Local User Group meetings are a great place to exchange information, share your ideas with others and learn more about Group 1 products. Please check the listings below and attend the meeting that is most convenient for you. If there isn't a group meeting in your area and you would like to start one, contact Denny Derr at denny_derr@g1.com to ask about hosting a meeting at your facility. Simply provide a meeting space and the rest will be taken care of for the initial meeting.

FLORIDA AREA

Location:	Time Customer Service, 1 N Dale Mabry Hwy Fl 13, Tampa, Florida
Date:	Wednesday, December 4, 2002
Time:	9:00 a.m.
Topic:	This will be the initial meeting for the group.
Contact:	Jeff Luther - Jeffrey.Luther@custserv.com

NORTH CAROLINA

Location:	The Charlotte Observer, 600 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina
Date:	Thursday, February 20, 2003
Time:	9:00 a.m.
Topic:	TBA
Contact:	Kimberly Sherman - KJSHERMA@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM

OHIO AREA

Location:	Banc One Center, 1111 Polaris Parkway, Columbus, Ohio
Date:	** UPDATED ** Thursday, December 19, 2002
Time:	11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Topic:	TBA
Contact:	Scott Saffell - scott_w_saffell@bankone.com and Mitch Williams - MWilliams@DirectGraphics.com

TEXAS AREA

Location:	Group 1 Austin, 10535 Boyer Boulevard, Suite 100, Austin, Texas
Date:	March 18, 2003
Time:	9:00 to a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Topic:	This group has decided to meet twice a year in March and September for a full day. Some of the topics decided on are What's New with the USPS, Overview of Group 1 products, Best Practices (return codes, matching, etc.), success stories (what has CODE-1 Plus done for you - hit rates went up, ROI). Please submit additional topics should be submitted to the contact persons below.
Contact:	Fred Hoffman - fhoffman@tad.org and Laura Dennis - LDENNIS@dot.state.tx.us

Recently, the United States Postal Service announced the availability of the Residential Delivery Indicator (RDI) file. This product will be a licensed product to end-users. The RDI licensees must be parcel shippers, their agents, or their analysts. The RDI user/licensee will attempt to determine the best cost for shipping their packages based upon the fact that some delivery services charge a higher price for a residential delivery than they do for a business delivery. RDI will help them shop for the lowest delivery cost for a specific address by identifying whether that address is listed as business or residential in the US Postal Service Address Management Systems database.

The interface to this data is being made available through CASS vendor software such as CODE-1 Plus. If you are interested in this capability, please send a response to Group 1 Product Management. If you have a specific request, please send them directly to Ray Chin at ray_chin@g1.com. Interested users will be asked to provide other business requirements so that CODE-1 Plus can appropriately assist their business needs.

Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2002 - 2 pm EST

If your organization requires consistent, accurate enterprise data, then this webinar is for you! This session will address the business and operational benefits of integrating and cleansing disparate information for an accurate single customer view.

From this Webinar, you will learn how Group 1 Software's DataSight and Informatica's data integration technology can help you:

• Save money and increase operational efficiency through enterprise data quality and integration;
• Increase return from existing technology investments;
• Make more informed business decisions; and

Register Here! - Please select the Group 1 and Informatica Seminar on 12/4/02

Group 1 recently announced that its GeoTAX tax jurisdiction assignment solution can now be utilized by communications services providers (CSPs) to match customer addresses and tax jurisdiction information against state-supplied address listings. Communications services providers can now download state-supplied address listings and use GeoTAX to build a matching file, which can be used to code addresses with the state-supplied file. With GeoTAX's new functionality, CSPs can enhance compliance with all jurisdictional coding requirements of the recently enacted federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act and similar state legislation.

GeoTAX users also have the ability to match address records against commercially available street files and organizations' internal files. For more accurate mapping and advanced tax jurisdiction boundary matching techniques, GeoTAX can calculate the latitude and longitude of a street address to identify the precise location of individual addresses. The product's auxiliary file matcher enables businesses to create their own street-level address file if users have access to information more current than what is in the GeoTAX database, which is updated quarterly. Consequently, users can respond to tax jurisdiction changes in the most timely manner possible.

“For businesses requiring a powerful solution to enhance compliance with recent tax jurisdiction assignment legislation - and for the state governments that must administer these laws - GeoTAX is the technology of choice,” said Bob Bowen, CEO of Group 1 Software. “Along with GeoTAX's auxiliary matching capabilities and more granular address coding, Group 1's support for state-supplied address listings solidifies our position as the market leader in tax jurisdiction assignment.”

USPS Board Approves Flats Processing R&D Effort

The U. S. Postal Service Board of Governors last week approved two parallel research and development initiatives that the USPS said could eliminate up to $2.8 billion in delivery costs annually. The first initiative, the Flats Sequencing System (FSS), would bring flat sorting technology up to the same level of sophistication as letter mail by sorting flats, such as magazines, catalogs and other periodicals into delivery order. The second initiative, the Delivery Point Packager (DPP), would stretch the technology envelope by developing a single system to sort letters and flats into delivery order simultaneously, then bundle it into individual delivery packages.

"Our delivery costs are approximately $18.5 billion," USPS Vice President of Engineering Tom Day explained. "This cost, combined with the cost to serve 1.5 million new addresses each year creates the opportunity to improve efficiencies." Day said using technology to place flat mail into delivery point sequence would allow letter carriers to be more efficient in the office and enable them to begin serving their customers earlier in the morning. USPS Senior Vice President of Operations John Rapp gave a briefing on the two initiatives at last week's Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meeting, as well as a press briefing. Contact PostCom at 703-524-0096 for a copy of the MTAC presentation.

Rapp reported that while the Postal Service initially will pursue both R&D initiatives simultaneously, its preferred option is to be able to sequence letters and flats on one pass and put the pieces into one package for the carrier per delivery point, which it visualizes would be accomplished by the DPP machine. If that option is not feasible or cost-effective, then the second option would be putting flats into delivery sequence using a Flats Sequencing System. The USPS has targeted 7,040 zones - 135,000 carrier routes - as candidates for DPP and FSS in its preliminary projections, which represents about 80 percent of volume and 60 percent of routes.

USPS Wants Feedback on Bundle Tracking System Concept

The Postal Service distributed a preliminary concept for a bundle tracking system at last week's MTAC Confirm workgroup meeting. Under the preliminary proposal, the USPS would use its MDCD scanners, currently used for Delivery Confirmation service, to scan barcodes on facing slips for trays or packages of mail. The USPS is considering several variables. The Postal Service wants feedback from mailers on the concept, specifically: what types of mail should be included (class, presort levels, letters/flats)?; where and when scans should be obtained (e.g., at delivery unit upon arrival, at delivery unit when carrier breaks open bundle, after carrier returns from delivering, etc.). and any other information that the Postal Service should consider in designing a test to determine the associated costs. Feedback should be sent as soon as possible to Paul Bakshi by e-mail to pbakshi@email.usps.gov. The USPS hopes to have a preliminary test concept defined in a few weeks.

The USPS plans to finalize the concept and define system/software requirements by the end of the month and conduct market research by February, a pilot test launch in March, evaluation of test results and finalization of product offering by July. The pilot test period will end next August and a rate case will be filed next September.

What's Next for PostalOne!?

The Postal Service briefed the industry on the status of its PostalOne! initiative and discussed what's to come at a previous MTAC meeting. The PostalOne! workgroup currently is discussing several PostalOne! tasks, including enhancing the user's guide, developing a mailing facilities user's group, developing a software providers user's group, and developing a USPS operations user's group.

The Postal service noted some existing obstacles for the PostalOne! initiative, including the scale the system needs to encompass (e.g., number of mailing facilities, number of permits and varying site-specific payment techniques)as well as an understanding from the USPS that the data PostalOne! can provide is limited. PostalOne! currently has 33 company participants at 109 PostalOne! sites and 50 transportation sites, which encompasses 2,500 customers. In an average week, there are 2,500 mailing files transferred through PostalOne!; 1,000 postage statements generated; and $83 million estimated postage statement revenue covering 300 million pieces of mail.

A workgroup currently is working to enable Mail.dat participants to include Electronic Mailing Data files for Planet Code use. The Postal Service said that it supports more data file formats than Mail.dat, and in the future that will include an XML standard for postage statements. A new MTAC workgroup is being formed under the PostalOne! umbrella, which will be co-chaired by Dan Minnick of Experian Direct Tech and Jim Cunninghamof the Postal Service. This group will work to solicit opportunities for data mining of PostalOne! by USPS managers.

USPS To Explore Reasons For Low Flats Scan Rates

Postal officials last week announced that the USPS will perform an end-to-end test to validate what it believes to be the most significant reason for low Confirm scan rates on flats - the fact that not all automation-compatible flats are processed on automated equipment. According to the USPS' preliminary estimates, about 58 percent of automated flats are processed on automated equipment. Here are some of the reasons:

• Some flats bypass processing equipment and are not scanned. The USPS does not process flats on automated equipment for five-digit ZIP Codes that have less than ten carrier routes, or that do not have sufficient densities to meet automation processing thresholds, or that cannot be processed on automation to meet delivery schedule windows. In these situations, the standard operating procedure in the field is to send five-digit and carrier route bundles directly to delivery units.
• Smaller plants without automated flats technology that receive mail presorted to three-digit level and five-digit level deposited for post offices serviced by these plants will not be scanned.
• Flats are sometimes processed on the Upgraded Flat Sorting Machine (UFSM) in a "manual mode" and therefore pieces do not get scanned. Also, the FSM-1000 will not be converted into UFSM at the International Service Centers.

• A list of five-digit ZIP Codes for which mail is typically not processed on automated flat sorting equipment;
• A list of SCFs that do not have automated flat sorting equipment; and
• The automation equipment inventory list describing the inventory of AFSM 100, FSM 1000, and FSM 881 machines across the nation.

Flats Mailers Needed For Confirm Test

The Postal Service has agreed to perform an end-to-end test to identify reasons why Confirm scan rates for flats remain low. The USPS needs mailers who have used Confirm on flats to participate in the test. Mailers interested in participating should contact the USPS' Pritha Mehra at 703-292-3822 immediately. The USPS wants to begin the test as soon as possible.

. . . According to the USPS Postal Bulletin, effective November 14, 2002, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) M050 is revised to clarify how additional postage is assessed for Standard Mail Enhancer Carrier Route (ECR) and Periodicals carrier route mailings found to be out of sequence. Concurrent with the amendment, the Postal Service will implement new policies and guidelines for assessing additional postage for Standard Mail and Periodicals carrier route mailings found to be out of sequence. Under the revised policies, for all mail required to be sequenced, no more than five percent of the total pieces in the entire carrier route portion of the mailing may be out of sequence.

For more information, please refer to Postal Bulletin 22087 (10-17-02).

. . . The USPS has filed a proposal with the PRC that would offer small-circulation periodicals a chance to receive work-sharing discounts common to larger mailers of periodicals. The proposal calls for discounts of $0.07 for sacks and $0.01 for palletization. This case was filed under the "test" classification, which means that evaluation will come quickly.

. . . The first of several booklets that will replace the DMM has been introduced by the USPS and is available in your local Post Office. The pamphlet is designed to help customers understand and select the correct postal product for their needs. This booklet contains 24 pages and is entitled "A Customer's Guide to Mailing." The redesign of the DMM will take place in four stages. The first stage will be for retail customers and is currently available. The second series (200) will target beginning and small bulk mailers, small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Series 300 will be for use by professional mailers and the last series (400) is targeted for other information such as labeling lists and hazardous materials.

. . . IDEAlliance recently published interim adjustments to the Mail.dat 02-1 specifications. These changes include a single MPUs to be used to describe surcharges and the Parcel Barcode Indicator is changed to Package Services Barcode Discount Indicator. Please contact IDEAlliance for the entire list of changes. The next release of MailStream Plus will accommodate them all.

. . . Group 1 will be providing Product Updates for some of its Legacy List Products. We are aware that some customers modify these products to work in their environment. If you make no special modifications to your software, simply download the Product Updates when they are available and install them using the instructions provided with the download. If your company does modify any of the List products, we have a "paper fix." This is written lines of code with the changes in bold font. The "paper fix" will be included with the Product Update download as a .doc file. Insert these new lines of code and follow the instructions for this included in the download.

Back issues of NewsCast are being archived. Click previous issues to go the NewsCast homepage to review any prior issues.

Below are some links that may be of interest to our customers:

Group 1's Web Page - http://www.g1.com. The Group 1 Software Web site provides customers with valuable information concerning different areas of the company. From this Web site, you can access education information, recent press releases, support, and much more useful information.

USPS Web Site Business Section - http://www.usps.com/smallbiz

The USPS Web Site - www.usps.gov. This Web site allows customers to check out the latest information regarding postage rates and fees, news and events in the postal community, locations of local post offices, and provides various other links. There is also a place where postal service customers can track the status of a package or access other online mailing forms.

Canada Post - http://www.canadapost.ca/splash.asp. This is the direct link to the Canada Post Web site.

USPS PostalOne - http://www.pilot.uspspostalone.com. This is the direct link to the USPS PostalOne Web site.

USPS Rapid Information Bulletin Board System - http://ribbs.usps.gov. This is the National Customer Support Center for the United States Postal Service. It provides you mail-service updates, current weather conditions, and other interesting facts pertaining to the Postal Service.

Postal Rate Commission - http://www.prc.gov. The Postal Rate Commission Web site provides information about the organization, its function and procedures, along with postal rates and fees. It also provides a location where you can voice your opinion to the Consumer Advocate.

Nonprofit Mailers - http://www.nonprofitmailers.org. The Alliance is the primary representative of nonprofit mailers before the Postal Rate Commission, at the United States Postal Service's (USPS) Headquarters, and on Capitol Hill.

Postcom - http://www.postcom.org. Postcom is the Association for Postal Commerce. Its Web site provides you with up-to-date information regarding what is going on in the "postal world." It includes links to other helpful sites, as well as a place to contact your US Senators or Representatives.