As anyone who’s ever had to stuff envelopes with letters to customers will know, getting the correct correspondence to the right person is tricky. Thankfully, NeoPost’s OMS-500 software takes the pain out of preparing and sending important business communications.
OMS-500 can take multiple files, such as statements, invoices and general information from different sources as input, process those files so that they’re sorted into a set of multi-document communication pieces for individual recipients, and then send the communication pieces to those recipients via their preferred means, such as email or postal mail. Not only does OMS-500’s efficient workflow reduce the chance of reputational damage and litigation, it can also save businesses money and free employees to work on more lucrative tasks.
BLI tested version 6 of OMS-500 and created a number of workflows that processed input files to create one set of documents (known as a Communication Piece in OMS-500) that can be distributed to recipients. The files were processed by Document Profiles that identify data through the use of rectangular zones that users draw on an input template. The data extracted can be assigned to variables that are then used to sort documents and perform other tasks. It’s even possible to create dynamic zones that can extract data from zones that don’t have fixed boundaries, such as itemised invoices and credit card statements.
BLI created a Document Profile which used an invoice with a summed total that moved depending on how many items/services the ‘customer’ had bought, for example. OMS-500 successfully recognized the summed total on a series of input documents even though it was physically located in a different place on each input document.
As another example of OMS-500’s dynamic nature, BLI’s analysts had OMS-500 add a different enclosure based on the summed total in an invoice, so that those customers who were invoiced above a certain amount had an enclosure giving them a larger discount while those with a lower amount were given an enclosure with a different one. This makes it possible to personalise promotions effectively.
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| OMS-500 allows users to specify zones from which data will be extracted from input files. |
Although it’s a pretty powerful application, BLI found OMS-500 to be easy to comprehend and use. However, it will take some effort and a creative mind to make the most of OMS-500’s many features. The user interface is well-designed, with a dashboard that makes it easy to keep an eye on the state of the overall workflow and configuration screens that are well organized. The way OMS-500’s interface is laid out and the way the controls are organized meant that we familiarised ourselves with it in no time, and were able to navigate easily to the screens and features we needed. OMS-500’s user management controls are also straightforward to access and use.
BLI’s analysts found OMS-500 to be fast and responsive in use, although its speed is ultimately dependent on the hardware specification of the server on which it is run. The graphical manuals help users get the best out of OMS-500, but there were a few discrepancies in what was described in the manual and what was seen on screen. Support is available from Neopost for such occasions.
There are some things we’d like to see in a future release, and these are detailed in our full article. All things considered, a small- to medium-size business that wants to provide customer communications services to their clients, or mail multiple documents to individual recipients using different communication methods should check out OMS-500.
