Fluence and Parascript partner to bring high-accuracy mail automation to CITIPOST Bremen
CITIPOST Bremen is one of the largest private postal services in Northern Germany.
Fluence Automation (formerly the Bell and Howell mail and parcels sorting division), and Parascript are partnering to deliver a mail processing solution to CITIPOST Bremen in Germany.
A member of the CITIPOST Group, CITIPOST Bremen is one of the largest private postal services in Northern Germany. The company offers its services to corporate and private customers across its territory and, through cooperation with other postal companies, provides letter delivery across Germany.
Fluence Automation and Parascript are supplying CITIPOST Bremen with advanced sorting equipment and software that enables the company to more accurately and rapidly process reject mail in real-time.
CITIPOST Bremen relies on Fluence Automation’s high-speed Criterion sorter and two mixed-mail
Intellistar sorters, along with MMT Sabre Plus OCR System software. The software combines Fluence
Automation’s advanced reading technology with Parascript’s machine and handprint recognition
software, which significantly reduces first-pass rejects and increases barcode assignments.
“We chose this technology based on a very clear ROI calculation using a test period to collect KPIs
based on live CITIPOST Bremen production data. Our primary goals were to improve customer
satisfaction while delivering mail on ever-shorter timetables, reduce TCOs, and implement a new Pre
Sort Service for a Consolidation Partner in our region, in addition to CITIPOST Bremen Private Post
Business. This Postal Service poses a special challenge to the sortation reading technology, which was
expertly fulfilled by our partners Fluence Automation and Parascript. The number of rejects and
associated time-consuming, labor-intensive processing were reduced so that our customers see their
mail delivered to the right places in exceptional time,” said Helge Schweers and Matthias Hansen,
Managing Directors of Mail Logistics at CITIPOST Bremen.
“The MMT SABRE Plus software significantly improved our operational efficiency, in part by
automating both machine print and handwritten mail pieces,” they noted. “We are impressed with the
overall performance and the unique customization to meet specific requirements for our territory in
Bremen. Based on key performance indicators, which we collected in a test phase using Fluence
Automation’s NetSort sorting software’s Report Tool, we were able to carry out the upgrade of our
sorting machines exactly to our requirements.”
“It is important for us that incoming mail is processed with the optimal utilization of all sorters.
Therefore, we have decided to upgrade all machines at the same time. The biggest improvement of 12
percent to a read rate of 92 percent was achieved on one of our Intellistar mixed mail sorters. This unit
sorts letters, catalogues and special formats. The read rate on the Criterion high-speed letter sorter
was improved from 91 to 97 percent and the read rate on a second Intellistar was improved by 5
percent. The whole MMT SABRE Plus software upgrade has improved our overall sort rate by 7.5
percent.”
“We regularly issue upgrades for our hardware and software that dramatically improve efficiencies on legacy equipment and on several other competitive sorters,” said Mike Swift, President of Fluence
Automation. “These upgrades in reading and software technology can extend the life of otherwise
high-performing sorting hardware for many years into the future.”
Fluence Automation and Parascript worked together on the first-ever MMT SABRE Plus software
implementations. “Parascript software has been used in MMT SABRE Plus for commercial mailers in
the United States with great success, so we have developed a similar approach for Germany,”
explained Swift.
“I am delighted that we were able to help CITIPOST Bremen achieve these goals,” said Ruediger
Hartmann, VP Sales International, Fluence Automation Germany GmbH. “The essential success factors
were the cooperation of all involved parties and Parascript´s involvement in installation and support
for a live test to collect exact KPIs from live production data.”
The MMT SABRE Plus software – which leverages character recognition technologies from both
Fluence and Parascript — automatically reads addresses with the highest read rates achievable, greatly
reducing time, costs and labor commonly associated with mail processing. It locates and captures
address block information on an envelope, mailing label, or flat image to efficiently process the entire
mail stream. It reads any character type — cursive, handprint, and machine print — in any combination
to provide a universal address recognition and validation solution.
“It is exciting to see Fluence Automation’s equipment with our jointly-developed software
implemented at CITIPOST Bremen, and that this solution is proving to help maintain their superior
service and reduce costs in the highly competitive mail delivery environment,” said Kaz Jaszczak, VP of
Postal Automation for Parascript. “We are also pleased that Fluence Automation has had such positive,
high read rate results using Parascript for both machine print and handwritten mail.”
