How Large Organizations Can Save on Mailing Fleet Costs
Adam Lewenberg - Background and Experience • President of Postal Advocate Inc. – The only mail audit and recovery firm in the US and Canada – Manage a portfolio of 85,000 pieces of mailing equipment for the largest US companies. – Speak and teach nationally on mail savings and industry trends. • Industry Co Chair- Boston Postal Customer Council/Mail Systems Management Association member. CMDSS and MDC Certifications. • Featured Writer for Mailing Systems Technology Magazine. • Worked for one of the largest mailing vendors for over 17 years – Director of national sales for presort, tabletop inserters, addressing hardware/software and green offerings. – Was one of the top 5 account managers nationally working with some of the nations top accounts. • Not affiliated with any mailing vendor - Unbiased advice. September 20, 2017 2
What We’re Covering 1. Challenges – The challenges organizations with large mailing fleets face 2. Visibility and Analysis – How gaining a thorough understanding of this complex category will save time, reduce costs and increase efficiency across your fleet 3. Equipment Savings Process – The process to reduce mailing equipment costs without compromising vendor quality or service 4. Eliminating Vendor Fees/Overcharges – Steps to finding mailing vendor fees and overcharges 5. Lost Postage Recovery – Tracking down lost postage for closed locations, mergers and dormant accounts 6. Developing an Equipment Purchasing Strategy 7. How We Can Help - Best-in-Class Tools – Complete visibility to spend using the most innovative tools, resources available along with on-going maintenance and support September 20, 2017 3
Challenges of Managing Fleet Mailing Assets Areas for improvement Multiple postage Resources or accounts to Poor Visibility Unclear No control of Time to fund and invoices rogue spend Execute maintain Difficult to Inconsistent assess needs No No published prices for Connecting or centralized pricing for similar Devices to requirements oversight comparison equipment the Network 4
Challenges With Mailing Equipment Purchasing 1. Huge price variances for similar models at different locations across your fleet Example: Model Pricing Variance High/Low Total if all Model Quantity Low High Average Ratio Total Expense at Low Rate Model A 9 $348 $701 $459 2.0 $4,133 $3,132 Model B 36 $345 $1,573 $801 4.6 $28,839 $12,420 Model C 26 $427 $2,063 $1,296 4.8 $33,703 $11,102 Model D 13 $1,427 $2,760 $2,019 1.9 $26,250 $18,551 Model E 26 $1,524 $4,467 $2,666 2.9 $69,325 $39,624 Model F 5 $3,251 $6,276 $5,352 1.9 $26,764 $16,255 Model G 5 $7,848 $9,931 $8,931 1.3 $44,655 $39,240 Total 120 $233,669 $140,324 Potential Savings $93,345 September 20, 2017 5
Challenges With Mailing Equipment Purchasing 2. Expired or non existent Master Service Agreement 3. Lack of visibility to postage spends and usage levels. Companies buying the wrong levels of equipment. In many cases spending more on equipment than postage/usage. Spend Ratios Equipment Postage Postage Range # of Sites Spend Spend Spend Ratio >$12,000 per year 2 $26,600 $63,500 0.42 $1200-12,000 per year 64 $189,054 $155,441 1.22 <$1,200 per year 76 $120,291 $41,890 2.87 Main Cause – Reliance on mailing vendor to work with the locations to define requirements combined with declining mail volumes. September 20, 2017 6
Challenges With Mailing Equipment Purchasing 4. Vendor inventory reporting is infrequent, unavailable and confusing 5. Lease portfolios with varying end dates often going into evergreen statuses . Lease Renewal Dates Lease Expiration Year # of Sites Value 2013 or Before 19 $28,404 68% of your leases 2014 9 $12,198 are coming up 2015 34 $62,193 over the next 2016 26 $54,455 year. 2017 19 $30,795 2018-20 22 $35,691 Total 129 $223,736 September 20, 2017 7
Equipment Savings Process Optimized Mailing Fleet Asset Management 1. Gain visibility to your equipment and spends. 2. Validate questionable charges. 3. Negotiate enterprise pricing and terms. 4. Work with locations on equipment changes. 5. Eliminate fees and overcharges 6. Maintain postage balances and claim lost funds. 7. Continual review to ensure savings. This process leads to 30-70% savings! September 20, 2017 8
Analysis and Visibility • Get reports from your vendors that list: – Account Numbers (Install, Lease, Prepaid and Advance Postage) – Lease Information – Rate, Term, End of Lease, Items covered. – Meter rentals and maintenance agreements. – Model, serial number and description of every item. • Go to accounts payable and pull spend reports from the main mail vendors and USPS. • Enter your account numbers on the vendor websites. • Monitor your inventory, invoices and postage balances online ( Recommended to do this monthly ). • Find all active locations with equipment. • Set up a schedule for continual review. September 20, 2017 9
Eliminating Vendor Fees/Overcharges • Pay bills on time. We find companies paying tens of thousands in fees • Look at each invoice and validate all and overcharges that can chargeable items. be recovered or eliminated • Cancel vendor equipment insurance. for the future. • Terminate chargeable loyalty programs. Postal Advocate Avoidable Fees and • Make sure postage refill and advance Overcharges Savings Stats charges are included or monitored. 4266 Transactions - $5,473,438 Mailing System Fees Typical Vendor Overcharges Postage Invoices not giving national account discounts. Refill Fees - Rentals $0-20 each Postage Advance Fees Included or up to 1% of the Advance Meter, maintenance and rate change charges when included on a lease. Postage Advance Late Fees 0-15% of the Advance Bills for equipment from closed sites. 15% or higher APR Postage Advance Finance Charges Reset and advance postage fees that should be included. Varies by Vendor Overlimit Credit Charge Varies by Vendor Annual Fee Rewards Program Loyalty points that go undredeemed or cashed in for personal use. Lease Varies by Vendor and Lease Value Late Fees Varies by Vendor and Lease Value - Automatic enrollment unless proof insurance is provided. Insurance - Leases Only September 20, 2017 10
Lost Postage Recovery • We have found over $2,460,000 in lost postage sitting in dormant postage accounts. Plus over 27,000 transactions turned over to the states. This happens because: – Offices close, merge or just turn in their meters. – The money is expensed once sent in for postage. – The advance account is used when funds sit idle in the prepaid. • Steps to find money. – Find account numbers of your current and past meters. – Enter these account numbers online on the vendors website to see if any data is available. – Contact your meter vendor to validate funds available. – Check the unclaimed funds databases to see if funds were turned in. Postal Advocate can research these funds and help you get them returned. September 20, 2017 11
Developing an Equipment Purchasing Strategy How Postal Advocate Can Help • Use national spend to negotiate better rates. We can pull this spend together for the US and Canada. • Consider running a bid between the main mailing vendors. (Pitney Bowes, Neopost, FP, Stamps.com) We have bid templates ready that we have used to negotiated for the largest mailing fleets. • Negotiate Master Service Agreement and Terms. We can add and review terms to protect you for the future . • Define the order process inside your organization. – Purchase vs. lease vs. rental? We can guide you through your options . – How are the equipment needs defined? Postal Advocate will work with your locations to show options and help implement changes. – Where are approvals done? – How can the policies be enforced? Postal Advocate will manage this process to ensure rules are being followed. September 20, 2017 12
How Postal Advocate Can Help • We can work with all vendor’s data and can build this visibility. • We maintain this data in our enterpriseAdvocate System and provide you access. • We update this data monthly. • We use this data to drive savings through your portfolio. September 20, 2017 13
Enterprise Advocate – Multi Location System - Dashboard The data above is for demonstrative purposes only. Data does not represent true spends and costs. September 20, 2017 14
Enterprise Advocate – Multi Location System - Dashboard Spend Ratio What are we spending on the equipment compared to the postage used. Highlights • Simple access to all mail spends. • Visibility to fees and savings. • All account numbers are stored in one place. • Simple to drill down to an individual location or invoice. September 20, 2017 15 The data above is for demonstrative purposes only. Data does not represent true spends and costs.
Enterprise Advocate – Location View September 20, 2017 16
Recommend
More recommend
