Transactional customer communications require many steps to meet compliance and security requirements. It’s cumbersome and expensive for most companies. It’s an area that’s hard to streamline without expertise and technology. As a result, businesses are migrating to mailing and printing services.
Here’s why you should, too.
What Are Mailing and Printing Services for Transactional Communications?
Mailing and printing services describe outsourcing to a third-party, which takes care of the entire lifecycle. You simply send them the data through secure processing mechanisms. From there, the provider follows defined workflows that ensure data security, accuracy, and compliance.
How Compliance Improves with Mailing and Printing as a Service
Regulations impact every transactional letter. Depending on the industry and the data’s attributes, you may need to comply with HIPAA, HITRUST, FISMA, PCI DSS, or SOC I & II.
There are many facets to these rules, and any deviation can result in an audit, fines, or reputational harm. Managing compliance may be a weak spot for you currently because you don’t have the expertise or standard processes in place.
By transitioning to an outsourcing model, these weights become something your partner can bear. They have compliance built in to every part of the workflow and have employees who specialize in it.
The Importance of Accuracy and Why Professionals Do It So Well
One key component of compliance is accuracy. Every envelope should only contain the documents for that recipient. It seems straightforward, but when there’s a large volume of print and mail, this becomes challenging to scale.
There are two areas that transactional print and mail companies leverage for accuracy:
- Lean Manufacturing: The most advanced providers use the Lean Manufacturing framework to perfect workflows. They define standards of work and then audit the processes regularly to identify any issues and correct them. By doing so, consistency and reliability improve.
- Technology: The second capability is technology-driven. Intelligent insertion equipment scans 2D barcodes printed on each page, which provides data on which pages go into each envelope. Another camera records this to verify the task.
Seamless Data Security Keeps Information Protected
Streamlining operations also includes data security initiatives. Layered security measures must be part of transactional communication production. How this works varies by company, but should include:
- Data encryption while it’s at rest and in transit
- Firewalls and IPS (Intrusion Prevention Systems)
- Network segmentation
- User-level security
- Multi-factor authentication
- Proactive cybersecurity practices (e.g., vulnerability scanning and penetration testing)
Streamlined Automation Across the Lifecycle
Compliance, accuracy, and data security are part of the entire lifecycle. Modern print and mail companies have established automation to support efficiency without any impact on them.
The lifecycle begins with data uploads to a secure processing hub. The automated workflow then triggers. Production starts and includes automation that eliminates repetitive manual work.
The foundation of this automation is Lean Manufacturing and the standard works created. Intelligent insertion is also an automated component.
Once printed and sealed into envelopes, professional print and mail companies then apply automation to optimize postage through presorting and commingling.
Mailing and Printing Services with PCI Group
If you’re currently managing transactional print in-house or have a vendor that’s not meeting the mark, consider our solutions. We singularly focus on transactional communications, so every process involves compliance, security, and accuracy.
We currently have an industry-leading 99.9999% accuracy rating. We’ve been doing this for decades and can help any organization transition.
Get started by booking a no-cost consultation.
