June 19, 2009

Intelligent Mail^® Services Weekly Update

Reminder – Mailers using the Full-Service Intelligent Mail option will receive address correction at no charge. This address correction information is provisioned via downloadable reports or via an electronic exchange method using Mail.XML. The specifications for the downloadable reports are available in the User Access to Electronic Mailing Information and Reports Guide and the specifications for the electronic exchange format using Mail.XML are available in the Postal Service Mail.XML Technical Specification.

PostalOne! Patch Release 20.1 (July 19) – Last week we reported issues with the downloadable Full-Service address correction reports that are provisioned as part of Full Service. We have completed our evaluation of the issues and will address them in the July 19 software upgrade. The functionality supported in this upgrade is explained in PostalOne! Version 20.1 Pre-Release Notes on RIBBS™, under “Intelligent Mail Services,” then “Guides”. The current version published on RIBBS will be updated on Tuesday June 23 to reflect the Full-Service address correction fixes.  Responding to industry feedback, we will update the fields in the Full-Service address correction downloadable reports to match the fields in the Mail.XML format.  The User Access to Electronic Mailing Information and Reports Guide demonstrates what Full-Service address correction data elements are provided by the software today as illustrated in Appendix A and how the data elements will be provisioned in the upcoming patch as illustrated in Appendix B.

PostalOne! Patch Release 21 (August 16) – We will deploy a software upgrade for Full-Service on August 16 in PostalOne! Release 21. This release will address functionality for Multi-Line Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) mailers.  In addition to allowing postage statements for multiple payment methods and adding flexibility in updating electronic documentation information for trays and containers, this release will correct issues with postage statements and electronic documentation generation for MLOCR mailers.

Centralized Postage Payment (CPP) Periodical mailers have requested a modification in the timing of the provisioning of the Full-Service Address Correction information. We will address this request in this release where CPP Periodical mailers will start receiving the address correction information once the postage statement is in the "Finalized Pending Payment" state.

The release notes for this patch will be posted on RIBBS by July 3.

Label Certification Process – Intelligent Mail® Tray Label Certification is a voluntary process for Intelligent Mail tray label software vendors. This optional certification helps ensure accuracy, optimal barcode quality, and readability of the Intelligent Mail tray label.  It validates that the software used to produce the Intelligent Mail Tray labels meets specifications. Vendors who wish to participate may contact the NCSC, Barcode Certification Department by calling 1-877-640-0724, option 2 for application information. We published specifications for the Intelligent Mail tray label, USPS-L-3191 and USPS-L-3216 on RIBBS™.

Assistance – Please call the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 if you have any questions or problems accessing the Business Customer Gateway or your accounts, or submitting electronic documentation.

PostalOne! Outage – There will be a PostalOne! outage on Sunday June 28 between 4PM – 7PM EDT. During this time there will be intermittent or no access to the system.