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| Mail Center Management Tips |
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March 2008
Greetings!
Variable Data Printing (VDP) is much on the minds of a lot of people in the document industry these days. And for good reason. Finally, there are quality, mature tools available that allow document professionals to do an excellent job at creating marketing materials, bills, statements, or notices that can communicate with mail recipients on an individualized basis. There are a number of great composition packages with the capability to create documents with variable images, customized messages, manage the white space on statements, and manage package weight for postage optimization. You can choose between high speed monochrome lasers, digital full color presses, spot color printers, and inkjets to put those individualized documents on paper at acceptable production speeds. Inserting devices have advanced to include the kind of integrity controls necessary to make sure each recipient gets the right piece of mail. Some can even make the envelope on the fly. For those that really want to make an impression, there are some nifty image-manipulation products that can incorporate customer-specific data right into the photos and images included on the documents. Even the USPS has gotten into the act, by lowering the postage on the second ounce of first class mail. This allows us to add pages to a statement mailing that can contain customer-specific graphs, a detailed account analysis, or targeted marketing content at a lower cost than producing a stand-alone mailing. So why does it seem to be so difficult to undertake projects that can utilize all this advanced capability? Why are our mailboxes still stuffed with mail pieces that contain irrelevant or untimely information and offers? Restrictions to entering the VDP world Money is one big factor, of course. Companies that have millions of dollars invested in shop equipment, processes, and software dedicated to fast and efficient high-volume operations are going to be cautious about changing over to an environment that produces documents aimed at an audience of one, if doing so requires additional expense. The other big hurdle to overcome is data. In a lot of organizations, the customer information that is necessary to produce effective individualized communications is neither centralized nor guaranteed to be accurate. And often, there is no clear ownership of the entire customer communications strategy - if such a strategy even exists! But what is keeping a lot of organizations from creating individualized documents is that to do so effectively, document managers must adopt a different mindset. Instead of concentrating on the commodity- based model of cost per piece, companies that intend to use variable data to drive their marketing messages need to be looking at a return on investment. Changing how we think about mail Few people that have made their careers in the document production business ever thought about mail as an investment. And neither have their customers - internal or external. Almost all in-plant print and mail operations are on their company's books strictly as cost centers, meaning that there is a continuous focus on driving down their operating expenses. The operations managers focus most of their attention on getting the work done accurately, on time, and at the lowest cost. Considering the revenue- producing value of the documents that they create isn't something that document operations people spend a lot of time contemplating. And service bureaus are painfully aware that many of their customers are often shopping for the cheapest price and will change vendors in a heartbeat for a few pennies-per- statement savings. So just getting to the point where document operations and their customers can even talk about how individualized documents can have a positive effect on sales, customer retention, or customer service requires both groups to set aside their well- established ideas about how things should be done. Spending any money at all on something that doesn't increase productivity or decrease costs is a new concept. Operations doesn't really know how to justify the up front and ongoing VDP expense and the customers certainly don't want to pay for it. A time of opportunity I see this as a chance for document operations managers to educate and enlighten their users for the betterment of all. This is an opportunity to move the print and mail operations out of the basement and closer to the executive floors in the minds of their customers. They can be an important enabler of their company's strategic direction. Most document operations managers can't do that alone. They are going to need help because they are in unfamiliar territory. Getting educated about the mechanics of doing VDP work is important and necessary, and many operations managers would naturally stop there. But continuing their education so that they can understand and communicate the corporate benefits of VDP documents is essential if document operations management is going to enlist the support of sales, marketing, and executive management. Next month's newsletter will address some ways that operations managers can get the knowledge they need and some approaches they can take within their organizations to get the full value of variable data printing appreciated by key groups.
NEW! Sincerely,  Mike Porter
Print/Mail Consultants
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