Postal Enablement

The feature adds a collection of step templates and workflows to RICOH ProcessDirector.

Postal Enablement does not provide postal software. You can use your choice of external postal software, for example, the TEC Mailing Solutions MailPreparer software or the Bell and Howell BCC Mail Manager software.

You can use steps based on existing RICOH ProcessDirector step templates to exchange data with postal software, or you can manually move files between RICOH ProcessDirector and the postal software.

Prerequisites

To use the Postal Enablement feature, first install a feature that supports document processing:

• For PDF files, install the PDF Document Support feature.

• For AFP files, install the AFP Support feature.

New step templates

Postal Enablement adds four step templates.

• SetPostalJobProps

  A step based on this step template lets you set job properties needed by postal software to determine how to process the mail piece information contained within the external document properties file.

• BuildExternalDocPropsFile

  A step based on this step template lets you extract document data from the document properties file and create a file with the document data and headings that you need to send to an external program. The file you create is called an external document properties file.

• MapExternalResultsFiletoDocProps

  A step based on this step template maps document properties that you select from an external results file to the document properties included in a modified results file. The external results file is produced by an external program.

• UpdateDocPropsFromExternalResultsFile

  A step based on this template merges the properties in the modified results file into the document properties file for the job.

New workflows

Postal Enablement adds four sample workflows.

• PrintAndMailJob

  This workflow collects document data to send to postal software and uses a step based on the RunHotFolderApplication step template to exchange files with the postal software. After receiving the output of the postal software, the workflow updates the document data and prints the job for mailing.

• GroupDocsForPostalProcess

  This workflow collects document data to send to postal software and updates the document data from the output of the postal software. Using rules that you set up to interpret the data, the workflow produces child jobs for each type of mail that the postal software identified. The workflow is configured to pass the child jobs to one of the next two workflows.

• ProcessQualifiedDocuments

  This workflow processes child jobs created by the GroupDocsForPostalProcess workflow if the documents in the job qualified for additional postal processing. The workflow sorts the documents, using the optimal method determined by the postal software, and passes the child jobs to the PrintForPostalProcess workflow.

• PrintForPostalProcess

  This workflow prints the child jobs created by the GroupDocsForPostalProcess workflow. The child jobs contain qualified, nonqualified, and other types of mail. The workflow makes sure that the order of documents within each job is correct for each type of mail.