"Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB)"
Starting January 1, 2009, the USPS® plans to replace the POSTNET™ and PLANET® barcodes, requiring every piece of mail be uniquely identified by an Intelligent Mail® Barcode in order to receive a postal discount.
Table of Contents
What Is the Intelligent Mail® Barcode?
The IMB is a multi-service barcode that uses a four-state technology — as opposed to the two-state technology used in POSTNET™ and PLANET® barcodes — and combines the capabilities of POSTNET™ and PLANET® barcodes into one unique barcode.
This unique barcode is composed of trackers, ascenders, descenders and full bars — more commonly known as TADFs. These TADFs represent the data in the barcode. Since more data can be encoded with four-states instead of two, the Intelligent Mail® Barcode is able to contain more information per given footprint.
At the same time, the IMB continues to contain the familiar field-like routing ZIP® that is currently part of the POSTNET™ barcode. This routing ZIP® is a result of the CASS™ and Move Update address correction process.
Additionally, the IMB contains new fields such as the service code, the mailer ID information, and more importantly, the new mail piece ID.
Benefits of a Multi-Service Barcode
The IMB’s multi-service barcode offers mailers new services and improved communications, including:
- Delivery point information
- Tracking via USPS Confirm® service
- Move/Undeliverable–as–Addressed (UAA) information via the Address Change Service (ACS™)
Improved Readability
The Intelligent Mail® Barcode promises improved readability — particularly under adverse conditions — through the use of advanced error correction: Portions of the barcode can be obscured, with all information recovered during the read.
Since the IMB replaces PLANET® used for tracking and tricky–to–read keylines used for ACS, all mailing services will see improvement in readability.
Return Mail Reduction
The USPS is offering fee-free use of the ACS service with the IMB, providing mailers a cost-effective opportunity to augment their pre-mailing address quality processes such as CASS™ and NCOA.
Mailers will have two chances to update their records by receiving two free electronic ACS notices. These notices contain customer move information and are sent back to mailers when mail pieces are undeliverable due to moves or NIXIE information (undeliverable addresses).
Mailers must then act on this information by updating their records through appropriate business responses.
Visual Impact
The IMB not only simplifies the look of mail pieces, but it frees up valuable real estate in the address block area. Additionally, the IMB provides an opportunity to standardize the address block footprint across your enterprise without having to worry about the ins and outs of various barcodes.
Delivery Visibility
To track inbound and outbound mail pieces, mailers can take advantage of the USPS Confirm service via IMB, which ensures mail pieces remain uniquely trackable through the IMB’s ID capacity.
Many expect that the Intelligent Mail® Barcode will significantly increase adoption of track and trace services, including:
- Geographic delivery prediction (outbound)
- Mail arrival prediction (outbound)
- Cash flow prediction (inbound)
- Disconnect/termination process avoidance (inbound)
Preparation Efficiency
The USPS offers seamless acceptance for the induction of mailers’ prepared (presorted) mail. Whether preparing their own mail or using presort houses, mailers will benefit from reduced paperwork and greater visibility and transparency with the USPS.
Why Did the USPS Change the Barcode?
The IMB is part of the USPS’ aggressive pursuit of an Intelligent Mail program, which promises to help both the customer and the USPS.
IMB Benefits Everyone
Customers will see an increase in the level of service provided by the USPS, and the USPS will be able to control costs in the face of new rate increase limits, higher fuel costs and changing workforce skills.
To achieve their Intelligent Mail objectives, the USPS designed and deployed IMBs and labels to most optimally deliver and track letters, flats, trays, and containers.
While this service monitoring and reporting by the USPS is a requirement of the Postal Reform Act, it also allows mailers to better predict, identify, and react to mail delivery challenges and opportunities.
Unique Identification Is Essential
It is important that the USPS be able to identify two things on every mail piece:
- The mail owner
- Other attributes such as delivery point
Neither of these characteristics is available with the current POSTNET™ technology.
The Intelligent Mail® Barcode, however, contains the subscriber ID field to allow association of the mail piece to a given mail owner, as well as the sequence number field which is assigned and managed during barcode generation.
These ID requirements present two key challenges for mailers preparing to make the transition to IMB:
- Sequence ID assignments for each subscriber ID must be managed to ensure uniqueness
- Mailers must associate and store an enterprise key with the subscriber ID
Making the Transition to Intelligent Mail® Barcode
Mailers have a choice implementing IMB: They can do the bare minimum needed to comply with a mandated migration to the IMB, or they can take advantage of IMB to further improve their production and address management processes.
Minimum IMB Compliance
For minimum compliance with Intelligent Mail® Barcode for letter mail, mailers would create the IMB using their:
- Mailer ID (previously named business entity ID)
- Some other static information
- ZIP Code
Mailers must also modify their print jobs and every print stream to generate the new barcode across the organization.
Further, every print stream must be cataloged in order for your organization to determine the best way to generate a unique key for all of your mail pieces.
This rudimentary level of implementation, however, only benefits the USPS, which will be able to measure a mailer’s UAA to determine whether Move Update requirements are being met.
Unless there is a unique identifier in the IMB on the mail piece, it will do little to help the mailer. That is why mailers planning their migration to the IMB should do so in a way that allows them to derive the maximum benefits.
Maximize the Benefits of IMB
Going beyond the IMB bare minimum can give mailers a competitive advantage with:
- Cross channel messaging
- Multi-channel account management
- Cost reduction
- Enterprise address management
- Proof of mailing Confirm™ applications
- Transpromo
Reduce ACS Costs
OneCode ACS™ is an automated version of the USPS Address Change Service. By implementing IMB, letter mailers using ACS get the first two electronic forwarding notices free and then pay only five cents thereafter.
For Standard Mail letters, the first two notices are only two cents and each additional electronic notice is fifteen cents.
Optimize ACS Return Data
In order to make optimal use of ACS return data, mailers need to use the 6 to 9 digit mailing ID section of the IMB to uniquely identify the addressee. However, in most cases 9 digits is not long enough to accommodate customer account codes or other existing customer IDs and identify the source of this data such as a line of business or product.
This can be overcome by assigning the six or nine digit mailing ID to a sequential number and creating a cross-reference file that includes:
- The sequential number or the whole Intelligent Mail® Barcode
- The account information
- Anything else needed to find the address record
Then, when electronic ACS notice information is returned, the source mailing list records can be easily retrieved for updating or to trigger a process of obtaining consent to change the address if needed.
Enterprise Address Management
By assigning an Intelligent Mail® Barcode number that is unique to an addressee, that number could be used by any addressing process (CASS, NCOALink™, FastForward™, etc.) to provide changes and corrections back to the enterprise.
USPS OneCode Confirm™
Another use of the IMB is the USPS OneCode Confirm™ program. The IMB can uniquely identify the mailing ID or the mailing ID and the addressee, in order to take advantage of typical Confirm services:
- Service performance tracking
- Predicting mail delivery to staff a call center
- Proof of mailing applications
- Track and trace on high value mail (credit cards, large dollar value statements, response-required documents, etc.).
Transpromo Support
By making the Intelligent Mail® Barcode unique to both the mailing and addressee, mailers can identify mail pieces in file based inserting and production audit systems even before the piece is mailed. This provides support for downstream marketing promotions printed on transaction documents, or “Transpromo.”
Business Considerations for Deploying IMB
Generating the Intelligent Mail® Barcode
At the outset, it is important to understand the three steps to generating the IMB:
- Payload assignment: determines what data goes into which fields
- Encoding: takes the data, adds error correction, and outputs to a TADF
- Rendering: converts the TADF to a graphical representation of the IMB
Print Streams & Mailstreams
More than considering your barcode strategy, the deployment of the Intelligent Mail® Barcode requires you also catalog and analyze each automated print stream, ensuring on-time implementations. The larger the enterprise and more dissimilar the mailstreams, the more planning required.
To achieve true effectiveness, each mailstream must be analyzed and the appropriate actions taken. To help with the transition, your business should implement the following recommendations:
- Implement IMB services for each mailstream — business needs change rapidly and reverse implementation is not cost effective
- Enforce minimal standard implementations of the IMB
- Develop uniform processes for sharing information between your business and your outsourced business partner — this is critical for unique IDs and compliance information
Plan for Intelligent Mail® Barcode Now
It is important to immediately begin planning for the IMB. The first steps include:
- Bringing your partners in for a formal IMB consulting assessment and analysis
- Use this analysis to work with all stakeholders to develop a plan and secure budgets to support success
Get an IMB Assessment
Group 1’s IMB Assessment is a service that provides organizations with professional insight into the Intelligent Mail® Barcode issues and opportunities that exist within their enterprise.
Specifically, the Group 1 Professional Services team provides the following services to ensure compliance with the Intelligent Mail Barcode:
- Audit and analysis of operations and systems used to generate current barcodes
- Review of business applications affected by the IMB
- Analysis of business rules and practices for data cleansing and barcode generation
- Analysis of customer hardware and software infrastructure
- Written proposal on the changes required to meet USPS and customer rules generation, and use of the IMB