BCC Mail Manager™ is a robust program, but like any software platform, there are simple maintenance steps that need to be performed regularly to maintain a consistent performance level. This articles delves into basic steps that can be taken within the software to maintain and improve performance. All of these focus on files and folders… Read More

The Postal Service™’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Integrated Financial Plan (IFP) was filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission on November 20, 2018. As anticipated, the USPS® expects continuing financial challenges and loss of volume. The IFP projects a controllable loss of $3.1 billion and a net loss of $6.6 billion. Volume is projected to decrease… Read More

As the end of the year approaches, many people are preparing for the USPS® rate changes that will go into effect on January 27, 2019. Anything that mails before January 27 must be prepared with the old rates and anything that mails on or after January 27 must be prepared with the new rates. This can cause… Read More

BCC Software’s Data Marketing Services (DMS) team has been receiving many questions from customers regarding the necessary steps for submitting Process Acknowledgement Forms (PAFs), so we wanted to take the opportunity to break down the different steps for submitting an ePAF vs a hardcopy PAF. The ePAF (electronic) is a paperless option for adding and/or… Read More

This is a guest article from Crawford Technologies, a valued BCC Software partner. There is widespread agreement that automating a production workflow has numerous benefits. Automation reduces errors and lets you do more with fewer resources. It supports increased throughput, allows you to make better use of your equipment, and gives you the tools and… Read More

On November 13, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approved the Postal Service™’s proposed prices for both Market Dominant and Competitive products as filed. Also approved were the promotions the USPS® proposed as part of its Market Dominant filing. Both sets of rates will be implemented as planned on January 27, 2019. In its order, the… Read More

BCC Software Is pleased to announce the next significant piece of functionality for Integratec® API — postage statements. The latest release of Integratec (18.23) includes the ability to produce your postage statements directly to PDF as part of your integrated workflow. The statement functionality is inspired by the broad features in BCC Mail Manager™, with… Read More

The USPS® released the following Industry Alert on October 25, 2018: USPS Representatives will be hosting Open Line calls to discuss the technical specifications in support of the proposed January 2019 Price Changes. The calls are scheduled for Monday’s and Wednesday’s at 1:00pm Eastern and will occur weekly  beginning Monday, October 29, 2018 through Wednesday,… Read More

The USPS® announced promotions for 2019 and released the following Industry Alert on October 22, 2018: The Postal Service Governors have decided to move forward with the 2019 Mailing Promotions which are listed below and were filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on October 10th, 2018.  Implementation of the promotions is contingent on approval… Read More

On October 17, the President announced his intentions to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and adopt self-declared rates for terminal dues, no later than January 1, 2020. For more details of the actual announcement, please check out this statement from the Press Secretary. The Universal Postal Union, established in 1874, sets fees that… Read More

On October 10, 2018, the Postal Service™ announced their intent to raise both Market Dominant and Competitive Products prices effective January 27, 2019. The mailing industry had anticipated a mid-October filing but expected a rather plain-vanilla proposal since the recently confirmed Governors had little time to review the proposed rates. Unfortunately, some mailers will see… Read More

Many of us in the print and mail industry follow the updates from the United States Postal Service® (USPS®) like some stock brokers track the Dow Jones. This is because postage costs, and the programs offered by the USPS that affect them, can significantly change a printers  or mailers operational plan. And due to the… Read More

BCC Software has recently upgraded the job transport method to continue to meet today’s security standards. BCC Mail Manager™ products now have the ability to use HTTPS protocol for sending and receiving Data Marketing Services jobs, making your security audits and discussions with customers that much easier – and keeping valuable data safe at the same… Read More

This time of year, getting catalogs and promotions out to as many holiday shoppers as possible becomes a goal for many mailers, which is why the holiday season brings a focus on quantity mailings. There are many processes to implement for these mailings, but often the simplest is Simplified, or EDDM®, which stands for Every… Read More

It may be hard to believe, but it’s already November. Election campaign mailings are winding down and right around the bend there’s Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, to name a few holidays on the horizon, all bringing their fair share of direct mail. To top it off, staff will inevitably… Read More

BCC Software is pleased to announce that as of today customers with a COMPLIANCE+™ subscription are able to run NCOALink® processing only. To do so, however, you will need to have installed both the full release of BCC Mail Manager™ for October 2018, as well as the web update from October 25. Why wait? Upgrade… Read More

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