ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — Postal-related products and services took some of the focus off of the USPS' highly publicized budget woes at the Mailcom '99 mail communication convention earlier this month, which was attended by more than 8,000 mailers.
Here are the highlights:
International Shipping. The Fala Group, Farmingdale, NY, a mailing services company, has added FalaIMS, an international mail division, to its roster services. According to the company, this division — which uses a combination of the U.S. Postal Service's international services along with direct injection into foreign postal services — offers tighter control and postage savings of up to 30 percent.
QuickMail, a division of Quick International Courier, New York, has enhanced its services in Canada, making it possible for U.S. businesses to establish distribution hubs there. The company also announced a series of new service offerings directed at companies doing business in Canada, including mail distribution services such as Priority, Printed Matter and Publication Services; parcel distribution services such as Urgent, Express, Ground, and Custom-Free Parcel; a Return Maintenance Program; and Warehousing and Pick-and-Pack services, which allow U.S. businesses to set up storage facilities in Canada. QuickMail has added dedicated customer service centers in all of its facilities — including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Windsor, Ontario — allowing for easy access to the status of their distributions.
Addressing/PreSort/Data Quality Software. Firstlogic Inc., La Crosse, WI, said that its International Address Correction and Encoding software, version 1.31, has been approved by Australia Post in accordance with the Address Matching Approval System for the 1998/1999 AMAS cycle. The software is the first from a U.S. vendor to receive AMAS approval.
Group 1 Software, Lanham, MD, together with Window Book, Cambridge, MA, unveiled PostMaster MSP software. By directly interfacing Window Books' postage settlement preparation software with Group 1's Presort Accuracy Evaluation Test (PAVE)-certified presort software MailStream Plus, mailers can produce PAVE-approved postage statement facsimiles and Drop Ship Clearance Documents. Through a weight verification module, mailers also can weigh pallets and other containers and then determine the number of pieces being shipped. The calculation can then be used to reconcile postage statements. PostMaster MSP allows users to update mail.dat files — the industry file standard that allows users to pass transportation and planning mailing data, postage documentation data and postage payment forms to one another in a standard format — for the USPS' Postal One program. This electronic documentation business capability for First-Class, Standard A and Standard B mail is scheduled to begin this summer
Anchor Computer, Farmingdale, NY, introduced two new products as part of the launch of its software division. List Reformat/Valuator converts multiple file layouts to fixed or custom formats to standardize outputs and optimize efficiency. Artificial intelligence automatically reconfigures name and address input to user-customized output formats. DatabaseGenius creates, consolidates and updates relational databases and uses Anchor's Image Crusher Merge/Perge Logic to eliminate duplicates.
Addressing/presort software was introduced by Datatech SmartSoft Inc., Conshohocken, PA. It's product, SmartAddresser USA — which features AccuMail, a database marketing and mailing software product — allows U.S. users to manage all direct marketing functions by storing customer lists and customer data in one place. According to Datatech, the Windows-based software offers users the ability to lower postage rates, import/export from 13 data formats, and presort all classes of mail.
