April 12, 2006

There was a lot of activity at the National Postal Forum in Orlando, FL last week. In addition to the address quality symposium, the announcement of the OneCode™ solution, and the many outstanding sessions, another important announcement was made: Firstlogic is now part of Business Objects.

For a postal show, this may not seem like it would be a huge announcement, but in fact, the news was heralded by many as an exciting opportunity to combine business intelligence with address quality and mail preparation. There were many companies that stopped by the Firstlogic booth upon hearing the announcement to state that they own Business Objects Crystal products and were anxious to know when and how the leader in BI and the leader in commercial mail would combine their technologies. While it is still a bit early to discuss any discrete plans, there certainly are some key areas where the need for business intelligence makes sense.

Consider the potential of a more robust sortation solution that determines the most cost-effective sortation, based not on stale labeling lists, but on dynamic conditions of a USPS^® changing network coupled with actual production costs incurred. This is often called shape-based sortation and as the USPS rolls out their FSS equipment, they will rely more heavily on these dynamic mail preparation systems.

Consider this as a renaissance in address cleansing. The goal of reducing UAA mail by 50 percent by 2010 is crucial for the future of the mailing industry. What better time to discuss expanding best practices in data quality throughout the entire data enterprise?

Consider the importance of business intelligence to the USPS as well. If signed into law, the postal reform legislation that passed both the House and the Senate will require the USPS to produce SEC-style reporting on a regular basis. This will be a new and potentially significant challenge for PMG Jack Potter and his crew.

Sometimes with acquisitions like these, a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) gets spread around. However, I can tell you that the commitment of Business Objects toward commercial mail couldn’t be stronger. As evidence of that, Robb Eklund, VP of Solution Marketing for Business Object, joined me at NPF to get a real feeling for the industry and to understand the important role Firstlogic has played with our well-known Postalsoft products. I am positive that he left with not only a better understanding of the mailing industry, but also is now as excited as I am about all the opportunities that exist.