Power your Marketing. TM Seamless Acceptance: The Future Appears Bright Bob Rosser Director, Postal Affairs September 18, 2013

Power your Marketing. 2 ™ Session Agenda Seamless Acceptance overview Requirements to make Seamless Acceptance successful Our company’s experience so far Lessons learned by IWCO Direct Seamless: anticipated benefits for USPS and mailers Q & A

Power your Marketing. 3 ™ Seamless Acceptance Definition Seamless Environment: Automated census and sampling data collection of actual mail data as compared to planned mailing claimed in mailer’s eDoc. This standardized process is used on all mailings to verify accurate postage payment and mailing preparation quality over calendar month. Acceptable quality minimum thresholds must be met over aggregate volume mailed for month. Current Environment: Manual sampling, MERLIN, manual piece count, data collection by on-site DMU or BMEU verification of mail as submitted via eDoc based on Performance Based Verification. Numerous mailing methods and postage payment systems have resulted in more than 150 different SOPs for USPS acceptance personnel.

Power your Marketing. 4 ™ Mailer’s Concerns on Seamless Current Environment: USPS DMU/BMEU clerk is last quality assurance step Clerk will reject poor quality mailing to fix and re-submit without penalty Future Seamless Environment: Mailers must be proactive and vigilant with QA process to control risks and avoid unbudgeted financial surprises

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6 ™ Seamless Acceptance Requires: Solution Components needed for Seamless Acceptance: 1.Unique IMb on every piece – including Non-Auto 2.Unique IMtb on handling unit labels (trays/sacks) 3.Unique IMcb on container placards (pallets) 4.Standardized electronic documentation including nesting information for above 5.Handheld bar code scanners for data collection 6.Mail Processing Equipment (MPE) data streams available from USPS production 7.Hardware to house vast amounts of data 8.Software to analyze, compare and connect data from many disparate systems 9.Standardized processes for implementation for all parties 10.Reliable networks and data transmission capabilities

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8 ™ Sampling Verifications for Impact Adjustment Sampling verifications compare FS-IMD piece sample to eDoc: Postage Affixed: postage affixed on piece from sample is different than postage affixed of piece in eDoc Piece Weight Error: piece weight retrieved from sample is greater than piece weight claimed in eDoc Sample weight crosses into new rate category Sample weight exceeds percent threshold set for pound postage Nesting/Sortation Error: piece is nested in sampled tray that has sortation level that is different than sortation level of eDoc tray Processing Category: processing category retrieved from sample scan is different than processing category claimed in eDoc Content: sample identifies content error Such as mailpiece is First-Class Mail and claimed as Standard Mail in eDoc

Power your Marketing. 9 ™ Mail Processing Equipment (MPE) Scans Actual scan data of unique IMb on mailpieces is compared to planned IMb Full-Service mailing data in eDoc

Power your Marketing. 10 ™ Planned Full-Service Thresholds Take effect July 2014

Power your Marketing. 11 ™ Planned Seamless Thresholds Mail quality targets for allowable mailer “real world” production issues Measured over calendar month Subject to change as more mailers and mailing environments begin parallel testing

Power your Marketing. 12 ™ Seamless Error Summary Report Data from manual sampling by DMU/BMEU clerk via FS-IMD handheld scanner (e.g ) and MPE scans compared to all data submitted in eDoc

Power your Marketing. 13 ™ Seamless Error Reports by Job ID Report enables drill down into details of errors Allow mailer to determine root cause for systemic errors Can be very time consuming Undocumented pieces are only errors not available by Job ID as no match could be found by USPS against mailer submitted eDoc file

Power your Marketing. 14 ™ Drill Down Example – Appointment Error Above is description of errors reported on one error type for single job

Power your Marketing. 15 ™ Drill Down – DPV Detail Example

Power your Marketing. 16 ™ Current Status of Seamless Development Seamless is still evolving! Validating data / report information Known bugs Capabilities planned for specific quarterly software releases Software has been developed based on letter environment Most automated mailstream Flats environment will become more robust Bundle scanning being rolled-out – more scan data becoming available Mailers in pilot test are providing feedback to USPS Debug reports Validate data accuracy Improve reporting tools needed by mailers to troubleshoot quality issues

Power your Marketing. 17 ™ Seamless Acceptance Deployment Phase 2 Streamline BMEU entry Phase 1 Streamline DMUs and undocumented invoicing Phase 3 Sampling at induction and mail quality invoicing process mid-November February 2014 Summer 2014 What does Phase 1 mean for me? Many existing SPPS agreements require additional time and effort for mailers and USPS employees

Power your Marketing. 18 ™ Lessons Learned (So Far) Manual data entry issues Identify mailing statements so it is easy to discern client or type of mailing method causing reported error condition Undocumented pieces can legitimately happen IMb assignment process Single-piece

Power your Marketing. 19 ™ Lessons Learned (So Far) Invoices  known bugs for eInduction to be fixed in October Validate move update compliance Seamless reporting of read rates may vary slightly from IMb Tracing Adjusted read rates where automated processing is not expected Issues using MID on undocumented piece to identify mailer

Power your Marketing. 20 ™ IWCO Direct Insights on Seamless Benefits Potential for USPS: Revenue protection SOX compliance Easier cross training More mailer innovation with standardized automated verification

Power your Marketing. 21 ™ Advice for Getting Ready Looking at your Full-Service IMb scorecard You have access from your PostalOne! (BCG) log on if you are mailing Full-Service Look at attributable causes for big error quantities Address systemic errors in your process, software, etc. Be prepared – research is painful We recommend cross functional team from Operations and DP Divide and conquer Get familiar with FS-IMD scan data sampling methods USPS clerks use now for FS IMb verification

Power your Marketing. 22 ™ Seamless is NOT Rocket Science!

Power your Marketing. 23 ™ But You Need to Think Like Spock Think logically for every cause and effect in your mailing process that can affect mailing quality and data accuracy!

Power your Marketing. 24 ™ Summary Seamless physical requirements center on 100% IMb Full-Service automation rate eligibility Seamless data requirements center on 100% IMb Full-Service automation rate eligibility requirements in conjunction with new eInduction requirements Error thresholds are realistic and based on monthly volume Published on PostalOne! More mailer participants will help identify what’s needed to shore up gaps in reports, validate thresholds, and improve system performance Remember Seamless is currently an optional program Seamless is RIGHT thing to do but it will take time and more mailer participation to get it RIGHT!

Power your Marketing. 25 ™ Q & A Contact information for Bob Rosser: Phone: