The USPS^® has invested millions of dollars in the Intelligent Mail^® program to make it the barcode of the future, and for proactive mailers who have already adopted this new technology, the discounts for Full Service Intelligent Mail^® Periodicals, First-Class™ and Standard Mail^® jobs begin on No­vember 29.

If you have been working on integrating Intelligent Mail into your mailings, you already know that there is much more to this program than simply printing a new barcode on your mailpieces. To use Full Service Intelligent Mail and receive the additional postage discounts and free start-the-clock and ACS™ informa­tion, mailers must first complete a series of testing scenarios in the USPS Test Environ­ment for Mailers (TEM).

BCC joined the TEM electronic documentation testing process in May 2009, and became one of the first companies to complete it in June. This makes BCC one of few software vendors to have completed the process and be approved to sub­mit live Mail.dat^® files through Post­alOne!^®. This also means that BCC is better able to serve you and help make the process that much easier for you when you sign up for the TEM to become certified for Full Service Intelligent Mail.

BCC currently has several Intelligent Mail resources available in the BCC Customer Portal. We also offer pre-recorded Express Learning Sessions (select “Recorded Sessions” in the Training Center) to all mailers on PostalOne!, Mail.dat and BCC’s Track N Trace^® OneCode Confirm^® service to help with your Full Service transition.

The November 29 implementation date for Full Service Intelligent Mail discounts is around the corner, but the full impact of this new program will go far beyond that date. I encourage you to take advantage of BCC’s Intelligent Mail resources and the many benefits of the Intelligent Mail program.