At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Director of Delivery Services Colin Tewey oversees mail operations for one of the nation’s top research universities. The operation supports thousands of faculty, staff, and departments across a complex campus environment.
Colin’s team developed its own process for managing inbound letter mail and notifying recipients, but the significant amount of manual handling required to scan in mail was unsustainable. More importantly, they needed a way to provide irrefutable proof of their operational accuracy. That’s when Colin turned to Received Digital.
Challenge
UNLV’s mail operation had developed its own approach to digital mail delivery, creating an in-house system that operated like the Informed Delivery service offered by the USPS. Colin knew there was incredible value in giving recipients advanced notice of the items his mail center received. However, without the proper technology to fully support and power the process, their workflow was inefficient and labor-intensive. Colin explained:
We had developed an in-house process to provide informed delivery, but we did not have an OCR process in place, so the mail needed to be handled up to four times before being scanned.
Each touchpoint increased processing time and the risk of error. Beyond letter mail, the team had a distinct process with a separate solution for managing packages and barcoded mail. This led to additional inefficiencies, requiring staff to be competent with two separate processes and solutions, and data was not shared between them.
UNLV needed a more efficient system that would allow them to provide advanced notice to recipients about incoming mail and packages. The goal was clear: reduce the time between receipt and delivery while providing a high level of transparency to recipients.
Solution
Colin had been in search of a better system for over four years by the time he came across Received Digital. In that time, he evaluated and tested multiple solutions. According to Colin, two things ultimately set Received Digital apart: its authenticity and advanced automatic assignment capability.
During his exploration and testing of different solutions, Colin had a keen sense for the integrity of the software and the team that stood behind it. Some of the other vendors he explored simply repackaged and rebranded a tracking solution that was created by somebody else. The software was unintuitive, outdated, and sometimes required a three to five year contract. Working with support on setup and configuration was also a challenge, as these vendors rarely had a deep understanding of the system they were selling. This created a frustrating experience for Colin.
Fortunately, Received Digital was different.
The Received Digital platform was a standalone program that was not a repackaged and rebranded version of another company's software. …The product team takes pride in its work, and it shows.
This distinction mattered because Colin needed a partner genuinely invested in the technology, not just a reseller of someone else’s solution. Once Colin made the decision to go with Received Digital, the implementation process proved smooth despite some internal challenges UNLV faced.
Internal hurdles delayed portions of our launch, but the Received Digital team met our requests at every turn and kept the project on track.
The second differentiator important to Colin was Received Digital’s Auto-Assign feature. Colin hoped to leverage OCR technology to improve the efficiency of the receiving process and reduce manual data entry. Received Digital leverages OCR, but takes it to the next level with an intelligent algorithm that automates assignment with an impressive success rate. After seeing it in action and testing it for himself, Colin was convinced it would streamline their process.
The first time that we actually ran a batch of items, it didn't come up with hundreds of fails. It recognized the majority of it. Where the first round with some of the other software that we've tried, it was a fail rate of above 70 percent.
Benefits
Proof of operational excellence
The most dramatic demonstration of Received Digital’s value came during a challenging situation with local mail routing. Over a four-month period, USPS locations in UNLV’s area experienced significant issues with mail delivery. When the school’s Real Estate department inquired about missing rent checks from several tenants who had issued payments through their banks, Colin’s team faced a serious accusation.
Thanks to Received Digital’s comprehensive history of every item received, UNLV could definitively prove the checks had never been routed through their facility. Simple search and filter functionality allows Colin to review the images of all items received for any given recipient or time-frame.
By imaging all the mail we receive, we proved that the checks were not routed through our facility. We notified our local Postmaster of the ongoing issue. Ultimately, we received the checks over a month after they were mailed. Having proof that our operation was not at fault was relieving.
This single incident demonstrated the system’s value beyond operational efficiency. It provides accountability protection and clear documentation when disputes arise.
Enhanced recipient experience and interactivity
After mail and packages are imaged, customizable notifications to recipients are delivered automatically. This is a huge relief for staff given the volume of items they process daily. Faster processing has decreased the amount of time between receipt and recipient notification, improving service to recipients.
Meanwhile, Received Digital’s image-based capture has allowed Colin’s team to better document irregularities with packages when they occur. For example, when package labels are damaged or they don’t contain the right recipient information, the recipient can preview the image immediately and respond if necessary. Received Digital gives all of UNLV’s recipients their own personal virtual mailbox where they can review their items, interact with the mail center via comments, and even request actions like delivery and pickup. Being able to manage this interactivity within the application has been incredibly valuable for Colin and his team.
If there is an oddity with a mail piece, we can document it much better than before. … Plus, offering departments the ability to request corrections to delivery locations has improved our accuracy and helped us keep our records up to date.
Exceptional partnership support
Post-implementation support has exceeded expectations. When UNLV needed to make changes to processes after going live, the Received Digital team didn’t just offer suggestions, they demonstrated solutions and enhanced functionality.
Based on his experience, Colin has clear recommendations for who would benefit most from Received Digital:
Working with the Received Digital team has been fantastic! … Anyone who manages the mail operations for a medium-sized or larger organization would benefit from this solution. It provides recipients with significant flexibility and promotes meaningful interaction between recipients and mail center staff.
Conclusion
For UNLV’s Delivery Services, Received Digital has delivered more than operational efficiency. It’s provided peace of mind through verifiable documentation and enhanced the institution’s ability to serve its community with transparency and accountability. The platform’s image-based capture process and intelligent assignment capabilities have transformed a manual, multi-touch operation into a streamlined, defensible system.
As Colin looks toward continued partnership in 2026, one thing is clear: Received Digital has proven itself as both a powerful operational tool and a trusted partner in managing one of the university’s most critical daily functions.
