On July 17, 2006, the Remittance Mail Advisory Committee (RMAC) presented to the Postal Service several recommendations to improve the alignment between the Postal Service and the remittance industry.  RMAC has three sub-committees:  Communications, Performance Metrics, and New Products & Services.  The following table lists the sub-committees’ recommendations and the status of each.	
Item	Description	Stakeholders	Status	
Communicate support for remittance mail initiatives
	Disseminate messages in support of remittance mail initiatives and raise awareness of remittance mail initiatives with USPS employees
	Product Management 

Postal Operations
	Completed items:
•	COO letter to all USPS officers 
•	Letter to USPS managers encouraging   establishment of local remittance mail councils 
•	Communications regularly shared with various levels of USPS employees regarding remittance mail 
Ongoing initiative	
Regular remittance industry meetings
	Establish regular industry meetings between USPS and remittance industry 	Product Management
	Completed items: Industry meetings:
•	07/17/06
•	11/02/06
•	02/22/07
•	08/13/07
•	12/04/07
•	02/01/08
Ongoing initiative	
Media and article placement
	Share pertinent postal information to industry 
	Product Management
	Completed items:
•	Published regular USPS articles in industry publication, Today. 
•	Established USPS page on TAWPI Web site-regular items.
Ongoing initiative	
USPS involvement in industry events
	Participate in industry related conferences and events	Product Management
	Participated in various events including: 
•	TAWPI conferences
•	USPIS Financial Services conferences
•	J & B Software conferences
•	Global Concepts conferences
Ongoing initiative	
Standardize information routing
	Increase employees’ knowledge and understanding of remittance mail so that they can provide the best possible service 	Product Management

Postal Operations
	•	Product Management and Postal Operations conducted training.
•	Updates made to the internal Remittance Mail Web site. To improve ease of use internal Web site has been re-designed.
•	Articles published in Postal Link regularly.
•	Communications regarding remittance shared with various levels of the organization regularly.
•	Online training modules planned for FY08
•	BSN training Webinar  planned for FY 08
Ongoing initiative	
Local Remittance Mail Councils (RMCs)
	Create a local council of remittance mailers and USPS personnel who meet regularly to share relevant information 
	Product Management

Postal Operations
	•	Developed, published & distributed guidelines for establishing & managing a local RMC(3/07)  
•	RMCs are included in the requirements for the remittance site certification.
•	Survey developed which will identify locations of RMCs and designated local chairpersons.
Ongoing initiative	
Publish key contacts
	Identify Account Managers and BSN Representatives on the Web for quick lookup as well as all personnel that are to be contacted with any specific problem or issue	Product Management
	Due to the number of positions throughout the country & continuous changes of employees, maintaining a listing of names is problematic.
Contact by position currently exists. Business Service Network (BSN) office locations and telephone numbers are available online at http://www.usps.com/ncsc
 office/postmaster locations are available at http://www.usps.com/postmasterfinder
Although there is no listing for individual National Account Managers, managed accounts can contact the local BSN to obtain information. 

Alternative solution: To improve ease of use, direct links to both the BSN and post office locations are available on the remittance mail Web site. In addition, direct links are also available on the USPS resources page TAWPI.org.	
Remittance mail Web site (external)
	Establish Web pages dedicated to outbound and inbound remittance mailers
	Product Management
	A remittance mail Web site officially launched 10/07. Web site includes news specific to remittance mail as well as numerous links to remittance mail related areas on usps.com and industry Web sites.  Functionality of the Web site will be reviewed regularly for future enhancements.

Alternative solution: Some USPS processes are best served through established venues such as the BSN and PostalOne sites.  To improve ease of use, direct links to the BSN and PostalOne are available on the remittance mail Web site at http://www.usps.com/remittancemail

Ongoing initiative	
Voice of the industry feedback mechanism
	Share valuable information and foster understanding and cooperation and guide the industry. 	Product Management

Postal Operations	USPS is actively involved with TAWPI.

Ongoing initiative	
Remittance mail processing site certification
	Certify significant USPS remittance mail processing sites. 
	Product Management

Postal Operations
	Postal Operations is finalizing the Standard Operating Procedures and has identified recommended sites pending senior management approval.
Validation of the process is scheduled to begin in 
March 08.  
Postal Operations will work with Product Management to share the details of the certification process and accompanying service agreements with the industry.
In progress	
Remittance mail measurement performance system
	Develop a method to track remittance mail performance internally. 	Product Management

Postal Operations

Intelligent Mail & Address Quality	Postal Operations and Intelligent Mail & Address Quality are examining the feasibility of using internal data from intelligent mail as a method to track performance at remittance mail certified sites.

In progress	
Information sharing
	Create a process to share site-specific data such as EXFC delays as well as data from mail processing equipment	Product Management
Postal Operations
	A number of USPS reports and data are proprietary information; however, Postal Operations may be able to provide pertinent information that will assist remittance mailers in better managing their processing operations.  

Evaluation in progress	
Remittance email address
	Create an email address for remittance mailer concerns and issues	Product Management
	A single email address for remittance mailers would be problematic since service issues should be addressed by the local facility.

Alternative solution The current system provides remittance mailers the opportunity to have issues addressed through their BSN; non-managed accounts should contact their local postmaster. 	
Redirection Service 
	Establish a service that allows a business customer to re-direct mail to an alternate address 	Product Management

Postal Operations	Two postal systems are being considered for this initiative:  Postal Automated System (PARS) and Automated Tray Label Assignment System (ATLAS).  

Alternative solution: Express Mail reshipment
Evaluation in progress	
Subscription email alert system
	Provide a subscription-based email service that would alert subscribers and advise them of natural disasters and non-emergency notices 	Product Management

Postal Operations	Providing an email alert system is problematic due to the cost of continuous maintenance.  

Alternative solution: Information about service related closings are available at http://www.usps.com/remittancemail/resources.htm	
Portable ZIP Code
	Assign unique ZIP Codes to customers, which are not associated with a geographic location
	Product Management

Postal Operations
	Postal regulations currently prohibit this practice.  These regulations exist because of the potential for error when processing equipment has difficulty reading the barcode and reverts to the city, state line.  The possibility for misdirects and poor service performance outweigh the convenience of this redirect service request at this time.  
Business development team is exploring alternatives.

Alternative solution: As an alternative reshipment services may be a possible solution.
Evaluation in progress	
USPS courier service
	Provide a service to deliver mail to processor sites/ this service would eliminate the need for a private courier service
	Product Management

Postal Operations &
Delivery Operations
	Meetings with customers and Delivery Operations have identified key customer requirements.  The complexity of designing a cost-effective customized delivery program may be a business risk.
Survey sent to businesses. Development of projected costs and customer’s willingness to pay for this premium service will be evaluated once responses are received.
Evaluation in progress 	
Automated Accounting for Business Reply 
	Automate the process of Business Reply Mail to a lockbox address

	Product Management

Postal Operations
	The Postal Service is conducting a test to determine the feasibility of using data generated by the new Intelligent Mail Barcode technology to automate the accounting of Business Reply Mail.  Testing is scheduled to continue through mid 2008.  
Once completed, the data will be analyzed and the feasibility of the program will be evaluated. 
Evaluation in progress 	
USPS image extraction service
	Develop a service to perform image extraction of remittances 
	Product Management
Postal Operations

Engineering

Strategic 
Planning	Meetings with customers have identified customer requirements.  Strategic Planning partially developed this initiative, which needs further analysis.  

Evaluation in progress	
In-person payments
	Develop a process whereby a consumer could make a payment at the local post office 	Product Management

Retail Operations
	Currently, the high cost of labor is a strong deterrent for “over the retail counter” remittance transactions.  
The use of lobby kiosks was considered as an alternative solution. Retail Operations conducted customer focus groups in July 07.  The results did not support the consumer’s desire to use kiosks; therefore, this initiative is not viable.
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