Create effective document distribution processes in just 5 steps

As every business distributes documents, whether they are invoices, company payslips or customer communications, it is important to have effective document distribution processes.

Many businesses manage their document distribution in house. Managing the creation, print and postage of all their documents. This can be time-consuming, costly and can take up internal resources and space. With an effective document distribution process, these barriers can be overcome to create streamline and efficient processes.

Discover the steps your business can take to transform your document distribution processes. From outsourcing elements of your distribution process to understanding how moving away from physical to digital distribution can be more efficient and cost effective. Read on for five simple steps.

1. Outsourcing your transactional print & post

Managing your document distribution in-house may seem like a cost-effective method, but outsourcing can actually save your business money. Not only will you reduce your in-house tasks, but your business will have a most cost effective solution in place.

Think about the time and cost spent on printing your own documents, sourcing materials and equipment, and the space to house a post room. All of this can be outsourced.

When outsourcing to a transactional print and post provider, you are taking advantage of the provider’s economies of scale. When a transactional print and post provider prints and distributes your documents, they are doing the same for other businesses as well. This means that the cost of equipment, maintenance and advanced technology is taken care of by the print and post provider. No longer will your business have to source print materials, manage the maintenance of franking machines or invest in the best print and post technology. Your provider will do all of this for.

Plus, think about the time you save as well. No longer will your team have to carry out manual print and post tasks. This time can be repurposed within your business and focused on the areas of your business that matter the most to you.

2. Building your bespoke scripts

Building your bespoke scripts may sound complicated but it is in fact very simple. Especially for Unifiedpost Group.

If you distribute a large volume of documents it can be difficult to manage all of the data and document formats. Plus, with the acceleration of digital uptake, you may be seeing that providing physical documents to customers, suppliers and employees is no longer enough. Users are starting to expect digital documents to exist. But not all users, which is where the bespoke scripts come into play.

When build bespoke scripts that are tailored to your business communication and document distribution channel of choice. For example, you may wish to start digitally distributing documents, but know that a certain demographic of your audience would still prefer a physical copy. Detail this within your data sheet and we will build the bespoke script. The script details which users receive digital documents and those users that will receive physical documents. The script can also be built with pre-defined rules. So that if a digital document user has a bounced email address, a physical document will then be distributed to them.

Our multichannel solution removes manual process steps and replaces them with automated, digital methods. Your business has an audit trail of every distributed document and your business and customers decide on their distribution channel of choice.

Overall, a simple step towards effective document distribution.

3. Further cost savings and increased data security with mail consolidation

Once we have built a bespoke script we will securely receive your data and then audit it for accuracy, completeness and integrity. Your data is then applied to your document template and is sent to your chosen distribution channel of choice. If distributing by physical print and post we use our advanced mail consolidator within the distribution process.

Using a mail consolidator means our processing routines maximise discounts and minimise costs. Mail consolidation enables you to make further reductions on your print and post costs by combining multiple invoices or statements for your customers.

Not only will you have more cost-effective document distribution processes but you will also benefit from increased data security.

All communications produced by Unifiedpost Group include security marks and optical mark recognition. This means that every distributed communication has a unique mark. The mark is scanned by our machines and recorded on an automated report so that you have the confidence of knowing the time of your distributed document. Therefore, a more effective and secure document distribution process without extra manual work to check in house.

4. Hybrid mail solutions

Hybrid mail is a simple document distribution process for ad-hoc communications. Although hybrid mail has been around for many years, the solution became increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was an increase in working from home practices.

Put simply, hybrid mail is a document distribution solution by electronic or physical methods. Hybrid mail isn’t a big change for how your business currently creates and prints documents and communications. However, instead of printing and posting the document yourself, a hybrid mail solution will do that for you.

Hybrid mail is set up on your employees’ systems. All they then do is click to print their document, choose their hybrid mail provider’s printer and the document is printed and distributed for you. Hybrid mail makes working from home, the office, or a third workplace that much easier. Not only will your business save time by no longer needing to print and post ad-hoc communications, but the cost savings are of benefit too. To print and distribute by hybrid mail costs less than a second class stamp.

Your hybrid mail solution can also be taken a step further by transitioning from physical document distribution to digital. Learn even more about how hybrid mail can provide your business with effective document distribution processes via our blog.

5. Significant savings & reduction in invoice to cash time

Moving from physical document distribution to digital distribution can help reduce your invoice to cash time. When using the likes of physical invoices your business doesn’t have the control or visibility of knowing when your invoice lands with your customer. By changing the invoice distribution to a digital process, you can benefit from a clear invoice audit trail.

With Unifiedpost Group’s multichannel distribution solutions, you will be notified of when an invoice has been sent, received, opened and even paid. Your business will have full visibility of invoices in play and even have the control to send automatic invoice nudges if an invoice hasn’t been paid by a certain date.

Plus, as you are distributing your invoice digitally, in a manner of seconds, your invoice lands with your customer instantly meaning that your invoice start date begins sooner.

By automating and digitising your document handling and distribution, your business creates an effective document distribution process and helps your business improve your invoice to cash time.

Effective document distribution processes with Unifiedpost Group

Unifiedpost Group exists to create effective document distribution processes for businesses in many sectors, of many different sizes.

Whether you are looking to distribute invoices, employee communications, customer letters, your business can utilise more effective document distribution processes with us. We will partner with your business to understand your and your customers requirements. Your document distribution solution is then tailored around what you need. From multichannel distribution options to hybrid mail solutions that create seamless and cost effective processes.

Get in touch with the Unifiedpost Group team today for an initial conversation and to discuss how you can create effective document distribution processes.