Tag: Software

USPS: Intelligent Mail

Postmaster General John Potter announced today that the US Postal Service will push back the date of implementation for the Intelligent Mail barcode from January 2009 to May 2009.

In an advisory notice, Potter wrote that the decision to change the date was in response to public feedback. “Many of you told us that January 2009 was too soon,” he wrote. “We will propose a May 2009 implementation, concurrent with our next annual price change.”

In March, the USPS will host four symposiums on Intelligent Mail in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Atlanta. Intelligent Mail will also be a topic of discussion at the upcoming National Postal Forum in May and at the National Postal Customer Council Day in September, Day added.

The USPS first started seeking feedback on proposed rules related to the use of the Intelligent Mail barcode in December. At that time, the USPS said that mailers would have to use one of two proposed Intelligent Mail options in order to qualify for automation prices for letters and flats after January 2009.

However, in today’s notice, Potter said that the Postnet barcode will remain eligible for automation prices until May 2010. “Those prices will be announced with the May 2009 change,” he wrote.

Potter said that the USPS plans to publish its proposed rulemaking on the Intelligent Mail barcode in the Federal Register next month. The new proposal will include new options for mail owner identification. He said that the USPS is also eliminating the requirement for green color bars on the container label, a concern that was also brought up at the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee meeting in January.

Potter also said that the new May 2009 implementation of the Intelligent Mail barcode will include separate prices for the full-service and basic options.

AT&T Inc. announced that the AT&T Government Solutions business unit was awarded a task order worth up to USD 20 million to provide Software Engineering services for software verification and validation of United States Postal Service (USPS) automated mail-processing and sorting systems.
AT&T software engineering expert teams will test USPS systems nationwide that help process billions of mail pieces every year. AT&T will assist the USPS to drive continued implementation of standardized software development life-cycle processes and procedures across the USPS Engineering organization.
Under the terms of the contract, AT&T will use its Software Engineering services and IT expertise to provide software and documentation Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), software-configuration management (SCM) and other required services to the USPS Engineering Software Process Management (SPM) group.
The SPM group supports the USPS and Engineering by focusing on continuously providing the necessary high-quality and reliable software required by USPS automated mail-processing and sorting systems.
AT&T’s Software Engineering services that it will execute for the USPS automated mail-processing and sorting systems recently received the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Maturity Level 3 rating in all 21 process areas. The CMMI rating covered AT&T’s systems and software development, integrated process and product development, and supplier sourcing.
The task order is up to two years, with three one-year options. The task order was awarded under the Integrated Business System Solutions Ordering Agreement (IBSS OA) contract.