// SCALING UP //

The DS-700 iQ folder inserter

GIVING CUSTOMERS PEACE OF MIND IS WHAT FORMARA IS ALL ABOUT.

complex, personalised mailing orders. Pond realised these were growing increasingly time-consuming to complete manually:“ Some of our clients serve both England and Wales, which means not every piece of mail we send is the same, as some customers require Welsh language versions of letters, questionnaires and inserts.”

Ultimately, the team realised it needed to review the technology in its mailroom to ensure it could keep pace with the growing need to quickly scale and deliver complex jobs. Formara also wanted to draw on the power of automation to drive operational capacity and ultimately support long-term customer retention and acquisition.

Tools

Formara already had a long-standing relationship with Quadient and discussed its challenges with the mailing and customer communications expert. Following an assessment period, Quadient advised Formara in 2023 to upgrade to its DS-700 iQ folder inserter from a previous model. The new machine gave Formara enhanced processing speed and improved capacity, processing up to 7,000 envelopes per hour.

The DS-700 iQ also introduced fully automated barcode reading to ensure accurate insert-to-recipient matching. This plays a crucial role in reducing manual intervention and errors for complex jobs, as Pond explained:“ Using a semi-automatic or non-barcode system requires manually checking the mailings, which takes extra time. Time is money and delays increase costs for the customer. As the number of elements contained in a typical piece of mail continues to rise, the DS-700 iQ’ s barcode matching ability has been a game-changer.”

To further enhance efficiency and accountability, Formara also integrated Quadient’ s Automated Insertion Management System( AIMS), enabling closed-loop reporting, real-time tracking and error reduction.“ The AIMS software was evidently superior to the competition; it gave fantastic closed-loop reports meaning every single piece of mail that should have been accounted for was accounted for in the AIMS system,” added Pond.

66 Intelligent SME. tech