EasyPost

2005 Consensus Software Awards

Product Description

Imagine if sending postal mail was as simple as a click of a mouse.  No more printing, no more folding, no more post office queues.  Sure there have been attempts utilizing the internet to solve the problem, but solutions like buying stamps online and web based mail merges don’t address the core problem.  Businesses need the opportunity to electronically outsource the printing and posting of letters from within the computer programs that they use on a daily basis. EasyPost allows your business to outsource the posting of most documents from Windows® application.  If the application can print to current Windows® standards, EasyPost can post it.  The virtual EasyPost print driver captures, records, encrypts and transports the letter to a secure printing facility, where it is printed, folded and posted. Everyone wins, you get your desktop mail[1] out the door electronically, and your clients receive high quality hard copy letters.  In addition to this you get an official receipt of the date and time the item was lodged with Post.

Until now there hasn’t been a solution for any size business to outsource the printing, folding and posting of mail from their desktop computers. Now there is.

How Does EasyPost Work?

• You select which letters you want posted from your computer.

• At a push of a button, the software provided by EasyPost then encrypts and electronically sends the letters to our secure printing facility.

• The letters are printed, enveloped and mailed

• You receive a confirmation of posting date and time.

• Your recipient receives high quality correspondence delivered by Post.

[1] Desktop mail is any document that is created on a business desktop, printed on a local  printer and  posted.  Examples  are business correspondence, direct mail letters, invoices, statements and purchase orders. 

Innovation

Innovation = an invention + implementation

Innovation is often incorrectly limited to an invention, and hence many new “innovations” fail because they ignore the fact that there needs to be a motivated market that will pay for the invention.  EasyPost believes that innovation is both the invention (technical) and the implementation (ensuring the market buys the invention).  We will address both these areas and why EasyPost is so innovative.

Invention (the technical side of innovation)

EasyPost involves significant innovation that is described in the Patent lodged by EasyPost application number 7656610 – “Means to facilitate delivery of electronic documents into a postal network.”.  This has successfully passed the World Patent Organisation evaluation and is currently being lodged as a patent in key countries around the world.

So what is so inventive about EasyPost? To answer this question we need to ask ourselves the question “Why do businesses still print, fold and post mail in-house?”  The answer, “Because there is no other alternative”.

The new EasyPost service is the ongoing result of years of research and development in the areas of hybrid mail and desktop post. So what’s so good about this new service? The key benefit is that it is agnostic about the applications that created the document. Existing hybrid mail systems are based on a data merge model and they either need to compose the document or need to be pre-configured to accept data for the document. EasyPost doesn’t have this limitation, which means that it can accept hundreds of thousands of unique letters simultaneously from thousands of different customers, and seamlessly process these into one or many print streams for a Mail Bureau. The Mail Bureau then prints, folds and posts the letters. In a nutshell it means that we can process letters from applications like MYOB, Quickbooks, ACCPAC, Maximiser etc, whereas hybrid mail applications cannot.

We only recruit the best talent.  Our technical director has an honors degree from Harvard university, and has surrounded himself with only the best development talent.

It should be noted that EasyPost has been recognised for it’s innovation by being awarded:

• Third prise in the Australian IT Secrets competition (business software category)

• Successful completion of an R&D Grant from Aus Industry

• Recently awarded an R&D Loan for $944,000 to commercialise EasyPost in the USA

• Admitted to the Commercialising of Emerging Technologies Program and awarded $100,000 grant.

Implementation

• There is an enormous established market for desktop mail (1.7 billion letters in Australia alone) that currently doesn’t have a solution to their problem

• We have proven that the market will buy EasyPost as we have live customers using our services through our partnership with HPA

• EasyPost has built technology that is easily replicated in new overseas markets, which minimises technological risk in international expansion.

• We are releasing a direct sales model in March 2005, and have automated the whole sales and account activation process using integrated CRM and Accounting applications

[1] Research conducted by Thinc Research in 2002.

Performance

EasyPost is in live production in the corporate market.  We have partnered with HPA, Australia’s foremost mail house[1] to provide the solution to Corporate Australia.  Please find a testimonial letter from HPA attached.

EasyPost is capable of processing over 3 million letters per day per server installation.  This equates to over 700 million letters per year on $30,000 or server hardware.

The EasyPost XPress  system is a set of  integrated  products  that capture desktop mail and aggregate it into high  volume mail production facilities. EasyPost XPress includes the following integrated products: 

EasyPost XPress Client:

Includes all of the components that capture desktop mail at its source - the business desktop.

EasyPost XPress Spooler:

Aggregates desktop mail for a single organization and forwards it through firewalls and proxies.

EasyPost XPress Processor:

Receives desktop mail captured by the EasyPost XPress Client, decrypts it and loads it into the EasyPost XPress Database.

EasyPost XPress Database:

Aggregates desktop mail from many distinct desktops and organizations into high volume mail production streams, achieving economies of scale.

EasyPost XPress Print Engine:

Generates print images, manifests, billing records and other data required for individual mail production streams.

Integrated Security

Safeguarding the confidentiality of desktop mail was an essential requirement for the EasyPost Xpress system. The EasyPost XPress Mailroom encrypts desktop mail using the strongest available industry standard algorithms (a public 2048 bit RSA key). The desktop mail remains encrypted while being transported from the originating workstation to the EasyPost XPress Processor. Only the EasyPost XPress Processor contains the keys needed to decrypt your desktop mail.

Flexible Production Management

The EasyPost XPress system was designed to allow each production center total control over the process by which desktop mail is allocated to production streams. Production data may be generated automatically by integrating customized allocation rules into the EasyPost XPress Database. Alternatively, an application programming interface (“API”) is provided so that  the allocation process may be integrated with existing production systems.

[1] Mail House – an organisation that prints, folds and posts mail on behalf of other companies. They cater to very large corporates like Telecommunications companies, Banks etc.

Potential

What are the market opportunities for desktop mail?

EasyPost has enormous potential because it provides significant benefit at every level of the postal value chain.  Firstly to the companies that generate mail, it allows them a faster, cheaper and more efficient mechanism to get their mail out the door. To the mail house it presents the opportunity to create new revenue streams through adding value to the postage process.  It allows an additional profit margin to be obtained above the standard price of a stamp, and moves the mail house up the value chain and onto the clients desktop.  And for the postal authority It offers significant cost reductions through bar-coding of mail, validation of addresses, and the electronic routing of letters to the point closest to the recipient.

In Australia in 2002/3, there were 4.11 billion letters posted. Of this figure, 41 per cent was generated and printed on desktop printers (they are the two yellow pieces of pie below). 1.7 billion letters per annum! EasyPost is the only solution that can capture desktop mail at it’s source, the applications that create mail.

In the USA the total letters market is 190 billion letters. Desktop mail represents 40% of that market, or 76 billion letters!

In the European Union the postal market is being liberalized and is scheduled for full competition by June 2006.  This market accounts for 110 billion letters per annum of mail or 44 billion desktop mail items.  We have already seen markets such as the UK experiencing competition from new entrants.  Either the existing postal authorities or the new entrants have an exciting opportunity to move up the value chain, provide a desktop mail solution and secure their business customers.

There is a substantial and untapped market for desktop mail.  It is a segment that has not been targeted in the past due to technical difficulties.  EasyPost has traversed these technical hurdles, and provides a plug and play solution to access this significant market. Some interesting statistics are:

• 78% of all letters in 1999-2000 were transactional in nature[1] i.e. invoices, statements, general correspondence.

• A key growth area in this market is Business to Consumer letters, which grew 40% from 1990 to 1996.[2] 

• In addition to this, IBIS World states that direct mail (advertising) increased by 14.5%, and that “the Australian market is in the “take-off” stage of development (when compared to the level of direct mail activity in other advanced countries)”.[3]

[1] Australia Post 2001 Annual Report
[2] Ibis World – J7111 – Postal Services in Australia 27 March 2002
[3] Ibis World – J7111 – Postal Services in Australia 27 March 2002

Other information the judges should know

Founded 2001

Milestones Achieved.

2002 Won the Enterprise Development Institute of Australia’s best National business plan (competed against companies like Cochlear)

2002 Won the QEW (Achaeus) best business plan

2002 Awarded COMET funding

2003 Awarded R & D Start Grant

2004 Completed R&D Start Grant on-time and on budget

2004 Awarded R&D Start Loan

2004 Partnered with HPA, Australia’s leading mailhouse

2004 EasyPost in commercial use with corporate customers

2004 Conducted 5 months “in-market” research on USA market

2004 Raised Venture Capital to commercialise EasyPost internationally.

2004 Awarded Third prize Secrets of Australian IT Innovation (Business software)

Website:  www.easypost.com.au  (please be aware that this site is directed at mailhouses and not end business users.  We will be releasing a new site in mid February for the business users)

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