Jersey Post is an essential part of the infrastructure of Jersey, providing postal services to all households and businesses on the island. Six years ago, Jersey Post set up its ProMail business, with the aim of providing bulk mailers within offshore jurisdictions with high volume, high quality mailing capabilities. This service covers mailers in Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man – even extending as far afield as the Caribbean.

Recently, Jersey Post made the decision to move into multi-channel messaging, providing clients with digital delivery options through its ProMail division.

Simon Le Huray, Head of Business Development, Jersey Post ProMail, states: “When we looked at the volumes of mail we were handling, we concluded that thirty per cent of the mail is transactional, for example bank statements and bills. Of that thirty per cent, a further twelve per cent generates a return mailing such as a receipt or a response to a query. So, of the post that we were processing, a substantial amount had the potential to be transformed into electronic communications.

“Obviously, from Jersey Post’s point-of-view, this fact represented a potential threat. If we didn’t have the capacity to handle these electronic communications, we ran the risk of witnessing a significant drop in volumes and profitability. By taking the multi-channel approach, we turned the situation to our advantage.

“Ideally, we wanted a turnkey solution that would enable us to develop the functionality as our business needs dictated. This is exactly the approach that Pitney Bowes DMT presented to us. It was also crucial that our stringent quality levels were also maintained. Jersey is a key offshore finance centre and 70% of the work we process is for financial companies. Obviously, quality and integrity are vital here.”

The Island of Jersey is divided into 12 parishes, much like the UK’s county councils. Each parish is required to send out regular rates bills to parishioners – the equivalent of English council tax bills. For three of the Island’s parishes, ProMail is providing a multi-channel bill presentment and payment service using Streamweaver and Digital Document Delivery (D3) software from the Pitney Bowes DMT portfolio.

Le Huray continues: “Pitney Bowes was able to provide a tailored and unique solution which matched our requirements.

“StreamWeaver enables us to offer our customers the benefits of print-stream engineering. Here, we are able to dynamically identify the criteria within a print-stream to enable us to automatically select the right inserts to add to the mailpiece or to add marketing messages to the document itself prior to printing. This brings our customers one step closer to true one-to-one communication.

“Effectively, we are aiming to become an integral part of our customers’ one-to-one marketing strategy, emphasising the key role that transactional mail can play in delivering personalised communications.

“Streamweaver works hand in hand with the D3 technology. For the three parishes we are using Streamweaver to process a physical bill production through the post whilst simultaneously sending all data through the D3 servers, so parishioners can log-on, see their bill online and actually pay online.

“D3 also provides us with an invaluable reporting mechanism which identifies those customers that haven’t responded to the electronic delivery, enabling us to alert the billers. Further to this, Streamweaver allows us to set up defaults so that all those that haven’t paid can be sent a physical bill. “

The rates bill sent out on behalf of the three parishes is in two parts – an assessment first (giving recipients the opportunity to appeal) and then a bill which is effectively a final demand.

Le Huray, states: “We did a small campaign earlier this year which enabled people to view their assessment statement online. Our pilot area consisted of around 5000 homes. We expected one percent of this this target audience to sign up to receive electronic statements – the overall total was more like five per cent. Of this five per cent, one per cent have actually paid their bill online.”

It is not just the local parishes that are investigating EBPP. ProMail’s financial customers are also getting involved. Le Huray states: “We are currently piloting a ‘thick consolidation’ solution for one of our international banking customers. Here, every statement from the bank that we print, insert and post is also delivered to be hosted on the web. This means that the bank’s customer service team can access the information immediately and are able to provide customers with instant information relating to that statement.

“The plan is to archive these statements for three months so that customer services can print and post copies should customers request them. This solution can quickly and easily migrate to one which customers can use themselves, calling up their own statements via use of a password.”

ProMail’s EBPP solution represents a truly trans-Atlantic operation. The D3 server is completely outsourced, based at Pitney Bowes’ data centre in Danbury U.S. Streamweaver is run from ProMail’s Jersey site, although staff received training from Pitney Bowes DMT professionals both in America and the UK.

In the coming months, ProMail plan to build their own D3 server in Jersey, specifically for the delivery of bank statements and other financial information. This is chiefly a data protection safeguard. The company will also develop its integrity reporting sophistication. Currently, ProMail uses two Pitney Bowes DMT Series 8 inserters alongside one Series 9 solution. The Series 9 features Direct Connect – the Pitney Bowes monitoring and tracking solution, which provides ProMail’s operators with exact intelligence on the movement of data and documents.

Le Huray concludes: “The integrity issue is extremely important. The long-term plan is to be able to barcode each mailbag that leaves the mailhouse – this will then be read when received at the Post Office. Further to tracking bags in this way, we are also looking to track down to mailpiece level, so that we are able to give customers precise details on the status and location of every item.

“Historically, we have dealt with operational or IT people. Now, we are working increasingly with marketing people, with the message that transactional mail can play a significant role in any communications strategy.

“Having the technology to deliver the right message, to the right person at the right time is extremely powerful. Now, we also have the capability of delivering that message in the format of choice for the customer – whether electronically or by post.

“The ongoing relationship with Pitney Bowes DMT has been vital, our solution is continually developing.”