Product category:
Direct Mail Printing and Services
News Release from: Pitney Bowes | Subject: Automated document factory (ADF) system
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 May 2007
GBP2m Automated Document Factory
Development
To manage sophisticated production processes, direct mail production provider CDMS has installed almost GBP2 million in an upgrade to its production facilities, with Pitney Bowes and IBM.
The Liverpool (UK) company has installed an automated document factory (ADF) system from Pitney Bowes, incorporating the firm's DF Works software that manages workflow, productivity reporting and document lifecycle tracking At the document production end, CDMS also invested in two new IBM 4100s to complement its Oce printing systems, along with IBM's Infoprint workflow software
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 11 May 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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According to Pitney Bowes, CDMS needed insertion systems that were not only fast and sophisticated, but could also offer a range of tolerances.
And CDMS director, Martyn Viquerat, commented: "Clever targeting of mailpacks in financial services or government is one level of challenge, especially as they require reliable track and trace systems that can report and prove exactly what went to whom in what envelope, all of which they require for the stringent compliance duties." He continued: "But there is a whole other set of challenges - possibly even more demanding - encountered in the retail, e-commerce and mail order sector.
Here we are talking about automated production that can handle glossy, weighty, spine-glued items, which presented paper transport demands that, frankly, only the Pitney Bowes system could reliably handle." Viquerat said that the three new Pitney Bowes APS systems are amongst the highest specification in the UK, which is vital to CDMS.
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A new report from mail and messaging specialist Pitney Bowes reveals that businesses are now devoting more marketing budget to existing customers than to prospecting activity.
The company's remote shopping clients are getting heavily in to part catalogues, where only relevant sections are mailed to each customer according to their profile and value.
Claimed to be the seventh largest direct mail production company by volume in the UK, CDMS manages customer and prospect communications, from sourcing, conditioning and cleaning data, through prospect pool and customer database management, analysis and insight.
It also provides campaign management, to multi-channel messaging production, using the latest techniques for personalisation and targeting.
Martyn Viquerat explained: "Our customers, who are mainly in finance, retail or government, are very astute and informed buyers.
They know all about available standards in targeted messaging and they expect us, as one of the country's leading providers, to stay ahead of the pack.
With variable text and images, as well as variable insertions the amount of targeting that can now be automated reliably at the mail production stage is awesome." He continued: "But capability is nothing without result.
Our recent research shows that two fifths of all direct mail production is now using some form of variable colour.
In other words, we have hit the stage of mainstream adoption.
And the reason for this groundswell towards targeted imagery is because on average, it produces a 30 per cent uplift in response." Viquerat added that CDMS has seen many instances of response doubling or even tripling, especially where text, imagery and insertions are targeted to the recipient.
At the same time, targeted mailing meant less wastage and a more responsible outlook towards the world.
He added that automation is critical to make such operations commercially viable.
The technology for variable mailing production has been around for a while and what the industry is now seeing is the technology supporting a high speed, automated production.
However, targeting has increased the need for reliable integrity.
CDMS is processing time-critical campaigns, to very tight schedules and incorporating increasing variability.
That means a company has to be very sure that its technology's inbuilt integrity systems can accurately and rapidly backtrace its steps when a jam, or some other spoiled output occurs and pick up where it left off, said Viquerat.
And he added: "Integrity is not only critical in the highly regulated financial services environment but it is also vital to brand management.
Targeted mailing produces strong response uplift but if the wrong thing is sent to the wrong person, the damage it can cause is concomitantly destructive of brand image.
So we decided to invest in the latest mailing technology, an automated document factory (ADF), from the company we judged to be the clear leader at this end of the field - Pitney Bowes." According to Pitney Bowes, CDMs believes that its latest system investments touch exactly on the three areas that a leader in the field needs to excel at - tight workflow systems, truly high speed variable colour production and automated insertion that can cope with any amount of variability with the highest levels of integrity.
Viquerat commented: "We are a 24-hour, six days-a-week operation, with a capacity to produce over 80 million mailing items per month.
Interestingly, our new investments also mark a reduction in hardware but an increase in capacity, especially for modern and sophisticated communications.
We have managed, through this upgrade investment, to reduce our production equipment from 32 pieces of insertion equipment to just 16, consolidated in one single site, yet at the same time improve and extend our output capacity." CDMS is the mail production facility for home shopping companies such as Littlewoods and Shop Direct, as well as supporting such clients as MBNA, LloydsTSB, Nationwide, Royal Mail, British Gas, The Daily Telegraph and the Department for Work and Pensions.
The company added that it is an outsourced partner entrusted with the accuracy and integrity of its clients' customer and prospect communications, which is a heavy responsibility that it meets through a combination of rigorous management and the best available technology.
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