Today more than ever, the business world is driven by information. Everyday we are inundated with the sheer volume of data that comes our way. Organizations that are equipped to give their employees access to the information they need — when they need it, and in the format they need it — are the ones who will ultimately succeed.

Over the past century, our economy has transformed from industrial to information computerization. We live in the information age, a period of time characterized by the mass amount of information available to us around the clock.

All the while, mail costs have spiked 40 percent since 2001.

Yet, throughout these changes, we have seen little to no advancement in the mailroom, where traditional processes can be arduous and rely on employees working in one designated spot. Often, employees need to respond to their mail by a certain date for compliance reasons, or to pay an invoice on time. This makes it difficult for those employees who travel or work remotely. What's more, so much of our mail is unwanted junk mail, or pieces that include personal or secure information, which needs to be shredded to reduce the risk of identity theft.

Even worse, all of this inefficiency comes at a price — mail costs have spiked 40 percent since 2001.¹

There's a better way

With an intelligent mail service, you can gain insight into your organization's mail journey, which is the first step in being able to improve your inbound mail processes. As mail flows within your organization, you can collect data and use analytics that help define the journey and efficiency of your mail's movement. In fact, you can collect data and analytics on each step of your mail's path. This allows you to gain insight into who looks at their mail and ultimately, what's being done with it. Armed with this knowledge, you can start to reduce the costs associated with returned, unwanted, misdelivered or junk mail.

Ricoh's patent-pending Intelligent Delivery solution provides organizations with a comprehensive intelligent mail service.

Typical mail process vs Intelligent Delivery mail

It is estimated that, by 2020, 50 percent of the workforce will be working from non-traditional locations.² Today, large companies often have office locations spread out across the U.S. — or even the world. Some of these companies have multi-building offices, while others have shared cubes and desks that are occupied by different people every day. In fact, real estate costs are the second highest expense corporations pay — second only to payroll costs — and so the trend is toward reducing actual square footage while increasing shared spaces.

So what happens if you're traveling to your Los Angeles office, but your mail is being delivered back home, in your New York office? Or, your mail is delivered to a shared space location where you no longer work. Does it get lost? Does it sit there for days? Or, does it get placed into the wrong hands? Even more concerning is if you need to respond to your mail by a certain date but won't be back in your home office by that deadline, or worse yet, you never received that important piece of mail in the first place.

With Ricoh's Intelligent Delivery solution, a first-pass scan is done of all inbound mail, which enables the receiver to decide how they want their mail delivered — scanned and delivered as an image, recycled, or delivered as physical mail. Employees are notified via email that they have mail, and then decide the best course of action. So now your employees can access their mail on the go from their mobile device in the same way they can access other critical information.

Gather important analytics

In addition to receiving your mail the first time, in the right format that matches the way you work, Intelligent Delivery also allows you to improve efficiencies by collecting important analytics like mail processing patterns, costs and turnaround times. Use these valuable insights to streamline operations and ultimately, reduce costs associated with an outdated, burdensome mail service.

Say goodbye to piles of unwanted, unopened junk mail and embrace our Intelligent Delivery service. Now your mail — and your mailroom — will reflect life in the 21st century.