Westernacher

Mail and Parcel Solutions

Apart from increasingly stringent regulations, organizations today face severe budget constraints in sending bulk mails, publications, or merchandise, both locally and internationally. Shrinking margins and regulatory restrictions, however, can be overcome by implementing the right processes based on end-to-end integration, from tag barcode printing to money transfer.

International Mail Production

International mail centers have to handle massive volumes on a daily basis. The German mail system alone receives up to 10 million international airmail letters a day. The steps involved in handling, sifting and sorting –– such as barcode and RF data capture, sampling, weighing –– create huge volumes of data. As in any mission-critical process that requires smooth collaboration, the key factors are reliability and efficient performance.

Westernacher delivers state-of-the-art solutions for data entry and automatic data capture for international mail production, using the SAP NetWeaver platform. BSP packages enable you to avoid time-consuming conventional methods of data mapping, and provide tools that automate the translation of item codes, and accommodate multiple addresses. Java WebStart, a technology for simplifying deployment of Java applications, gives you the power to launch full-featured applications with a single click from your web browser, supporting a world-wide software roll-out in mere hours.

Terminal Dues and Transport Fees

Westernacher’s SAP-based pricing and accounting systems bring in the security you need to handle multi-million transactions. They enable all letters and parcels sent to a country to be valued according to different treaty organizations (UPU, REIMS) and invoiced to the country of origin.

Our SAP-based systems facilitate the assessment of quantities and exact properties of the individual mail stream, thereby enabling focused marketing activities in global locations. Transport fees are brought to account based on mid- to long-term contracts with the respective air carriers – in Germany, for example, Deutsche Lufthansa and DHL handle the bulk of inbound and outbound air transport on letters and parcels. The SAP-based system registers and assesses their service invoices against the mail production data. Negotiations for new contracts are based on detailed and solid quantity information, eliminating the risk impact of unexpected pricing.

The seamless coordination of data with logistics and accounting operations enables faster financial results, while streamlining the procedures required for settlement of accounts. This contributes significantly to fast acquisition of the information necessary for informed decision-making.

International Netting System: the Clearcom Solution

After generating invoices, a mail center has to handle payments between approximately 150 Public Postal Operators (PPOs) and their carriers. Using the banking system would result in significant financial damages to the PPOs, which led to the creation of the Clearcom Netting System.

Netting is a treasury management technique used by global enterprises to manage their inter-company payment processes, usually involving several different currencies. Correctly applied, netting can yield significant savings from reduced foreign exchange trading and improved inter-company settlement efficiency.

A netting system like Clearcom collates batches of cashflows between a defined set of entities, or Netting Participants, and offsets them against each other, so that just a single cashflow to or from each Participant settles the net result of all cashflows. The netting process takes place on a cyclical basis, typically monthly, and is managed by a central entity, the Netting Center.

As a non-profit organization, operating from Switzerland, Clearcom provides for secure and efficient netted payment between the participating companies – not only PPOs, but also air and land carriers.

Westernacher has developed Clearcom’s central server system, and continues to maintain and service it.

Information

From receiving and sorting, to automating fees to meet national compliance regulations and maximizing net revenues, Westernacher helps organizations to strengthen customer relationships, streamline business processes, reduce operating expenses, and increase distribution efficiencies.

Whether you need to consolidate your processes, improve inventory visibility, integrate multi-carrier freight management, increase productivity or control mail and parcel costs, our tailored solutions can help you move more mail for less expenditure, in a real-time environment.