Case Study
Network Post Hybrid Mail

To effectively communicate with a large electorate, the county council has worked with electoral printing specialist Print Image Network for more than a decade. The company manages the complexities of the specialised print, fulfilment and mailing that is often required with registration forms, postal votes and ballot papers. However, the council still managed smaller, less complex in-house mailings, which required significant man-hours from internal staff to print, fold and insert mailings. The in-house mailings incurred franking and envelope costs and meant that office printers were becoming increasingly busy.

Print Image Network introduced the council to its Network Post hybrid mail solution for small volume, A4 mailings. Network Post allows the council employees to create documents on their desktops and send securely to an offsite production facility, where the mailings are printed, fulfilled and posted, without using any internal resource. Council staff members can access Network Post by simply downloading a printer driver, which is selected in place of their regular office printer. At the same time employees can select a pre-loaded letterhead (or any other council stationery), a DL or C5 envelope size, and a simplex or duplex print choice. For documents that require colour, employees are also able to select the colour print option.

The council now processes all types of documentation through Network Post. Employees in the electoral services department print thousands of documents per month, including postal vote application mailings, confirmation and reminder letters and non-responder mailings. The simplicity of Network Post allows mailings to be sent out in a secure manner without getting staff involved in the production side of the mailing, which is especially important during busy election periods. Furthermore, documentation can be sent out on standard templates which ensures brand consistency every time.