FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	
PR Contact: Sue Brennan
April 14, 2003	202-268-6353
	www.usps.com
	Release No. 29
	
POSTAL SERVICE MOVES FORWARD
WITH INTELLIGENT MAIL & ADDRESS QUALITY INITIATIVES

	NEW ORLEANS, LA -At the National Postal Forum here today, Charles Bravo, Senior 
Vice President of the newly formed Intelligent Mail and Address Quality group, informed 
an audience of attendees of the significant progress that has been made in the 100 days 
since Postmaster General John E. Potter created his position in early January.

	"We have staffed the organization, drafted the Intelligent Mail Corporate Plan, 
established an officer-level steering committee and an executive-level working group to 
assist in setting the course," said Bravo.  "We are absolutely committed to making the 
goals of the Intelligent Mail and Address Quality organization -being able to uniquely 
identify and track mail; standardize codes; enhance supporting infrastructure and 
improve address quality- a reality for the Postal Service."
 
	The following achievements regarding Intelligent Mail were highlighted in 
Bravo's presentation:

§ A Mail Technology Strategy Council has been created with participation from some of 
the leading technology organizations in the industry. The Council will be asked to 
provide candid, independent assessments of technology trends, outside of any business 
relationships they may have with the Postal Service, and to create an ongoing dialogue 
on key technology issues, especially regarding intelligent mail.  The first meeting is 
scheduled later this month.

§ In support of its Intelligent Mail strategy, the Postal Service is initiating a study 
designed to improve its understanding of the printing, barcoding and mail preparation 
technology used by the mailing industry. This study will support the Postal Service in 
determining its strategy for future intelligent mail codes that would be used for 
individual mail pieces. The study is intended to provide an overview of currently 
installed technologies for commercial mail preparation and their capacity to print 
advanced barcodes and to identify barriers that might prevent mailer adoption of these 
codes.

§ Building on the Transformation Plan's directive to develop 'intelligent mail' products 
that track and trace mail pieces from induction to delivery and to capture real-time 
information about each mail piece, the objective of the "OneCode Vision" was 
established. The OneCode Vision is the creation of one standardized, information-rich 
code that links to a suite of services such as mail processing sortation, address change 
services, postage payments and certified mail services.

§ An enhanced tray label designed to uniquely identify an entire tray of mail has been 
developed and will begin a series of functional tests with other functions within the 
Postal Service. 

§ A request for information (RFI) for 'mobile data collection devices', or Intelligent 
Mail scanners, has been completed.  Award of the contract is anticipated in November.

§ Pursuing contract with the Engineering organization to modify the AFSM 100 (advanced 
flat sorter machine) to read additional codes on flat mail pieces.

§ Initiated effort to deploy new integrated data servers to the Bulk Mail Centers which 
will allow us to access the processing data from these centers.

	The following achievements regarding Address Quality were highlighted in Bravo's 
presentation:

§ Increased online usage for Internet Change of Address service -up 32% in first three 
months of this calendar year.

§ Increase electronic Address Change Service (ACS) usage -increased to over 1.3 million 
hits in the last two months.

§ Deployed change of address forms that can be scanned electronically using Optical 
Character Reader (OCR) technology. This will help to automate the Change of Address 
process, enabling faster entry of the address information while eliminating keying 
errors from manually entering the information. 

§ Made Address Change Service cd's available.

§ NCOALINK was announced as the replacement of the current NCOA technology. The new 
technology platform is independent, but like the current system, NCOALINK will give 
mailers access to up-to-date address information for their customers who have moved, 
improve deliverability of mail and reduce the cost and time required to forward mail.

\ 
#     #     #