Sep 28, 2009
A New View of Production Mail
The equipment used in the production of mail hasn’t radically changed since the first inserting system was patented in 1936 by Albert Williams, one of the founders of what is now Böwe Bell + Howell. At its most simplistic, inserts are placed into an envelope by a machine and arrive finished at the end of the system. While this technology may satisfy a great many types of mailings, we believe that for high-volume transactional mailers, newer alternatives are essential for continued cost reductions within the production mail process.
The market is ripe for an alternative: we must radically change some assumptions we make about what constitutes a well-formed, actionable mailpiece, enabling a lower cost per piece and an aggressively increased level of transaction with the recipient.
At Print 09, we introduced the BBH MAILStream Inveloper. We believe that the Inveloper introduces a new way to cost-efficiently and effectively process production mail.
The BBH MAILStream Inveloper works by combining the creation of the envelope with the insertion of the document into a single, more efficient process by replacing traditional envelopes with continuous roll-fed material.
The resulting document packet, which can include a statement, business reply envelope and optional inserts, is wrapped or “inveloped” at high speeds by the roll-fed material. Personalized offers or messages, enabled by advances in digital color printing, can be added to the mailpiece to create greater impact and improve the response rates.
Inveloping is a radically new way of looking at how we produce the mailpiece. By eliminating the envelope, we create a true mail ‘stream’ that provides greater effectiveness, throughput and efficiency. The process delivers dramatic cost-per-piece reductions, supports transpromotional messaging, improves efficiency and throughput, and offers a greener and leaner approach to production mailing. In some applications, the Inveloper can achieve paybacks of less than 12 months.
We developed the system as a new alternative for high-volume production mailers, making it ideal for utilities, financial institutions or service bureaus. Inveloper speeds run up to 30,000 mailpieces per hour, and because the document packet is wrapped in the inveloping material, not inserted, jam rates are dramatically reduced by more than 50 percent.
The system supports a wide range of formats, from letters to flats, closed-face and windowed material. Because no envelopes are used in the process, the waste associated with them, including boxes, cartons and handling, is also reduced. Promotional envelopes do not need to be stockpiled since the messages on roll materials are digitally managed and produced as needed.
Built on a robust, reliable platform, the BBH MAILStream Inveloper provides mailers with the flexibility to adapt to changes in the future while improving existing mailing operations and reducing expenses.
Mark Van Gorp is the vice president of business development for Böwe Bell + Howell.