For organizations that produce a high volume of transactional mail, meeting SLAs (service level agreements) is imperative. Transactional mail and the SLAs behind them require sophisticated workflows and advanced technology. Without these essential components, you could risk missing SLAs, which can factor into non-compliance or other adverse consequences.

So, how can you feel confident outsourcing transactional mail that meets SLA demands?

PCI Group offers a wide range of services to help you track, schedule and control all of your production jobs giving you full transparency and control.

Why SLAs Matter in Transactional Mail

SLAs are the commitments from your provider regarding the services they will perform and the standards around them. It’s a contract between you and your partner that ensures:

Everyone’s on the same page, and there’s no confusion about delivery expectations.

  • The establishment of metrics to measure the performance of the service.
  • A more successful relationship between the two parties because there is documentation of the partnership.
  • Recourse is available if obligations are unmet.

Providers don’t enter into SLAs lightly. They must have the resources to meet expectations. Having this agreement is very advantageous for organizations that outsource the production of transactional mail because this type of communication has specific requirements relating to:

  • Meeting regulatory rules about the appearance of the documents.
  • Ensuring the mailing of notices or letters is on time, typically within 24 hours.
  • Assurances that confidential information is protected and only delivered to the correct addressee.

A transactional print and mail service must deploy specific technology and procedures to meet all these.

The Technology and Processes Behind SLAs and Transactional Mail

In seeking out a company that can meet SLAs for transactional mail, you should expect them to have these things in place.

The Technology

  • Advanced inserters: Not just any inserter will do. A high-speed, intelligent machine is necessary. It’s way beyond traditional inserter capabilities. It’s flexible and can expand beyond #10 envelopes. It provides integrity in the process, ensuring that each letter reaches the correct envelope.
  • Inkjet printer technology: These printers are high-speed and full color. The quality is precise, and you have the ability to create a white paper factory, which involves rolls of white paper fed into the printer, and each document dynamically printed. There’s no need for pre-printing.

Both pieces of technology work together in harmony. White paper goes in, and digitally composed files hit production. The inserter then accurately and verifiably inserts the correct letter into the correct envelope.

The Processes

Supporting the technology are processes that uphold quality and accuracy. A facility providing transactional mail has no room for variances or waste. Our transactional mail services involve Lean manufacturing principles to achieve this level of integrity.

Lean provides a framework for any manufacturing operation to be exact in its workflows consistently. To do that, they develop standard works, which break down every process into all its tasks. We have hundreds of standard works, developed by our operators, as they have the most knowledge.

These processes drive out waste of all kinds to reach peak efficiency. When your provider can do that, SLAs are much easier to meet. You can have confidence in SLAs because these protocols are rigid regarding meeting compliance obligations and ensuring you hit deadlines.

Additionally, our customers have the opportunity to have a 360-degree view of all their jobs and the metrics. You’ll be able to track each document from production to delivery. With a dashboard, you can also schedule and control production jobs to align with SLAs.

Choose the Right Transactional Mail Partner to Comply with SLAs

SLAs are a critical part of transactional mail production. They represent the agreement between you and your provider. Failure to meet these can result in inaccuracy, late timelines, or even non-compliance.

You can trust that we’ll exceed your SLA requirements with our advanced technology and detailed processes. Contact the transactional mail experts at PCI Group to learn more.