Zipform Digital: Revolutionising the Mail Industry

Zipform Digital is set to modernise the way that mail is produced for their clients. With Australia Post delivery deadlines under constant pressure, it’s encouraging news for any company who relies upon timely invoice payments to maintain their cash flow. Richard Vaughan – GM of Zipform Digital – reveals details of the cutting-edge technology which will give clients a competitive edge.

There’s no debate that letter volumes sent via Australia Post have been dropping every year – last financial year they fell a further 4.0% compared to the previous year. In their latest annual report, Australia Post found that a typical household only receives one letter every two days, with 97% of those letters sent by businesses or government agencies.

Whilst many companies are actively aiming for a decline in customer letter volumes, Zipform Digital actually reported a 45% increase in mail volumes sent on behalf of clients over the past two years, at odds with the 4.0% reported decrease by Australia Post last financial year.

Why invest in mail?

MRDF (Mail Run Data File) is an acronym for a sophisticated mailing machine which has greater security, increased capacity, and better reconciliation for clients than anything else on the market today.

With companies such as Zipform Digital making a significant investment in this technology and machinery, there are strong signs that despite the decrease in overall mail volumes, business mail is in fact on the increase.

We know that our client needs have changed – in an era of data breaches and thefts, it’s no longer acceptable to pass over data to a mail house via an Excel file and hope the communications end up in a letterbox.

Companies require three things from their mail partner at a minimum – data security, accountability (through reconciliation) and speed to market. To meet that requirement, there is a driving need to invest in technology. Businesses which don’t invest in the future are likely to become as obsolete as dot matrix printers.

Why MRDF?

The security and reconciliation process for the MRDF technology is world class – and it’s the capacity of the machine which makes it that much better than current technology. A machine which has greater capacity allows Zipform Digital to meet very tight turnaround times and get more mail out than ever – essential in any customer first business.

A data file is loaded onto the mailing machine, so it knows how many pages to expect per envelope in advance. Sounds simple, but it’s complex technology in the print industry. When the input barcodes are scanned, they are marked in the data base as input. Once inserted into the envelope they are scanned again on exit – providing a comprehensive reconciliation and audit trail at a database record level.

Suppose a barcode is misread during processing – the output is then diverted to a specific output bin for manual reconciliation and quality assurance checking. The machine doesn’t stop, enabling greater efficiencies and volume processed per hour.

From a marketing perspective, the technology also allows businesses to easily include bespoke marketing content, down to a single customer level if needed, creating not only relevancy but the potential for improved direct marketing response rates.

If clients require specific envelopes to be removed from the process, it can be automated by simply editing the database record and allowing the envelope to divert to a specific output bin. They are then reconciled for the client, complete with a full audit trail.

Investing for the future

The future is still looking rosy for print mail. Richard Vaughan, General Manager Zipform Digital, explains why,

“There is no doubt that digital communications including email have had a significant impact on the print and mail industry. Zipform Digital’s numbers still indicate a yearly increase in the volumes we are producing for clients, and it’s unlikely that this will drop off anytime soon. Investment in the latest cutting-edge technology is essential to continue giving our clients best in class mail production, and we’re proud to now be one of only a few companies with a mail house in Australia to offer that service.”