March 18, 2011

IMb™ Services Update

PostalOne! Release 26.0.1.4 will be deployed to the production environment on Sunday, March 20, 2011, during the scheduled maintenance window from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT and to the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) on Monday, March 21, 2011, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT. Users may experience intermittent outages during these periods. The PostalOne!^® .XML applications (including FAST OPS web services) will be unavailable during each period for database maintenance.

PostalOne! Full-Service and Mail Quality reports will be unavailable to mailers from 5 p.m. CDT Thursday, March 24, 2011, to 6 a.m. CDT Monday, March 28, 2011, while the USPS™ MicroStrategy reporting servers are upgraded from MicroStrategy Version 8.x to MicroStrategy Version 9.x.

Flats Sequencing System Presort Level ID Codes — As more mailers begin to adopt the optional Flats Sequencing System (FSS) bundle preparation standards, the Intelligent Mail^® barcode system needs a way to indicate that level of presort. Barcode ID 20, currently used for optional endorsement line (OEL) 5-digit and 5-digit scheme presorts, has been extended for use on flats prepared under the rules for optional FSS bundle preparation.

The barcode ID tables have been updated in the Barcode ID table and Technical Resource Guide on RIBBS^®. Clarifying the use of Barcode ID 20 for FSS OEL will not affect systems using Barcode ID information, but rather enable the Intelligent Mail barcode system to reflect bundles prepared under the FSS optional preparation.