What is a Digital Mailroom and How Does it Work?

Although the use of paper mail has declined over the past several years, there still remains certain processes and documentation that businesses receive through the mail in paper format. As organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve internal processes, one opportunity for cost savings and efficiency gains is through the implementation of a digital mailroom.

In this blog post, we'll outline what a digital mailroom is, how it works, and the benefits it provides.

What is a digital mailroom?

A digital mailroom is a service provided by a third-party outsource partner to centralize and digitize physical paper mail.

How does a digital mailroom work?

Typically, the receipt of mail is centralized by forwarding various addresses to a single PO Box, from which mail is collected on a daily basis. Once the mail is received, it is sorted, opened and scanned using high-volume high-quality scanners. Leveraging optical character recognition (OCR) technology, along with other data capture software and automated validations, information from the mail itself, and / or the envelope can be collected in an efficient manner.

Depending on the final destination and type of mail, the scanned images along with the corresponding data captured can be transmitted digitally to the appropriate internal recipients, loaded to a digital archive, or submitted seamlessly to other internal platforms / systems for further processing.

What are the benefits of a digital mailroom?

1. Improved Efficiency: By digitizing mail, processing time is significantly reduced. With a traditional mailroom, distributing paper mail to individuals, can be a time-consuming manual process, and especially ineffective in remote work environments. Outsourcing the digitization and distribution of mail to an experienced scanning and data capture partner can significantly improve turnaround times. Furthermore, the outsource partner can deal with any exceptions (i.e. discard flyers, return certain types of mail to sender, etc.) removing the requirement to handle these tasks internally. 

2. Reduced Costs: A digital mailroom eliminates the need for physical storage space for paper mail and the corresponding costs. Automating the data capture and submission of scanned mail can reduce errors and time spent searching through paper records. In addition, centralizing the collection and digitization of mail through one digital mailroom can further assist in achieving economies of scale in processing costs.

3. Increased Security: Physical mail can be lost, stolen, or misplaced. Working with a secure outsource provider, you can be assured that all mail is tracked and monitored through stringent chain of custody controls, reducing the risk to your data and documents. Digital records can be stored securely with audit trails, restricted user access and redundant back-up copies.

4. Improved Accuracy: By using OCR and other data capture technologies, the information on the envelope or documents inside is captured accurately. This reduces the risk of errors that can occur during manual data entry. Additionally, storing mail digitally allows for easy searching and retrieval of images, reducing the risk of misplacing or losing important documents.

In conclusion, a digital mailroom is a modern solution for handling physical mail in a digital format. By using advanced technology, it improves efficiency, reduces costs, increases security, improves accuracy, which together allow your business to operate more effectively. As more companies move towards digitization, a digital mailroom is becoming an essential tool for staying competitive and efficient in today's business world.

Use Case: 360insights Digital Mailroom Solution - implementation of a comprehensive front-end process outsourcing solution 

Octacom is a SOC 2, Type II Audited enterprise software and services company focused on document and data automation solutions, including automated data capture. Founded in 1976, Octacom specializes in accounts payable automation and automated invoice processing, among other digital / automated business process outsourcing services. 

If your organization is looking to learn more about our solutions and services, please contact us and we would be glad to help.