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