Data Security is a Print & Mail Issue with Benefits

The abundance of digital printing presses and the growth of 1:1 marketing have broadened information security risks far beyond their origins with transactional communications.  Multi-channel marketing strategies which blend direct mail, trans-promo and transactional communications have placed direct mail and commercial printing operations at similar risk.   

Beyond the tangible risks of compliance fines and SLA penalties, document processors face  the reality of losing customers and new business opportunities due to lack of controls.  Private data does not only consist of account numbers, financial and protected health information.  Simply, a breach is the improper use or disclosure of personal information. Exposing personal tendencies, transaction history information, email addresses and the like are enough to violate customer trust and in some cases incur penalties.

Providers of all marketing communications and mailings must follow procedures and incorporate baseline controls such as those outlined in ISO 27001/27002.  Proper care with data security and production should not only ensure data integrity.  Properly deployed, these controls should have a fundamental impact on business performance beyond the obvious transparency to data integrity.  By verifying and tracking the integrity of printed pieces, document processors in the direct mail and commercial printing sectors can fundamentally impact their business:

·         Eliminate late delivery penalties
·         Capture new customers which have higher integrity requirements
·         Reduce or eliminate manual processes for process handoff and production logging (logging of each production step, manual data entry, etc.). 
·         Improve equipment optimization and resource efficiency (i.e. reduce operating costs)
·         Defer capital expense on new equipment by adding intelligence to legacy equipment
·         Reduce waste and spoilage expenses
·         Connect islands of information (such as different departments) within an organization to allow business decisions to be based on tangible, real-time production data

Document Tracking & Productivity Solutions Should Adapt with Your Changing Business

The old days of piece, job and productivity tracking solutions consisted of closed technologies which prohibited users from accessing data and required extensive professional services for implementation or change.   Phrases such as “Automated Document Factory” and “File Based Processing” invoke thoughts of brand specific technologies which prohibited implementation across multiple types of equipment and limited users from accessing their own production data. 

The increasingly competitive document processing landscape requires us to use all resources at our disposal, regardless of equipment brands or process types.   Productivity improvement, integrity verification and delivery performance are not prejudice toward certain brands or types of devices.  Today’s equipment talks to us and we must take advantage of this data to run our business better.  As print and mail processors must adapt quickly to their customers’ changing requirements, “open”, ”scalable” and “flexible” are the pertinent terms  of today’s production environment.   

Impact of Print & Mail Integrity Tracking

Print & Mail integrity verification should impact business performance.  Beyond the obvious impact of getting the correct documents out the door, data gathered during printing and mailing processes should be used to:

• Track productivity by operator and by device to optimize production performance
• Automate reconciliation and reprinting of defects
• Eliminate manual signoff and logging between process transitions
• Automated compliance reporting for healthcare and financial processes
• Enable organizations to pursue and close new high integrity print/mail applications
• Track job performance to reduce the risk of late delivery penalties
• Automate workflow to improve throughput and reduce cost per piece

Integrity tracking has evolved from antiquated technologies such as file based inserting and file based integrity verification.  Today’s real-time technologies provide full access to reporting and data, eliminate the need for extensive implementation times and extensive professional services and allow integration on all print/mail devices, regardless of brands or models.

Although integrity verification and privacy protection may still be the risk based reasons for investment, integrity tracking clients should expect a tangible return on investment based on operational improvements and real-time access to collected information.