Online franking isn’t a term that most people in businesses will have heard of, but if you know what a franking machine is, you might be able to work it out. However, this article is going to give you all the know-how around what online franking is and why switching is such a good idea.
So what is online franking exactly?
It does what it says on the tin. Similar to hybrid mail, instead of you putting your letters through the franking machine yourself, an outsourced print room does it for you. In fact, they do it all, they print your letters for you, put them through the folder inserter and send them off. You just need to hand your documents over and then sit back and relax.
What are the benefits of online franking?
Well, aside from the joys of not having paper cuts all over your fingers, there’s actually quite a lot. Of course, time is saved as you can upload all of your letters in one go and be done, no need to repeat the process over and over with each letter. And that results in you and your team being able to dedicate more time to the important things, because let’s face it: everyone has better things to be doing than stuffing paper into envelopes.
And not only can online franking save you time, it can also save you money. Franking comes with a lot of costs. Leases and services and repairs and toners, the costs rack up before you’ve even put a piece of post through the machine! Online franking does away with all of that, and can save you money if you switch even if you still have a contract set up with your machine. We recommend if you do switch, using your machine as a paperweight, or maybe a laptop stand.
How does it work?
Different providers will have different ways of doing it, but most will offer either an online solution or a downloadable software (some even both). With the online option, you’d login and upload your documents onto a website; with the downloadable option it usually appears in the form of a print driver, so you can file, select the printer and hit print.
Some solutions are easier than others, so don’t pick the first option you find if it’s hard and long winded to use! After all, using online franking is supposed to make your life easier, not harder.
How should I get started?
Personally, we recommend sending yourself a letter from whatever software you want to use.
Go through the process yourself: Is it easy to use? Was it quick?
Check it out once it arrives: How long did it take? What is the print quality and the paper like?
Make sure both that you/your team would be happy using the solution in the long term and also that you’d be happy to receive a letter as a client that looked and felt like the one that you received. And once you’re happy, wahay! Get sending!
If you don’t know where to start looking for a solution provider, let us suggest Postworks. They’re an excellent provider of online franking with a top notch customer service team that makes getting going and using the solution easy as pie.
Interested? Check out their website: www.postworks.co.uk
