Group 1 NewsCast Vol.8 Issue 06

Tired of manually searching for the documents you need? Try our new Document LiveSearch feature, located in the Documentation area of the Group 1 Support Site. With this new feature, you can perform a "Live" search of Group 1�s entire online documentation library. Any document that you can locate by manually browsing through the categories can be easily retrieved through Document LiveSearch.

To access Document LiveSearch, log on to the Support Site and select �Documentation� from the menu. You will see the new Document LiveSearch area near the top of the page. If you already know the name of the document you are looking for, simply type it in. If you do not know the name of the document, enter in keywords or phrases that you think might match up with words in the document�s title or description. Your search results, complete with a link to each document, will begin to appear immediately as Document LiveSearch matches documents to your query.

Document LiveSearch saves you time by allowing you to drill right into the document you are looking for, making it a great alternative to manually browsing through the documentation categories. Why not give it a try?

Over the years, Group 1 has enhanced the use of some of the core products upon which your company has come to depend. One of these advancements has to do with Data Quality and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The cornerstone of any successful CRM initiative is accurate, consolidated customer and prospect intelligence. Group 1 helps businesses maximize the value of their most strategic competitive asset - customer data. CRM applications, such as Siebel, SAP, Microsoft CRM, and Salesforce.com enable companies to sell to, market to, and serve customers across multiple channels and lines of business.

The Group 1 Data Quality Connectors and Adapters seamlessly connect to these third party applications to offer powerful features that optimize data quality management with a flexible, versatile solution. This integrated solution provides accurate and consolidated account, customer, and prospect data by formatting name information, verifying address information, and merging duplicate records. Customers can verify and correct address data for the United States and for more than 220 countries and dependencies worldwide.

The Data Quality Connectors and the Adapter for Microsoft CRM also offer highly robust record consolidation, available in manual or automatic modes of operation. The Connector enables users to both preserve previously entered information when consolidating duplicate records and to merge new data into existing records without disrupting the workflow. This solution also enables customers to perform case conversions, add punctuation, and add titles to account, contact, and prospect data.

Group 1's Data Quality Connector is engineered to be a superior integrated data quality solution. The Data Quality Connector:

Supports manual and automatic merging of duplicate records,
Provides an Intelligent Merge option that automatically carries forward previously entered information to the survivor record when duplicate records are merged,
Provides a rich set of options that are configurable by an administrator through an easy-to-use graphical user interface, and
Provides all data quality functions in interactive and micro-batch mode.

Successfully managing data quality enhances customer understanding while increasing the effectiveness of target marketing, solidifying customer relationships, and accurately delivering goods and services. The benefits of data quality functions are magnified in enterprise systems such as Siebel, SAP, Microsoft CRM and Salesforce.com because this data is shared across the enterprise.

The USPS has published a proposal in the Federal Register that would affect mailers who create Periodicals, Standard Mail, or Package Services pallets of flat-size mail or irregular parcels. The proposal is intended to reduce the cost and risk of damage associated with handling mail in sacks by reducing minimum pallet sizes for some pallets. The USPS has suggested that this proposal go into effect on March 1, 2006 and has solicited comments with a deadline of October 31, 2005.

Currently, the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) requires that mailers prepare a pallet to a required sortation level if their mailing contains 500 or more pounds of bundles of flat-size mail or bundles of irregular parcels on pallets. Mail that remains after the required pallets are prepared must be placed in sacks. This rule applies to the preparation of all Periodicals, Standard Mail, and Packages Services mail, aside from that which has been assigned a discounted Parcel Post rate.

The proposed regulation stipulates that, after having prepared their mailings under the 500-pound requirement, mailers prepare the remainder of their mailing as follows:

If 250 or more pounds of bundles remain for an Area Distribution Center (ADC) or a bulk mail center/auxiliary service facility (BMC/ASF), mailers must prepare the ADC or BMC/ASF pallet(s) applicable for the class of mail they are posting.
If there are no ADC or BMC/ASF pallet(s) - the USPS has provided the example of a mailer who has set the presort software to stop at the Sectional Center Facility (SCF) level in the mailing - but there are 250 or more pounds for an SCF, mailers must prepare the SCF pallet.

More information on this topic can be found in the Federal Register, available online at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/, Volume 70, Number 189, pages 57237-57238, September 30, 2005. Comments should be sent to the USPS at the following address:

Manager, Mailing Standards, USPS
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW., Rm. 3436
Washington, DC 20260-3436

1. Introduction to MailStream Plus for Mailer's Choice Customers - This FREE webinar is for Mailer's Choice customers and can be taken via eLearning. The time for all webinar dates is the same: 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST. The dates are listed below:

Introduction to MailStream Plus for Mailer's Choice Customers - Mainframe

October 18, 2005
November 21, 2005

Introduction to MailStream Plus for Mailer's Choice Customers - Unix

October 21, 2005
November 23, 2005

Introduction to MailStream Plus for Mailer's Choice Customers - Windows

October 17, 2005
November 22, 2005

2. Mailer's Choice to MailStream Plus: How to Modify the MailStream Plus Parameters - In this FREE webinar you will see how to modify the MailStream Plus parameters generated by the Mailer's Choice parameter conversion program.

Prerequisites:

Introduction to MailStream Plus for Mailer's Choice Customers class
A printout of converted parameters to use as a reference during the class

Please visit the Group 1 University Web site, http://www.g1.com/education for further course and registration information.

...Need to know all of the platforms on which your Group 1 products can run? The Supported Platforms Chart, which provides platform information for all of Group 1's products, has recently been updated. You can access the Supported Platforms Chart by logging on to the Group 1 Support Site, http://www.g1.com/support, and clicking on "Documentation" on the left sidebar. Click on "Miscellaneous" under Available Documentation and then choose "Enterprise Solutions Division Supported Platforms".

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 - http://www.usps.com. 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. Follow this link to view a quick and free course in Canadian NDG sorting (http://www.canadapost.ca/business/ndg/default-e.asp).

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.

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 email box on or near October 31, 2005.

NewsCast - Volume 8, Issue 6
Date: October 13, 2005
Editor: Becki Dustin (cc@g1.com) Asst. Editor: Erica Fenstermacher
Phone: 1-800-367-6950

CASS, CASS Certified, DPV™, eLOT, FASTforward, NCOA^Link, Postal Service, Post Office, RDI™, United States Post Office, USPS®, United States Postal Service, ZIP Code™, and ZIP+4 are registered trademarks of United States Postal Service (USPS®). This list is not exhaustive of the trademarks belonging to the Postal Service.

Group 1 Software is a non-exclusive licensee of USPS® for NCOA/Link processing.

Prices for Group 1's products, options and services are not established, controlled or approved by USPS® or United States Government. When utilizing RDI™ data to determine parcel-shipping costs, the business decision on which parcel delivery company to use is not made by the USPS® or United States Government.