Mailroom automation is a game-changer for businesses managing large volumes of incoming mail. By automating the flow of mail throughout your organization, you can reduce manual labor, minimize missed communications, and speed up customer response times.
However, every business is unique, and each requires a customized approach to mailroom automation that suits its specific needs.
To help you get the most out of our mailroom automation service, we’ve compiled a list of nine important questions we ask every customer before starting a new project. Answering these questions ahead of time will help both you and us in planning for your project effectively.
We believe that by gaining a clear understanding of your business’s mail processing needs from the start, you’ll be able to make smarter, more informed automation decisions for your business.
1. How Much Mail Do You Normally Receive?
To determine the scale of services your business will need, you should have a general idea of how much mail you expect to receive on a daily basis. Whether it’s 10 pieces of mail a day or a million pieces of mail per month, a ballpark figure will help you estimate costs ahead of time, and serve as our blueprint to ensure we dedicate the necessary resources, such as equipment and staffing, to manage your project.
If possible, anticipate fluctuations in volume, whether due to seasonal variations or business growth, and plan accordingly. Our mailroom automation service is built to be flexible, seamlessly adapting to your business’s needs as they change.
2. What Is the Average Number of Pages in Each Envelope?
When a mail item is received at our facility, each document inside the envelope is scanned sequentially, creating a single PDF or TIFF image. Each is then represented by a single index for organizational purposes, so that searching for just one ID retrieves the entire mail item.
Variability in the types of mail received and the number of pages in each item is anticipated and accommodated for on our end. However, any insights you have into the average page count per envelope can help you get a better sense of your business’s requirements before your project even begins.
This variance not only affects scanning times but also impacts your digital storage requirements, as each item stored will be larger on disk.
3. Do You Need the Envelopes Scanned?
Scanning the envelopes along with the mail they contain provides you with a complete digital record of your mail item, which can be extremely beneficial for tracking and auditing purposes.
It allows you to see the sender’s information, postmarks, and any handwritten notes without having to keep track of the physical envelope. This can be particularly beneficial for legal, financial, and compliance-related documents where maintaining a full record is required.
4. What Kind of Indexing Do You Need?
Proper indexing is essential for easy retrieval and management of your documents. Typically, naming each PDF file based on specific data point inside your document, such as a date, customer ID, or vendor name, is good enough to allow you to locate specific mail items with quick text-based searches.
If you need to search mail items by multiple criteria, we can extract more index fields from each item. This allows you to search by different aspects, such as sender, recipient, or category, making it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.
This approach saves time and improves operational efficiency, enabling employees to find required documents quickly without sifting through numerous files. Effective indexing keeps your digital archive organized and accessible, which is essential for maintaining productivity and compliance.
5. Do You Need OCR?
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned documents into searchable and editable text. This process uses specialized software to analyze printed and handwritten text in the scanned images, converting it into digital characters.
OCR enhances the functionality of your digital documents by allowing you to search for specific keywords or phrases within a piece of mail. While OCR has a minimal effect on costs, it might not be necessary if you only plan to use the index for retrieving mail. However, if you need to perform detailed searches within documents, OCR can be a valuable addition to your mailroom automation.
6. Where Will You Store Your Digitized Mail?
After your mail has been scanned, you’ll need a secure and accessible place to store your digital images. Whether you prefer to use a secure FTP, upload the files into our cloud based document management system, or integrate them into your existing document management system, we can handle it all.
We will organize and index your files to your specifications, ensuring they are ready for immediate use. Then, we deposit them in your chosen location, ensuring that your digitized mail is accessible, secure, and ready to use by your team without any additional effort on your part. .
7. How Do You Want to Distribute Your Mail?
It’s important to think about how you will distribute your mail throughout your organization. You might need mail sorted by department, priority, origin, or any other criteria.
Defining these requirements ahead of time helps us make sure things are set up so you can get the right documents to the right people as quickly as possible. Different departments or users might also need different levels of access to your mail. By setting this up correctly from the start, you can protect sensitive information, ensuring your business stays compliant with data protection regulations while reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
8. Do You Receive Mail That Requires Special Handling?
There may be cases where certain types of mail require specific handling instructions. For example, letters addressed to a particular department or originating from a specific sender might need special treatment.
You might want physical mail forwarded to a different location, stored for a longer period, or handled in a unique way that aligns with your business processes. Defining these special handling rules from the get-go ensures that your mailroom automation process can properly accommodate your needs, ensuring that important or sensitive mail is managed appropriately. Let us know about any special handling requirements you have ahead of time if possible so that we can tailor our service to fulfill those needs.
9. How Long Do You Want to Store Your Physical Mail?
Deciding on the physical storage of mail after digitization is important for planning space and complying with your retention policies. Some businesses need to keep physical copies of documents for a certain period due to industry or regulatory requirements.
Knowing your storage needs in advance allows us to provide secure storage solutions, ensuring your documents are safe and accessible for as long as needed. This helps maintain compliance and guarantees that you have access to original documents when required.
Get Started with Mailroom Automation
With over 21 years of document scanning experience, SecureScan is the leading provider of mailroom automation for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Our service helps businesses reduce costs, streamline mail management, and support paperless initiatives, leading to greater efficiency and productivity.
We understand that every business has unique needs, which is why we tailor our service to fit yours. Whether it’s handling high volumes of mail or implementing specialized sorting and storage solutions, we have the expertise to make your mailroom operations seamless and efficient.
To start automating your mailroom, get a free quote from one of our automation experts or contact us for more information about our services. There are plenty of reasons to automate your mailrooom, let SecureScan help you take the first step towards a more efficient, cost-effective, and paperless future.
