British Gas fulfils its print and distribution commitments from one ‘virtual’ center – albeit a center located across two sites. Both the Manchester and Northampton sites are equipped with six 9 Series Pitney Bowes inserters, and with Pitney Bowes’ Direct Connect™ processing software. Effectively, the sites are a mirror image of one another, a decision made both for contingency purposes and also to provide extra capacity when required.

As with any billing application, integrity is paramount. The sensitive information contained within bills and statements demands that this documentation is delivered to the right person at the right time without fail. Following the deregulation of the utilities sector and the resulting competition for customers, any communication error is increasingly likely to be punished by customer defection. British Gas is using Direct Connect, along with other complementary software, for tracking and reporting purposes.

Alan Sperry, Planning and Services Manager at British Gas, comments: “We operate a totally file-based mailing solution. Direct Connect reads all the information from the print file via a bar code and gives each mail item a unique identifier. File-based processing means that the inserter already knows the nature of the next mail-piece before it arrives at the machine. So, for example, the inserter immediately knows which inserts to add to the main document and is immediately aware if, for any reason, the mail piece fails to complete.

“The input file – i.e. what should have happened – is verified against the output file – what actually happened. The file can’t be flagged as having been mailed until the complete set of documents that make up an individual mail piece have been accounted for.

“If a processing error does occur, Direct Connect gives us the flexibility to decide whether the error is serious enough to halt processing or not. Sometimes, for example, a missed insert would not warrant any delay whereas a page missing from a bill certainly would. In this way, we can ensure that productivity is maximized.”

The inserter profiles at both the Manchester and Northampton sites are networked, enabling production to be split between machines when necessary. This provides a further productivity boost, with Direct Connect continuing to monitor production performance across the site.

Increasingly, Alan Sperry’s mail processing team liases closely with the British Gas Marketing department in order to maximize the potential of bills and statements as a vehicle for marketing messages and cross selling.

Alan continues: “British Gas was one of the first utilities companies to “billboard” marketing messages on the bill itself. We found that the campaigns that simply included inserts with the bill weren’t producing the desired level of response. It gave the customer another piece of paper to read and, more often than not, ended up being filed in the bin!

“Now, with the aid of DOC1 we are able to tailor messages and offers to the recipient. Marketing flags are put within the data stream and these are interpreted within DOC 1. So, one customer might receive a message alerting them to electrical services, while another customer might receive something on our home services provision. Working with the marketing team, our targeting and tailoring of each bill continues to develop.

“At present, many of the messages focus on attempting to migrate customers from hard-copy bills to receiving electronic versions. From a cost-per-message point of view, such a move obviously benefits British Gas since electronic communications are more cost-effective to process. But there will always be a significant proportion of customers who are used to dealing with us in a certain way and who will still demand their bills through the post. The challenge is to ensure that each customer continues to receive the correct communication via the channel of their choice.”

Operating two ‘mirror-image’ sites certainly paid dividends back in April1998, when a flood at the Northampton site saw the contingency plans rushed into action.

Alan concludes: “The flood resulted in the print centre being swamped by four feet of water. However, we were able to ship all work and a number of staff to Manchester and, with the help of Pitney Bowes’ team, continue to fulfil our commitments until the Northampton site was fit to resume normal production.

“Overall, our seven year relationship with Pitney Bowes has been extremely fruitful. Together, we’ve developed many processes that have been of benefit to both parties – a true partnership approach.

“Postal service deregulation will present the next major challenge to the industry. We will continue to work closely with Pitney Bowes in order to maximise any opportunities that may arise from this development.”

[Pull-out box – The APS beta test]
Partnership in Action
Pitney Bowes has caused a genuine buzz with the APS system since its first European showing at the IDMF.

Prior to the launch of the APS to the European market, our product development team required a beta test site that would enable us to monitor the inserter’s performance in a high-volume, file-based transactional environment. Only through thorough live testing of this kind can our technology be finally honed for the marketplace.

British Gas played an important role in the development of this cutting-edge technology. Peter Mayley, Product Manager at Pitney Bowes takes up the story:

“Through our existing relationship with British Gas we knew that file-based processing was key to their operation. We wanted to test the APS using this kind of high-integrity application.

“Additionally, the British Gas team have always placed great importance on detailed management reporting procedures. They regularly produce statistical reports enabling the performance of the entire site to be carefully monitored. By integrating the APS into this environment we knew that we would receive comprehensive feedback from the British Gas operators. This feedback has proved invaluable in the ongoing development of the APS.

“We are extremely grateful to Alan Sperry and his team. Obviously, when conducting beta tests, we try and keep any disruption to a minimum, but there will always be one or two occasions where we rely on the goodwill of the host site. That is why beta testing relies on a great partnership and a shared understanding of the benefits of these pre-launch testing procedures.”

Alan Sperry adds:

“Using our Northampton site as a Beta test site was beneficial to both parties. From our side, we were able to immediately trial the latest technology and to really put the inserter through its paces. Our comments and suggestions to Pitney Bowes will lead to further modifications and further productivity gains.

“For Pitney Bowes, it was important for their team to see the APS in a real-life high-volume, UK transactional mail environment. Only in this way can the engineer’s learn more about the technology’s capabilities.

“The machine was effectively born from the feedback of industry professionals and it shows. Clearly, the APS represents the new generation of mailing machines.”