Prepare your organization to navigate the unexpected.
A comprehensive back up plan is critical to your success. Are you prepared?
While your company may have a business continuity plan in place to uphold essential business functions during operational disruptions, it's essential to evaluate potential gaps. 70% of companies without a comprehensive business continuity plan fail to recover from a significant business interruption.* Many organizations often overlook typically reliable ‒ but essential functions ‒ like mailing within their plans.
Have you conducted a thorough risk assessment to pinpoint potential disruptions and their impacts on the mail center, your organization, and your clientele? For instance, how would your organization respond if a storm caused equipment damage in the mail center? Or if a pandemic led to the quarantine of a significant portion of your staff? Better yet, have you developed contingency measures to address supply chain challenges, such as shortages of paper, envelopes, ink, or critical equipment parts?
By addressing these questions and implementing robust strategies, you can protect your business against unforeseen disruptions while safeguarding against financial losses and reputational harm.
Now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, what’s next? A sound business continuity plan for mailing operations has three components:
1. ONSITE Equipment Management
A peak mailing period can be a challenge; many things must go right to get more mail out on time. A small disruption can have huge implications. A staff member gets sick, power surges, equipment jams and even the wrong preparation can be disastrous.
Keeping your mailing equipment running smoothly and minimizing downtime when something does go wrong, is central to the success of your business. The right partner will also help you plan ahead to avoid costly, unforeseen disruptions.
Preparing for the unexpected is critical for success. Do you have critical parts for essential equipment onsite to ensure timely repair? Has your staff been trained on your operation and armed with industry best practices? Is a backup plan in place to have on-site support ready if you have staffing shortages?
2. OFF-SITE Mailing Services
Expanding your staff or having backup hardware on site to ensure you can meet demand or be prepared for the unexpected, are expenses that most companies do not want to incur. Offsite print to mail services offer versatile and affordable solutions that can complement your existing processes and provide valuable support during unforeseen events with no additional capital expense. Here's how:
Temporarily Offsite Services: In the event of unexpected disruptions such as equipment failure, natural disasters, or staffing shortages, mail outsourcing serves as an off-site backup plan. By entrusting your mailing needs to an external provider, you ensure that essential mail services continue uninterrupted, minimizing the impact of disruptions on your business operations. This off-site backup plan offers peace of mind, knowing that your mail processing can proceed seamlessly even in challenging circumstances.
Fully Offsite Services: Alternatively, mail outsourcing can serve as a fully outsourced solution, eliminating the complexities of managing and sending mail in-house. By outsourcing your entire mail operation to a specialized provider, you free up valuable resources, time, and manpower that can be redirected towards core business activities. This streamlined approach not only reduces administrative burdens but also ensures greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness in managing your mail processes.
Whether used as a backup plan or a fully outsourced solution, offsite print to mail services offer flexibility, reliability, and convenience.
3. Robust INSIGHTS
The best way to avoid a disaster is to predict it. Data is essential to your organization’s success and insights into your mailing operation are no exception. Rich insights can help you answer important questions to ensure you are prepared. Some questions to consider:
Do you have visibility into peak mailing periods in your operation? Are they the same across locations or do they vary? Understanding peak mailing periods can help you anticipate fluctuations in workload and plan accordingly. Consider shifting staff from lower volume sites to higher volume sites during peak periods to optimize resource allocation.
Are you equipped to handle increased mail volume during peak periods? Assess whether your current staffing levels and equipment capacity are sufficient to accommodate spikes in mail volume. If necessary, explore options such as hiring temporary staff or outsourcing to meet demand without sacrificing efficiency.
Are there any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in your current mail processing workflow? Evaluate your existing processes to identify areas for improvement and optimization. Streamlining workflows and eliminating bottlenecks can help enhance efficiency and productivity, ensuring that your mail operations run smoothly even during busy periods.
Pitney Bowes is here to help.
We have over a century of experience working side by side with mailers of all kinds. Our unmatched expertise has informed our suite of Business Continuity Solutions and helps mailers maximize cash flow, mitigate risk, improve efficiency and prepare for the future every day.
OFFSITE Solution: An off-premise print-to-mail solution like Mailstream On Demand provides businesses the flexibility to quickly adapt and handle peak volumes, equipment redundancy issues, and business interruptions.
ONSITE Solution: We offer many proactive service offerings to ensure you
are prepared for anything that may come your way, from preventative maintenance and surge protection equipment to critical parts inventory and training & support, you can feel confident about your mailing operation no matter what comes your way.
INSIGHT Solution: A robust analytics solution like PitneyAnalytics®, helps you predict times of peak mail volumes and provide insight into disruptions or business interruptions.
From natural disasters and supply chain delays to equipment failures and everything in between, unexpected incidents can halt the operations of a business, including the vital flow of physical mail. The objective is clear: to mitigate the risk of operational downtime and ensure a swift return to normalcy. By having a comprehensive plan including Onsite, Offsite, and Insight solutions businesses can feel confident their mailing operation is prepared for whatever may come its way.