On August 23, 2018, the Postal Service™ issued an advanced notice of proposed rule-making in the Federal Register that stated that the USPS® was considering revising content standards for all Marketing Mail. The proposed change would limit all USPS Marketing Mail, regular and nonprofit, letter-size and flat-size, to content that is only paper-based/printed matter; no… Read More

With the holiday season around the corner, our Customer Support team has been getting more and more questions regarding the coverage and dates of the Presort and Encoding Tables. Many mail shops know this time of year brings high-volume mail, and they’ll begin to receive orders much earlier than normal. To avoid the time crunch… Read More

Ready to revolutionize your business and upgrade your current NCOALink subscription? Get started using COMPLIANCE+ today!    Now that we’ve been offering COMPLIANCE+™ for a few weeks, BCC Software’s Data Marketing Services department wanted to share some FAQs with our customers. Q: What is the sequence of processes used for this service? A: Address Resolution… Read More

This is a guest article from Virtual Systems, a valued BCC Software partner. As discussed in Virtual Systems’ latest guest article, transitioning to a new software system or migrating to an updated version of a program can seem like a daunting task for everyone involved. Assigning the right people to specific roles during a software… Read More

With election season, and in turn election mailings, in full swing across the country, it’s more important than ever to know how you can maximize your postal discounts. Over the course of the past few eBulletin’s, we’ve discussed how certain services, such as DSF2® processing and mail piece tracking can play a role, and this… Read More

In a private ceremony at the US Treasury Department, Robert M. Duncan of Kentucky and David Williams of Illinois were sworn in as Governors of the U.S. Postal Service®.  Because it requires at least four Governors to have a quorum, the Board of Governors must continue to operate as a Temporary Emergency Committee (TEC). Back… Read More

On September 17, the Senate passed the STOP (Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention) Act on a 99-1 vote. The bill is an effort to stop dangerous synthetic drugs like fentanyl from entering the United States. Under the bill, the Postal Service™ will be required to collect Advanced Electronic Data (AED) like other commercial carriers FedEx… Read More

There are two buzz terms you’ve heard a lot about over the past 12-18 months — Informed Visibility® (IV) and Informed Delivery® (ID). Both are designed to position technology around mail for the future. Have you taken advantage of these tools yet? Informed Visibility Informed Visibility refers to the visibility of the mail while processing… Read More

According to their website, “the Package Coalition is an alliance of small, medium, and large businesses as well as consumers who recognize the importance of preserving affordable, reliable postal package delivery services.” Notable Coalition members include Amazon, Columbia Sportwear Company, Express Scripts, National Retail Federation, OSM Worldwide, Publishers Clearing House, and Pitney Bowes. The organization… Read More

The Postal Service™ is attempting to limit ALL USPS® Marketing Mail (previously known as Standard Mail) to only paper-based/printed matter. This could mean a significant price increase to many mailers. Comments are due October 22, 2018 — make your voices heard! Below is the Industry Alert released by the United States Postal Service®: USPS Marketing… Read More

If you’re not following us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you’re missing out on news and information about BCC Software and important, real-time industry news. Here are the three most popular posts from August: Couldn’t make this year’s Information Exchange? You can still get yourself up-to-date on what’s going on in the mailing industry in… Read More

The Delivery Point Validation, or DPV, Vacant and DPV, No Stat fields are populated during CASS™ encoding, and will indicate if an address is vacant and/or if mail is not currently being received at that location. Both of these fields are frequently overlooked by mailers when evaluating their CASS results because, after CASS encoding, these… Read More

This is a guest article from Solimar Systems, a valued BCC Software partner. The concept of a workflow is frequently discussed, especially in terms of transactional print or direct mail. However, the term can  mean different things to different people, depending on the company and context. From the Solimar Systems perspective, “workflow” is used to… Read More

On Friday, August 10th, 2018, the Postal Service™ issued an Industry Alert notifying ACS™ customers that they will resume billing for ACS services beginning August 24th.  The August 24th invoice will include charges for the fulfillment of ACS-related services for the period of July 25th through August 24th. The next invoice, scheduled for September 24th… Read More

On August 9th, the USPS® reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2018 (April 1 – June 30). The Postal Service™ posted a loss of $1.489 billion, compared with a $2.1 billion loss during Q3 of 2017. Due to the January price increase and continued growth in the package business, the Postal Service… Read More

With election season around the corner, BCC Software’s Customer Support is busier than ever helping our customers answer questions on the ins-and-outs of mailing political materials. One of the most common questions is, “what’s the difference between Political and Election mail?” On the surface they sound similar, but there are distinct differences that can have… Read More

On August 28th, Robert M. Duncan of Kentucky and David Williams of Illinois were confirmed as Governors of the U.S. Postal Service® by voice vote in the Senate. At full complement, the USPS® Board of Governors includes nine Presidentially appointed Governors, along with the Postmaster General (PMG) and the Deputy Postmaster General (DPMG). The Board… Read More

Informed Delivery from the U.S. Postal Service® has revolutionized the way America checks their mail. Launched nationwide just last year, Informed Delivery is a service that allows residential users to view letter-sized mail before it arrives via email, track and change delivery instructions for packages and larger items, and receive automatic notifications about incoming mail… Read More

A long standing enhancement request has been completed, now offering functionality where TaskMaster™ users need it most. Four Tasks have been enhanced to allow use of the “Browse” button when working with the “FILENAME” command: Import Export Sublist Unpackage At BCC Software, we’re always striving to provide best-in-class solutions to our customers. If you have any… Read More

With the USPS® moving towards a climate of lower tolerance and higher penalties for Undeliverable as Addressed (UAA) mail, the need for data cleansing is ever-increasing. BCC Software’s Address Resolution Service (ARS) and Suppression Services work to optimize your data by correcting incomplete addresses and targeting key recipients, creating a higher deliverability rate and saving… Read More

After almost four years and an extensive docket, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has approved the use of the Postal Service™’s internal measurement systems for purposes of complying with service performance measurement in the annual compliance determination. The order in Docket No. PI2015-1 approves the internal measurement system as the replacement for the legacy External… Read More

On June 28, Amazon issued a press release announcing a launch of a new offering that helps entrepreneurs start up their own companies delivering Amazon packages. The press release implies that owners can earn as much as $300,000 in annual profits with startup costs as low as $10,000. Over the past few years, the Postal Service™… Read More

Although it’s hard to predict when the Postal Service™ will (or can) raise postage rates again, it is probably safe to assume that their objective will be to raise rates in January of 2019 by the statutory limit of CPI. The last increase took place in January of 2018 and was based off the August… Read More

On July 16, House Representatives Stephen Lynch (D-MA-8) and Rodney Davis (R-IL-13) introduced a resolution, H.Res.993 – expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress should take all appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal Service® remains an independent establishment of the Federal Government and is not subject to privatization. This… Read More

If you’re not following us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you’re missing out on news and information about BCC Software and important, real-time industry updates. Here are the three most popular posts from July: The scratch-and-sniff Frozen Treats Forever set of stamps debuted a week ago. No word on how many melted during the ceremony. Learn… Read More

Customers with NCOALink® Flat Rate subscriptions, or customers using any BCC Software products for on-site NCOALink processing, will now see some new and promising results. Over the last few months, BCC Software has been working on improvements to the NCOALink matching services to deal with new scenarios that have been identified by customers due to… Read More

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know what election season means, both as a printer, mailer, and marketer, as well as a resident in the various districts. Direct mail. Billboards. Radio. Email. Social media. TV. Everywhere you turn there will be one candidate or another trying to win your vote. From a direct… Read More

The USPS® recently announced the new Enterprise Payment System (EPS), which seeks to combine and standardize multiple payment options into a single payment system for all USPS customers, with the individual nuances being attached to the account and not the method of payment. This means small business newsletters pay using the same system as high-volume… Read More

Undeliverable as Addressed, or UAA, mail has been a consistent problem across the mailing industry. To combat this, many mailers look for data services, like running CASS™, NCOALink®, ACS™, and a dozen other processes to get ahead of bad addresses. Today, it is easier than ever to see the results of these efforts, and to… Read More

On June 21, the Executive Office of the President released a report entitled Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century: Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations. The centerpiece of this White House proposal is to combine the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor into a single agency. Along with other sweeping reforms intended to… Read More

Please be advised that the USPS® recently issued the following Industry Alert that announced the retirement of the Centralized Accounting Processing System (CAPS), effective April 1, 2019: The Postal Service has launched a new payment processing platform called Enterprise Payment System (EPS). EPS supports multiple payment options, including mobile check deposit, offers more reporting features,… Read More

If you’re not following us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you’re missing out on news and information about BCC Software and important, real-time industry updates. Here are the three most popular posts from June: You don’t want to miss our annual User Conference taking place this August! Learn from industry experts, network with your peers,… Read More

On June 14, House Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) introduced postal reform legislation entitled The Postal Reform Act of 2018. The Bill, H.R. 6076, is very similar to the Postal Reform Bill, H.R. 756, introduced in January of 2017 by former Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). H.R. 6076, is co-sponsored by Representatives Steve Russell (R-OK), Dennis Ross… Read More

This is a guest article from Canon Solutions America, a valued BCC Software partner. According to a study by Primir and Interquest completed in 2015 entitled Trends and Future of Direct Mail Through 2020, many printers anticipate continued growth in their direct mail volume in coming years. Some of the reasons for this include advances… Read More

Most of our NCOALink® customers are very familiar with the term PAF (Processing Acknowledgement Form), which is a required USPS® document for NCOALink processing. As an NCOALink licensee, BCC Software is expected to have a PAF on file for every List Owner and it must be renewed annually. With that said, BCC Software’s PAF Management… Read More

To keep up with customer satisfaction, Microsoft has slowly been removing vulnerabilities in their operating systems and last year began the process of decommissioning an old messaging protocol called SMBv1. As of the Windows 10 version 1803, it has been all but eliminated from every supported Microsoft operating system. However, this has left some configurations… Read More

Ever in a pinch to renew software? Do you find yourself needing to purchase prepaid credits at the last minute? Well, BCC Software has the solution for you. By utilizing our Customer Portal, you have the ability to renew software, options, or subscriptions, and access the Data Services (DS) Store to purchase prepaid credits. How… Read More

The Shipping Services file, used for IMPB submissions, has recently gone through several changes related to how it’s submitted. This has been widely documented and has gone smoothly for the most part. However, there has been a change to how it can be created, which has not been well documented, and why we are dedicating… Read More

Since we last reported in the May eBulletin, the President’s Task Force has been actively meeting with industry stakeholders. Gary Grippo, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Finance, U.S. Department of Treasury, is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s designate and is leading the Task Force. Meetings have been held with many of the leading mailing organizations, including… Read More

Please be advised that the USPS® recently issued the following Industry Alert that affects Address Change Service (ACS) customers: “ACS customers please be advised that USPS has identified a discrepancy in the invoices that were produced for the April and May billing cycles.  We are requesting that you DO NOT pay the invoices for either… Read More

If you’re not following us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you’re missing out on news and information about BCC Software and important, real-time industry news. Here are the three most popular posts from May: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” We’ve got a bunch… Read More

As reported in our May eBulletin, on April 18th the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee held a confirmation hearing for three nominees to the USPS® Board of Governors. Since that report, the Committee voted favorably (by unanimous voice vote) to send the nominations of David Williams and Robert M. Duncan to the full Senate.… Read More