October DMM Advisory
5 Oct 2011 | No Comments | posted by admin | in DMM Advisory
Postal Explorer® (pe.usps.com) is your source for up-to-date mailing standards. The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) is fully searchable on Postal Explorer and features fly-out menus, cross-reference links, and an extensive subject index. Today, we updated our mailing standards to include the following changes:
Parcel Return Service—Clarifications
We revised 507.13.0 to clarify standards regarding Parcel Return Service (PRS).
2010 Standard Mail Incentive Program Removal
We revised 709 by removing section 2.0, Standard Mail Incentive Program.
Service Standards for Express Mail Military Service (EMMS)
We revised 703.2.0 which clarifies the USPS service commitment for Express Mail items sent to and from APO/FPO and DPO destinations.
First-Class Package Service
We revised 401, 402, 433, 434, 435, 436, 503, 507, 602, 705, and 708 to introduce First-Class Package Service, which replaces and removes First-Class Mail commercial base and commercial plus parcels from the market-dominant product offering.
IMb Services Update
5 Oct 2011 | No Comments | posted by admin | in DMM Advisory
Business Customer Gateway — Customers accessing the Business Customer Gateway may experience intermittent service disruption during the maintenance window on Sunday, October 2, 2011, 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT
PostalOne!® and FAST® Deployment — PostalOne!® Release 27.0.3 and Facility Access and Shipment Tracking (FAST) Release 17.2 will be deployed during the scheduled maintenance window on Sunday, October 2, 2011, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT. PostalOne!® will not be available from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. CDT and FAST will not be available from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT.
PostalOne!® 27.0.3 Release Notes are posted on the RIBBS® website.
FAST 17.2 Release Notes and User Guides will be posted on the FAST website (Resources/Reference Documents section) and on RIBBS on Sunday, October 2. Please direct any questions to the FAST Help Desk (FAST@usps.gov or 1-877-569-6614).
PostalOne!® Release 27.0.3 and FAST Release 17.2 will deploy to the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) on Monday, October 3, 2011; FAST TEM will not be available from 8 a.m. to 12 noon CDT.
PostalOne!® Maintenance — PostalOne!® users should note that the scheduled maintenance windows on Sunday, October 9, 2011 and Sunday, October 16, 2011, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT, may be used for critical back end system changes to prepare for Release 28.0. Exact start and end times of any planned outages in those maintenance windows will be provided.
IMb Services Update
21 Mar 2011 | No Comments | posted by admin | in DMM Advisory, Service Update
PostalOne! Release 26.0.1.4 will be deployed to the production environment on Sunday, March 20, 2011, during the scheduled maintenance window from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT and to the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) on Monday, March 21, 2011, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. CDT. Users may experience intermittent outages during these periods. The PostalOne!® .XML applications (including FAST OPS web services) will be unavailable during each period for database maintenance.
PostalOne! Full-Service and Mail Quality reports will be unavailable to mailers from 5 p.m. CDT Thursday, March 24, 2011, to 6 a.m. CDT Monday, March 28, 2011, while the USPS™ MicroStrategy reporting servers are upgraded from MicroStrategy Version 8.x to MicroStrategy Version 9.x.
Flats Sequencing System Presort Level ID Codes — As more mailers begin to adopt the optional Flats Sequencing System (FSS) bundle preparation standards, the Intelligent Mail® barcode system needs a way to indicate that level of presort. Barcode ID 20, currently used for optional endorsement line (OEL) 5-digit and 5-digit scheme presorts, has been extended for use on flats prepared under the rules for optional FSS bundle preparation.
The barcode ID tables have been updated in the Barcode ID table and Technical Resource Guide on RIBBS®. Clarifying the use of Barcode ID 20 for FSS OEL will not affect systems using Barcode ID information, but rather enable the Intelligent Mail barcode system to reflect bundles prepared under the FSS optional preparation.