Digital Mailroom: A Remote Work Solution within Reach

Digital Mailroom Services are now available locally

With many companies pivoting to work from home for the foreseeable future, the time is right to explore the benefits of a digital mailroom. What is a digital mailroom? Digital mailroom services allow your employees to receive inbound mail electronically, when they would otherwise receive it in a hard copy format. With a remote workforce, getting paper mail to employees can be complex, necessitating opening, scanning and electronically sending the mail, heaping a huge task on to employees whose skills might be better used elsewhere. Think of how many hundreds of pieces of mail your organization receives every day—and the resources required to process that mail can become massive.

Companies are also finding that critical mail is taking longer to get to employees, because of the need to scan it in-house and ensure it is distributed to the right person. That can create issues when payment processing is delayed or other essential processes are held back. More, a digital mailroom further reduces risk by eliminating the need for your staff to handle physical mail. Here at EO Johnson Business Technologies, we are proud to now offer digital mailroom services to our customers.

Jerry Rozek is Operations Manager for EO Johnson Document Scanning, he says for one client in particular, a digital mailroom has been a game changer. "They simply did not have the internal resources to keep up with the volume of inbound mail now needing a complex level of digitization."

How does a digital mailroom work?

The process for enacting a digital mailroom is fascinating. Here's how the magic happens.

Rerouting, sorting and scanning

The first steps include understanding and mapping the workflow of the current, hardcopy mail process, then developing a workflow for how mail would be sorted, scanned and delivered for your company.

Once the workflow is developed, the client tackles the logistics of rerouting the mail from your business to EO Johnson's Digital Scanning Department—often by hiring a courier service.

Once the mail has arrived at EO Johnson, the sorting can begin. First, the mail is sorted into two primary categories:

Mail that is not to be scanned

Every business receives mail that is of a sensitive nature from time to time. From mail meant for the eyes of Human Resources only, or the Legal Department, you may not want a third party opening and scanning certain mail. We call this mail the "Not Scan" mail. This category may also include mail that is returned or addressed to a specific individual. The process of determining which mail should not be scanned can be customized to your organization's unique needs.

Mail that must be scanned

Mail that is to be scanned, or as we call it, "Scan Mail" is opened and further sorted, as needed based on the envelope contents. The mail is also prepped for scanning: pages are unfolded, staples are removed, etc. Then, the scanning process can begin.

"Barcode sheets are inserted as the first page of each mail piece. The barcodes are uniquely named to include the processing date, the type of mail it is, as well as a sequential number. This barcode number will become the name of the PDF file that is produced from scanning," Rozek explains.

Even the envelope is scanned for the recipient. A little quality control ensures blank pages are eliminated and pages are rotated. Then the data is exported and immediately uploaded via Secure FTP, directly into the customer's server. Then, the customer's in-house staff open the PDF and route it to the proper recipient.

After scanning is complete, all of the customer's mail is bundled by type, counted and tagged, and the courier service the company has contracted picks up the mail that same business day and returns it to the company.

Digital mailroom benefits beyond the pandemic

There are benefits to having a digital mailroom that may last long past the pandemic, and we anticipate many companies will find digital mailroom services to be convenient and even necessary in the future. These benefits include:

• More efficient access to information
• Staff having quick and easy access to their essential documents no matter where they are working from—allowing for increased productivity and improved customer service capability
• Documents which are digitized on the front end can be routed electronically, backed up and ready to migrate to a document management system. "By comparison hardcopy records take time to physically route to a recipient and makes them vulnerable until they are scanned. The scanning is then done by the recipient — taking their time away from other job responsibilities," Rozek explains.

Ready to learn more about digital mailroom services?

Is it time to explore digital mailroom services for your organization? EO Johnson Business Technologies is here to help. "We work hand in hand with our customers – to identify goals and objectives, and to develop strategies to achieve them in a cost-efficient way," Rozek says. Contact us to learn more about the digital mailroom options available for your business.