOA) registry at the final mailing stage. Unfortunately, at the final stage, all of the printing has been done and the postage has already been applied - causing a lot of wasted materials and money before the mailing ever leaves the building. The IDS mail team began brainstorming ways to cut out the waste and arrived at a very creative, money-saving solution.

Solution:

Using the NCOA database as the foundation, IDS created its own Address Quality Program that cleanses the database at the beginning of the process before any of the materials are produced or any postage has been affixed. "It gives our agencies a roadmap of their mailing from the very beginning," explains Mike Sexson, IDS Project Manager, who helped to design the new program. "Our government agencies view mailings very differently now."

The newly-created program sorts databases into 5 groups:

·                     Good addresses;

·                     Fixed addresses that are delivery point validated;

·                     Moved addresses that now have new addresses;

·                     Moved addresses that can no longer be reached;

·                     Undeliverable addresses that are just bad.

$150,000 Savings on One Mailing

If you approach every mailing with a database that has gone through this quality cleansing process, you have the opportunity to save a significant amount of time, money, and waste, plus you still qualify for postal discounts. Considering as many as 20% of the addresses found in some of the databases were corrupt, this adds up to be a huge savings. On just one mailing alone, the state was able to save $150,000.

If you know up front that a specified number of pieces will not be able to be delivered, you don't need to produce or attempt to mail them out. And if legally you must attempt to mail pieces that you know are undeliverable, you can send them out the cheapest way possible and in the least expensive format. That can translate into a significant savings especially for agencies such as the Elections Department where a 50-cent surcharge is added to each mailing piece. The Secretary of the State Elections Department has been so impressed with the results; it is now running the SCORE database that houses the voter registration information for all 64 counties through the Address Quality Program every 95 days.  

First and Only State to Serve as a Licensed NCOA Vendor

By thinking outside the box, IDS has become the first and only state in the nation to serve as its own licensed NCOA vendor.

Analyzed the Interdepartmental Delivery System

To provide maximum efficiency and savings to customers, IDS also conducted a detailed analysis of its Interdepartmental Delivery System. "We wanted to evaluate the unique needs of each agency and our role in their continued operational success," explains Lincoln. To identify those elements, IDS developed a service request. When customers use this form, IDS can more easily determine not only each customer's needs, but also any operational time constraints of the various agencies. "On the form we incorporated an area for new contact information, as well as current bill codes."

To help in developing new and more efficient mail routes, IDS procured hardware and software to track packages travelling through the network. Using the information and route development software, IDS was then able to create routes that significantly reduced the number of miles traveled and time spent between stops. Amazingly, 50% of the routes have been reduced, as well as miles traveled and fuel used.

Added Archival Services

In 2011 IDS Mail Operations also launched another special service -- archiving customer hard copy files. The idea was born when a high security state agency with documents archived across the state was searching for a way to consolidate its materials in one easily accessible location. Because the reproduction and storage facilities of IDS are secured areas, requiring official clearance, the agency reached out to the mail team for suggestions. "It was our security procedures and our speed in delivering requested documents that sold the customer," explains Lincoln.  In May 2011 the agency made the decision to move its entire archived inventory from three cities outside Denver to the IDS Mail Operations northern facility within the metro area. "When customers need a box, we deliver it within 24 hours and in most cases 8 hours," Lincoln proudly notes. This project was completed in October 2011 and has been a key factor in obtaining Federal Accreditation for this state agency customer.

Lincoln adds, "We continually strive to eliminate inefficient and outdated practices by taking advantage of 21st century technology so that we can provide our customers with high-quality and cost effective document solutions."

The State of Colorado's IDS Mail Operations was formally recognized during IPMA's  Awards Banquet, held June 27 in Kansas City in conjunction with IPMA's annual conference.