Many businesses have an obligation to send communications totheir customers or patients. Much of this falls into the transactional category, as it contains sensitive information.some companies still manage this in-house, but it’s getting more challenging. The solution? Mission critical document print services remove burdens.
In this guide, we’ll advise you on everything related to mission critical printing and mailing. With this, you can make decisions about how to move your organization forward.
What Are Mission Critical Document Print Services?
In this context, mission critical describes communications that must meet compliance rules. Typically, they contain PII (personally identifiable information), PHI (protected health information), or other confidential data.
The second part of the definition refers to the services you receive. Providers in the space handle the entire workflow. It starts with you transmitting data files and ends with the letter delivery to your customer.
Mission Critical Print and Mail Services: Criteria
You may think you can go to any print and mail shop for transactional, but that’s risky. This is a specialized service built on compliance, security, and accuracy. As you review your options, these criteria should be on your list.
Their Compliance Framework
There’s no wiggle room in adhering to regulations. You must follow every one that applies to your mailings. As a result, you need a partner that has compliance in its DNA.
First and foremost, they need to hold current certificates in compliance with HIPAA, HITRUST, FISMA, PCI DSS, and others. If they have these, they have many of the vital protocols that uphold compliance.
You’ll want to dig into their processes that check the box of compliance, but also ensure that you’re ready for what comes next.
What about when compliance requirements change? Does the company have experts on staff who plan for this and implement new policies?
Their Security Ecosystem
Security and compliance must align and run in parallel. You cannot have one without the other. Security features ensure you meet compliance mandates.
You should ask granular questions about their security processes and how they protect the data of your customers. Some things that they must have include:
- Encryption of data while at rest and in motion
- Secure data transmission protocols, preferably SFTP
- Regular penetration testing to identify weaknesses
- Constant vulnerability scanning
- Network segmentation
- Firewalls and IPS (Intrusion Prevention System)
- MFA (multi-factor authentication)
- Physical security practices (e.g., gated entry, restriction in secure areas, cameras)
Their Accuracy Playbook
Accuracy supports compliance. In mission critical document print services, this refers to putting the right documents in the correct envelopes. They could have compliance and data security proof, but it won’t mean much without accuracy.
So, how do they do this? The best approach includes a production framework and technology.
An example of the first part is the White Paper Factory, which uses large reams of white paper fed into a printer. It combines composed files with in-line production. Everything prints in a single run, and the printer dynamically prints the information for that recipient. There’s no need to change out templates or incur any downtime.
The technology piece comes from using intelligent insertion. Each individual page has a 2D barcode at the bottom. A camera scans that and tells the inserter what to fold into the envelope. A second camera captures an image for verification.
With these two strategies, accuracy rates improve. Ours is an industry-leading 99.9999%. While you can’t eliminate all risk from this, you can reduce it tremendously.
Their Quality Tenets
The last criterion category is quality. You don’t want any compromises on this, but be aware that there are two sides to this.
The first is quality related to the look of your printed documents. Most printers are using high-quality digital printers that match colors and fonts. Your letters can also contain graphs, charts, and other imagery. A simple print test will let you examine the quality.
The other realm of quality encompasses the precision of the process. In transactional environments, quality assurance (QA) is the choice over quality control (QC).
QA involves monitoring the workflow to identify any inconsistencies or missteps. When found, the process gets a retool.
QC simply looks at a finished product for defects. It doesn’t reflect accuracy, and you can retroactively do anything in a QC model.
Mission Critical Document Print Services from PCI Group
All we do is mission critical communication production. Because we specialize in this, we are able to ensure compliance, security, accuracy, and quality. We constantly monitor workflows and use Lean Manufacturing as our guide. We print billions of letters every year, giving our clients peace of mind that each letter delivers to the right person.
If you’d like to join them, let’s talk. Contact us today for a consultation.
