Businesses often look to outsourcing to reduce costs and improve processes. It can apply to almost any area, including transactional communications. These letters and statements have extra compliance, security, and accuracy considerations. If you decide to outsource transactional printing, you’ll need a qualified, specialized partner.
Let’s review the keys to successful outsourcing by answering the top questions about such a service.
What Is Transactional Printing Outsourcing?
Outsource transactional printing describes handing off these communications to a third party. The printer receives your data, validates it, and sets off the workflow of production. They’re responsible for printing, packaging, postage, and delivery to the mail stream.
Outsourcing means you don’t have to intervene in the process; you should have access to job information, mail tracking, and more.
What Types of Transactional Print Can You Outsource?
Transactional documents contain PII (personally identifiable information) and/or PHI (protected health information). Because they contain sensitive data, there are specific steps and regulatory guidelines to meet.
The good news is that you can outsource transactional printing of any type of notification containing PII or PHI. Some examples include:
- Financial documents (e.g., statements, loan documents, tax forms, etc.)
- Insurance communications
- Healthcare-related notices (e.g., Explanation of Benefits, invoices, referrals, etc.)
- Debt collection letters
- Utility and telecom statements
As long as you follow the rules and your provider does, there’s nothing that forbids the use of outsourcing.
How Do You Transition from In-House Operations to Outsourcing?
Choosing to outsource your transactional communications requires effort. However, it doesn’t have to be overly complex. It all depends on how the printer handles it and if they have proven implementation and onboarding steps.
Ideally, you want to partner with a company that has transitioned many clients successfully. A migration plan would include:
- Assessment of current mailing practices to identify opportunities for cost savings
- Recommendations on optimizing the production process
- Dedicated implementation and onboarding resources to drive the project strategy
- Testing for quality and accuracy
- Ongoing reviews post-go-live
In this collaborative method, your experts and the providers design the most efficient and compliant workflow. It’s adjustable based on the type of transactional document. The ability to make changes should also be simple and straightforward.
What Are the Benefits When You Outsource Transactional Printing?
Your organization can realize many advantages with outsourcing. At the core of these is that you’re handing it off to experts. Whereas, this isn’t something that’s one of your core competencies.
Cost savings typically top the list. When moving this to a partner, you can immediately drop technology, equipment, maintenance, overhead costs, and labor from your budget. You’ll also be paying a lower postage rate since commercial mailing companies use presorting and other bulk strategies to achieve the lowest cost.
You can also see accuracy increase dramatically. Accuracy is critical in transactional print. A single mis-mailing can render a noncompliance violation. The best transactional companies use advanced technology and processes to be near perfect. To accomplish our 99.9999% accuracy rating, we use intelligent insertion using 2D barcodes, the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb), and high-speed cameras to track letters from production to delivery by USPS.
Another result of outsourcing is enhanced quality. We use a quality assurance framework, which means we improve the process by auditing. Each customer’s workflow has defined standard works, following the guidelines of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.
You can also have peace of mind about compliance. If you select a provider that only works on transactional communications, you’ll be working with a company that integrates compliance into everything. At a minimum, they should hold compliance certifications and have rigid protocols in place to adhere to any rules and laws.
What Actionable Steps Should You Take to Initiate an Outsourcing Migration?
If you’re ready to outsource transactional printing, you can get started with these steps.
- Research available options and scrutinize their production capabilities, security and compliance protocols, postage optimization offerings, and quality practices.
- Determine what the implementation process looks like with a few providers. Ask questions and request a sample project plan.
- Visit a production site to have a first-hand look at facility workflows, security practices, and technology tools.
- Review security and compliance measures in place and how they continuously improve them.
Are you ready to begin your outsourcing journey? We’re here to help. Request a free consultation today.
