American business has metamorphosed in the past dozen years. This is partly precipitated by COVID-19 and partly by technology and the social change of how people live, work, and travel. Organizations exist with one foot in legacy business operations and the other in high-tech, modernized processes that support a largely remote workforce.
No department exemplifies this duality better than the corporate mail center. The mailroom has been a constant in American business since corporate organizations as we know them began. “She started in the mailroom and worked her way up to the boardroom” is a common plot for movies, stories, and motivational speeches.
While some mail center functions have stayed the same for a century, how mail and packages are accepted, accounted for, and delivered are evolving as new technology introduces the potential for greater efficiency. In this article, we will examine some of the ways the contemporary mail center can embrace these technological advances to modernize its processes.
Mail center change
Transformation is challenging in any environment, and that includes the mail center. Reasons for this include employee resistance, lack of clarity surrounding the benefits of change, and inadequate resources or equipment to implement the proposed improvements.
As mentioned, some processes of the traditional mail center have stayed essentially the same for decades even as opportunities for advancement have developed. For example, the traditional process for managing inbound mail requires every piece to be logged and sorted by hand, placed in a mailbox, or delivered by a mail center employee. A similar process is usually used for managing inbound packages. Outbound mail is usually picked up from departments by the same employee or created in the mail center, sealed, and taken to the post office. But these workflows are changing due to technology that improves accountability and efficiency.
Digital transformation: Digital delivery of mail
While remote work was already gaining traction before COVID-19, the pandemic accelerated this shift and forever altered the handling of inbound mail. Remote work has long been a practice for field salespeople, who used home offices to make travel more efficient. However, COVID expanded remote work to include job roles beyond sales and technical staff.
Despite this shift in working location, the need to route inbound mail to recipients remains unchanged. The solution is digital delivery of mail. Here’s how it works with a modern mailroom solution:
- Inbound letter mail is scanned and automatically assigned to the correct recipient, as that information can be read from the face of the envelope
- Images of letters are sent to recipients digitally, giving them the power to determine how they’d like each item to be handled by the mailroom (recycled, opened and scanned, delivered, etc.)
- Automations can be set for a user or group of users to speed up mail processing or require certain actions (for example, when recipients are required to pick up items for themselves)
- The full event history of every mail piece is automatically recorded and maintained for reporting purposes
This process not only gives recipients better insight into what they’ve received, it also ensures mail pieces are handled appropriately and can save the mailroom time and money. For example, when recipients can digitally request mail pieces to be recycled, the mailroom doesn’t have to use its time and resources delivering those items in the first place. Or, when recipients are not on site, they can schedule a pickup for when they will return, preventing unnecessary handling by the mailroom from taking place.
By adopting a solution with these capabilities, the mail center evolves from a traditional cost center into a value-creation hub, optimizing workflows to support organizational efficiency and enabling its employees to focus on higher-impact activities.
Parcel lockers and package management
The traditional way packages have been managed in a corporate or campus environment has required mail center employees to deliver items to each employee desk or department. Today, parcel lockers can optimize this process. Here’s how it works:
- A package arrives, is scanned, assigned to a recipient, and placed in a locker near the mail center
- The recipient receives a text or email notification containing an access code or barcode
- The recipient visits the mail center, enters the access code or scans the barcode at the kiosk, and a locker door pops open
- The item is retrieved, and the entire chain of custody is tracked and archived automatically
As you can tell, this process is much more efficient and secure than having a mail center employee haul all of the inbound packages around to various locations. The chain of custody is shorter and more controlled, while managers can redeploy labor from delivering items to other activities. Though, parcel lockers may not work in every situation. They are ideal for large, locally dispersed workplaces such as corporate headquarters or college campuses.
Chain of custody
“Where is my package?” is in contention for the most asked question in the mailroom. These days, the answer to this question can come from the chain of custody recorded by a software program. Here’s how some solutions do it:
- An item (package, letter, or something else) arrives at the mail center. If it’s a package, the barcode is scanned. If it’s a letter or any kind of item that is lacking a barcode, a label containing a new barcode is affixed to it.
- Depending on the level of detail required, a “location” barcode is created for every rest point in the delivery process, such as the dump table, the sort bin, the delivery cart, and the delivery locations.
- When an item is delivered somewhere in the building or campus, its barcode is scanned, and then the location barcode is scanned to confirm it has arrived. Alternatively, the recipient can sign for it. In both instances, the date and time of the barcode scan or signature is recorded so the mailroom can know exactly when and where each event took place.
In this scenario, the whereabouts of valuable items are always known and accounted for. A quick search within the software solution answers the “where is” question.
Implementation
By adopting new technology, solutions, and processes like the ones explored here, organizations can transform their mail centers into critical hubs that enhance operational efficiency and support broader business goals. This shift allows mail centers to move beyond their traditional role, becoming strategic enablers that help streamline communication, reduce unnecessary overhead, and ensure employees, both on-site and remote, have access to the information and materials they need.
The modern mail center is no longer just about sorting and delivering items; it’s about delivering value for the organization through smarter processes and purposeful integration with evolving workplace dynamics.
To learn more about our very own modern mailroom solution, Received Digital, click here!
