A major initiative of C-level executives today is to use new technologies to build a tightly integrated environment that ensures that profile updates and marketing responses from every interaction with the recipient becomes part of the corporate knowledge base. Mail operations executives will need to prepare to proactively influence the revenue generating activity of their organization by feeding data from the mail stream back into the enterprise.

Print and mail finishing operations can no longer view themselves as an isolated function for distributing print or digital records of business transactions. Each piece of mail is a vital customer touch point. Intelligent mail can deliver significant benefits back to the enterprise by linking output documents with call center operations, security tracking and marketing campaign management. Precision tracking helps the enterprise save money and can lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Pitney Bowes has created a software solution that can not only track and trace each mail piece through the entire messaging cycle, but that also provides companies with a way to tie backend data to a dynamic, re-engineered, Web-based front-end customer interface.

Pitney Bowes enables businesses to re-engineer their flow of communications by capturing customer interaction data from the document creation process, rendering it both on the document and in control files that synchronize with the feeds from physical flow data, and then providing the information via browser-based reporting systems to key business processes such as finance and treasury operations, call center functions, security tracking and marketing campaign management.

This software solution provides a means to verify mail piece integrity, track on the piece-level, obtain proof of mailing and acceptance processing, aid in fraud detection and collection efforts, facilitate image archiving, integrate with customer call centers and self-help resources, and provide early detection of undeliverable mail as well as proactive delivery notification.

Intelligent mail will be a cornerstone of a competitive company’s Customer Relationship Management strategy, capitalizing on the synergies of all customer touch points. Looking ahead, intelligent mail will prove to be the new ‘secret weapon’ for innovative industry leaders to gain market share in 2003.