FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erich Van Dussen
BCC Software to Launch Track N Trace Mail-Delivery Monitoring Service Option
Advanced USPS OneCodeConfirm service will be integrated with Mail Manager software beginning in March
Rochester, NY — BCC Software, a BÖWE BELL + HOWELL company and a leading developer of high-performance solutions for professional mailers, has set a release date of March 3 for Track N Trace™, its newest offering. This service option will provide users with comprehensive information and unprecedented specificity regarding the delivery progress of their mailing jobs.
Track N Trace uses the new USPS® Intelligent Mail® barcode to supply BCC customers with mail-delivery monitoring information as part of the USPS OneCodeConfirm™ program. When Track N Trace is activated via a proprietary interface built into BCC’s Mail Manager presorting and list-management software, each mailpiece in the designated job is tagged with a unique identification number stored in the IM™ barcode on the address label. Those IDs are then logged when the mailpieces are scanned as they move from one postal facility to the next on the path to their eventual delivery destination.
OneCodeConfirm sends that scan data to a secure BCC Web site that may be retrieved at any time by Track N Trace subscribers looking for up-to-date delivery details for part or all of a job. The scan data, updated on BCC’s servers several times each day, may be accessed in the form of user-specified reports that can be downloaded into a variety of presentation-friendly formats.
Regular use of Track N Trace will help mailers develop a detailed and accurate understanding of delivery patterns in different geographic areas and times of year. In particular, the mailpiece specificity enabled by unique mailpiece IDs gives OneCodeConfirm a powerful advantage over the USPS Confirm® program, in which PLANET™ barcodes were often used to “seed” a mailing and typically could yield accurate but non-specific delivery information. (BCC’s Confirm service, offered through a third-party provider, will remain available to customers until the USPS discontinues use of PLANET barcodes in favor of the Intelligent Mail barcode. That transition is expected to occur in early 2009.)
“This is a major release for our customers,” said K. Jon Runstrom, BCC President. “The complex Intelligent Mail barcode is loaded with potential for mailers, and OneCodeConfirm is a significant part of the barcode’s state-of-the-art value. BCC’s launch of Track N Trace positions us to continue serving our users with the most up-to-date technology, in turn assuring them and their own clients of the best possible mailing outcomes.”
When it launches on March 3, the service option will be available to Mail Manager users for an introductory price of $500 until July 1, 2008, which entitles a subscriber to unlimited use of Track N Trace for the remainder of the 2008 calendar year. (Pricing for July 1 and thereafter will be determined later in 2008.) Also, the USPS OneCodeACS™ program, which uses similar scan-based reporting technology to transmit move information back to the mailer, is in development to be added to BCC’s Track N Trace later in 2008.
For more information about Track N Trace or any BCC Software products and services, call (800) 453-3130 or visit bccsoftware.com.