| Volume 6, Issue 09 | November 3, 2003 |
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This NewsCast is being provided to you as part of your Group 1 product maintenance and support plan. It is not intended for distribution outside of your Group 1 user base. Group 1 has taken the best security measures possible to protect your identity on this announce-only distribution list. 
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Group 1 recently sent the documents listed below to the primary user contacts on a maintenance plan via mass fax, mail, or with your product shipment. You may find these and other documents at www.g1.com/support. (Please have your user ID and password handy.) For our Fax-on-Demand system (FOD), please call 301-918-0781 and select menu option 4 to retrieve the document number indicated below. For List Services, visit the Technical Support - List Services area of our Web site to subscribe at www.g1.com/support. On our Web site, customers may NOT have access to all information listed below. It is only accessible if your company licenses the particular product and/or platform addressed by the announcement. INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTS REF#:
SSSG240B - Greenbar listing for the November 2003
CPC Reference File. Details file names and sizes.
POSTAL PRODUCTS REF#:
MSPG635B - Greenbar listing for the November 2003
USPS Reference File Version 6.3.5. Details file names and
sizes.
REF#:
MSPG636B - Greenbar listing for the November 2003
USPS Reference File Version 6.3.6. Details file names and sizes.
Group 1 has established a new delivery system that will advise you of upcoming updates to our products - called 'Pending Product Updates.' A new file name labeled 'Pending' on the Product Updates page will indicate that a Product Update is in the works; and the record will contain details about that Pending Product Update. As work progresses, we will update this information. If changes have been made to the record since your last login, the 'new' flag will appear. When we complete the Product Update, a link to the downloadable file will become available. You should check this page regularly for the latest Pending Product Updates. You may find these and other documents at www.g1.com/support. Please have your user ID and password handy. Group 1 continues to strive to enhance our customer service and communications. This addition to our Support site is just another step in keeping our customers informed. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this new feature. The following items have been recently added to the Pending Product Updates area of the Support site. On our Web site, customers may NOT have access to all information listed below. It is only accessible if your company licenses the particular product and/or platform addressed by the announcement. CODING PRODUCTS
REF#: GTX320S2A03 - This one-page letter contains details regarding the Pending Product Update S02 for GeoTAX 3.2.0 for all platforms. Status of this update will be available on the Group 1 Web site, login to Support, Product Updates.
POSTAL PRODUCTS
If you receive NewsCast and read about a Local User Group meeting in your area, share this information with others in your organization. Local User Groups are a great source of knowledge and experience - visit or join one at your next opportunity! Local User Group chapters are open to ALL Group 1 customers. Membership and registration are handled on a local level. Group 1 clients are invited and encouraged to join the group of their choice.COLORADO AREA
NORTH CAROLINA AREA
OHIO AREA
PENNSYLVANIA AREA
Education classes are offered at various training sites throughout the country. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to bring valuable information back to your company. For more information on classes other than those listed below, visit Group 1 University's Web site at www.g1.com/education or give us a call at 1-800-859-4133. For on-site classes including Advanced List Conversion, Advanced Merge/Purge Plus, Advanced Generalized Selection and GeoTAX, call the Education Manager at 1-800-859-4133 option 1,1 or contact Annette Warder at annette_warder@g1.com. The eLearning classes are taken from the comfort of your own office. Contact Brian Hughes at brian_hughes@g1.com for more information.
The following Public Seminars are currently being offered:
On July 1, 2003, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced in a Federal Register notice the creation of NCOA/Link, a new secure dataset product designed to replace the current National Change Of Address (NCOA) and FASTforward Mailing List Correction (MLC) licensed products. The NCOA/Link product was created to allow mailers to process mailing lists and update the mailing addresses on the list with permanent change-of-address (COA) information using secure data storage technology. This product enables the Postal Service to provide a proactive address correction service in a format that is not a clear text address list, but is instead a mathematical formulation that will function on multiple computer platforms. It also allows the USPS to expand the scope of its ongoing efforts to reduce the volume of undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail and add security to the address information. The introduction of NCOA/Link does not change, in any way, Postal Service policies or usage restrictions regarding change-of-address information. Also on July 1, 2003, the Postal Service began accepting applications for new NCOA/Link licensees and software interface developers, with a stated date of October 1, 2003 before they would actually enter into non-exclusive, annually renewable NCOA/Link license agreements with approved mailers and service bureaus. (As of October 30, 2003, there have been no licenses granted for NCOA/Link.) To ensure that no service disruption will occur, existing NCOA and FASTforward MLC licensees will be provided transition periods to migrate to the new NCOA/Link system. The Postal Service intends to discontinue support for NCOA on September 30, 2004, and FASTforward MLC on September 30, 2005. In announcing the NCOA/Link product, the USPS also announced three different categories of users they expect to license. 1. Full Service Provider A Full Service Provider is a licensee that uses the NCOA/Link product to update mailing lists, most of which are owned by unrelated third parties (greater than 51%). The Postal Service will require Full Service Providers to also implement service using other Address Quality tools designated by the Postal Service (e.g. Delivery Point Validation, Locatable Address Correction System (LACS)). The Postal Service will provide the Full Service Provider with a forty-eight month NCOA/Link product COA dataset which will be updated on a weekly basis. A Full Service Provider will pay a $175,000.00 base annual license fee to the Postal Service. 2. Limited Service Provider A Limited Service Provider is a licensee that uses the NCOA/Link product for updating either its own mailing lists or mailing lists owned by third parties. The Postal Service will provide the Limited Service Provider with an eighteen month NCOA/Link product COA dataset which will be updated on a weekly basis. The Limited Service Provider will pay a $15,000.00 base annual license fee to the Postal Service. 3. End-User Mailer The End-User Mailer is a licensee that uses the NCOA/Link product to update mailing lists for its own mailings. The End-User Mailer may not update mailing lists for third parties. The Postal Service will provide the End-User Mailer with an eighteen month NCOA/Link product COA dataset which will be updated on a monthly basis. The End-User Mailer will pay a $7,500.00 base annual license fee to the Postal Service. For a copy of the Federal Register notice announcing the NCOA/Link product, and for all other NCOA/Link-related documents, please go to http://ribbs.usps.gov/ and select "NCOA/Link" from the "RIBBS Links" menu on the left. What is Group 1 doing? In early July, Group 1 Software applied for an interface developers
license and received "Step 1" approval to begin developing an interface.
Since then, we have been working diligently on our interface and
we expect to be able to enter into license agreements with customers
before the end of the 2003 calendar year. Our interface will be
an Open Systems solution and will run on many of the platforms we
currently support including Windows, IBM Mainframes running MVS,
OS/390, and z/OS, and various Unix machines in our first release.
Other platforms will follow in subsequent releases. The interface
is being designed to support all three levels of NCOA/Link licensees:
Full and Limited Service providers and End User Mailers.
Take a look at some of the recent updates and additions that have been made to this valuable section of our Web site. The FAQs are listed by product so you can easily find the questions that apply to your specific products. There is also a link to the FAQ Submission Form if you have a question/answer you would like to have considered. Below are a few of the most recent additions and update to this area.
What is the difference between an Access Key and a License Key
and where do I get them? How are my license keys managed when I own a single product
on multiple platforms, or if I wish to run a product on a different
platform? Why is the short city name different from the output standardized
city name? For a complete list of all available FAQs, please visit the FAQ area of the Support Web site at www.g1.com/support/faq.
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:
USPS Web
Site Business Section - http://www.usps.com/smallbiz
We welcome comments and suggestions regarding Newscast. Please
send them to cc@g1.com. Please
be sure to include "NEWSCAST" in your subject line. Please look
for your next issue to arrive in your e-mail box on or near November
14, 2003. Subscription Information
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