Substantial postal savings resulting
from optimized printing and mailing
 Volkswagen
Financial Services
Volkswagen Financial Services AG processes the financial
transactions and car leasing for its four automobile
brands, Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, and Seat. They manage
the complete output and print process as a service to
their related companies.
The Concept
To be able to meet comprehensive print requirements
of the future, including the ever increasing demands
for improved print quality and layout, a new concept
was developed to manage all the output needs.
The Objectives
| • |
Migration of existing documents to the new
system generated by many different applications |
| • |
Enhance and optimize printing, mailing, and
franking operations |
| • |
Utilize postal rebates from Deutsche Post
for daily mailings of 50,000 envelopes |
| • |
Windows NT print server |
The Requirements
| • |
Conversion of more than 1000 existing XEROX
DJDE applications |
| • |
Easy integration of new documents into the
output management system |
| • |
All fonts should be easily modified to accommodate
'proportional fonts' where 'fixed pitch fonts'
were used before |
| • |
Centralized dispatching of all mailings optimized
for postal charges |
| • |
For each postage class, the optimal number
of envelopes was to be established, in order to
obtain the best rebate from the Deutsche Post |
| • |
Extract franking and optimization information
from the input data |
| • |
Automate handling of documents in error; an
error protocol to be made available |
| • |
Generate accompanying postal transmission
forms in conformance with Deutsche Post guidelines |
| • |
Direct control of the 600 dpi OCE PS 235 IPDS
printer |
| • |
Print queue management |
 The
Solution
Together with Volkswagen Financial Services ISIS defined
an interface to handle net data. Printer and platform
independent documents are developed using Papyrus Designer.
The processing information required to calculate the
postal charges, to optimize these, and to suitably merge
documents, is extracted from the input data when formatting
and passed to the PrintPool through the document index.
Papyrus Designer enables easy definition of the document
index needed for bundling, reprinting and distribution
of different document types.
Papyrus PrintPool is the key component for collection,
postage optimization, and printing. Because of the great
variety of tasks involved, implementation takes place
using an Oracle database. This allows the print status
of each document to be monitored and tracked. Any document
in the print pool can be version-controlled, displayed,
printed, and finally bundled for postal discounts.
The Papyrus Server automatically handles all tasks
from formatting with Papyrus DocEXEC, to storing documents
in the PrintPool including OMR postal machine controls.
Papyrus PostCalc uses the PrintPool tables to establish
the optimal number of envelopes, calculate the postal
charges, and to create print lists for each postal charge
category, classified according to sorted zip codes and
to sorted zip code groups. Papyrus DocEXEC Bundling
application uses the print lists to extract the documents
from the PrintPool database and add the post-processing
information including franking information and control
characters for further postprocessing (enveloping machines,
franking machines, cutters and sorters.)
Certification by Deutsche
Post
Papyrus gets postal information from a profile, maintained
by the user, in order to easily accommodate new paper
types, mail products, or postal charges. Papyrus PostCalc
logs all relevant data and creates the forms that accompany
the dispatched documents. Papyrus PostCalc was developed
in close cooperation with the Deutsche Post.
Post-Optimization Criteria
| • |
Number of envelopes of all VWFS clients within
a postal charge classification |
| • |
Dispatching priority (0,1,..., N) days |
| • |
Merge of documents for a common address |
| • |
Merge of letters and invoices in non-determined
quantities from different input files |
| • |
Document supplement control (mandatory and
optional supplements) |
Production printing on OCE
IPDS 600dpi printers
The bundled AFP print data stream is printed to IPDS
by the Papyrus Server, which controls the OCE printer
directly in 2-UP mode via a Barr channel card. The envelope
checking process is manually initiated by the operator
after successful printing and putting in the envelopes.
PostCalc establishes the quantity differential for automatic
post printing. Papyrus Server prints documents plus
resources to PCL with dot accuracy, then routes these
to decentralized network printers.
Usage of JAVA Technology
Via the PostCalc JAVA GUI, all processing steps can
be queried and manually executed including:
| • |
Envelope/document reconciliation |
| • |
document volumes in database |
| • |
Selection of document input |
| • |
deletion of deliverable documents |
| • |
Post-print of bundled documents |
| • |
Handling of partial documents |
ISIS provides this solution on many system platforms. |
