Virginia Tech Alumni Association
Grades Bulk Mailer A+ in Mailing Preparation
The Virginia Tech Alumni Association keeps the school in touch with over 500,000
VT graduates, sending them newsletters, information about upcoming events in their
area and notices about university athletics.
No Help Learning a New Product
Three months after John Borman was hired to work in the printing and postal division
of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the man who hired him died. Borman, whose
previous experience was in printing, was suddenly forced to become the in-house
mailing expert as well. He’s the first to admit he’s “not a computer guy,” so when
he tried to use their mailing software, Pitney Bowes SmartMailer, he needed some
help.
He went to Pitney-Bowes looking for training on their SmartMailer product, but found
none. For the next two years, he tried to arrange some sort of training without
much success. Finally, Borman was fed up with Pitney-Bowes’s service as a whole.
When it came time to upgrade their printers, they went with Secap instead. Secap
bundled a one-year license of Satori Software Bulk Mailer® with the printer purchase.
At first, Borman was wary of anything “free.” “Oh sure,” he thought, “you get what
you pay for.” Satori Software gave him a demo disc so he could see the program before
he had to decide on the Secap offer. “No other company was willing to do that,”
he says. Once he made the decision to switch, though, he still needed to learn how
to use the software.
Technical Support Eases the Software Transition
“Going to something new made me very nervous,” says Borman, now Printing & Postal
Manager. “Satori’s Technical Support made me comfortable.” Borman used the online
Express Demos and free weekly training classes to learn how to use the program.
When he ran into trouble, he sent a couple of e-mails to support and quickly found
the answer he needed. With this help from Satori Technical Support, the transition
was very easy — much easier than expected. Anytime he needs a refresher, he takes
the free online training course again.
Bulk Mailer fit smoothly into the existing printing and postal process at the
VT Alumni Association. Local chapters will request an alumni mailing, which is usually
to notify alumni of local events– a networking meeting or football game, for example.
With over 240 chapters and clubs, this adds up to thousands of mailings each year.
For each mailing, Borman pulls a subset of addresses from the Virginia Tech Banner
database, imports them into Bulk Mailer, and finally corrects and presorts the
addresses. Immediately after Bulk Mailer finishes processing the addresses, he
prints the addresses onto the mail pieces directly from the software.
Bulk Mailer Improves the Overall Process
The Bulk Mailer user interface has made Borman’s job easier. “I’ve got templates
for everything,” he says. “It’s a no brainer. Once the templates are set up, you
put the addresses in and you’re done.” Every process from data import to mail piece
printing has a step-by-step wizard, and those settings can be saved into templates.
Processing each mailing is quick — it takes less than 10 minutes. At the end, each
address is standardized, corrected and confirmed as deliverable, and the mailing
list is sorted for mailing discounts.
Borman can solve address quality problems quickly and easily with the tools that
Bulk Mailer provides. When an address fails to verify as deliverable during the
address correction process using USPS®DPV™ data, Bulk Mailer attaches an error
code that details exactly why. Borman then uses the Groups feature to isolate these
errors and view them either in a list or one by one. He takes this information back
to the main Virginia Tech database, which helps the university keep its data clean.
Bulk Mailer has simplified Borman’s design process as well. With the versatile
mail piece designer included in the software, he only needs three envelope templates
to cover all potential mailings. With SmartMailer, he used around 40. Templates
can be changed anytime, like when he added a memorial ribbon graphic to all envelopes
in Spring of 2007.
When their bundled license expires, Borman plans to keep Bulk Mailer and pay the
subscription fees. “SmartMailer did the job, but wasn’t as thorough,” he says. With
Bulk Mailer, he gets software that is easy to use, address correction with useful
feedback and easy access to postal discounts. The free technical support and training
help him get his money’s worth.
Satori Software and Bulk Mailerare registered trademarks of Satori Software, Inc.
The following trademarks are owned by USPS: DPV and USPS.