DMM Advisory – Intelligent Mail Update

PostalOne!^® and FAST^®  Outages: PostalOne! Release 24.0.1 and FAST Release 14.1 will be deployed to production environment on Sunday, March 28, 2010. The PostalOne! and FAST Production systems will not be available from 4:00 a.m. through 8:00 a.m. (CST) Sunday, March 28, 2010.

PostalOne! Release 24.0.1 and FAST Release 14.1 will be deployed to the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) environment on Monday, March 29, 2010. The PostalOne! and FAST Test Environment for Mailers systems will not be available from 4:00 a.m. through 8:00 a.m. (CST) Monday, March 29, 2010.

Final Release Notes are posted on RIBBS^® for PostalOne! Release 24.0, which includes information for Patch Releases 24.0.0.1 and 24.0.0.2.

PostalOne! Release 24.0 Issues:

• Mail.dat^® 08-2 files submitted using the legacy Mail.dat application cannot be updated with the USPS^® Mail.dat client. In order to allow mailers to complete these jobs without resubmitting, we are making a one-time exception to temporarily activate the legacy Mail.dat application. Mailers should not submit any new jobs using the legacy Mail.dat application as this support will be permanently discontinued on April 16, 2010.  
• A change in Release 24.0 to a Mail.dat validation enforcing the Component ID field in the CPT record of the Mail.dat file to be left filled with leading zeros. We are temporarily reverting this validation so that leading zeros are not required until an approach for implementing the validation change is identified and reviewed with the mailing industry.
• Mailers using the USPS Mail.dat client software in batch mode could not process files once they upgraded to release 24.0. Mailers will need to re-enter their user-name and password credentials before being able to run the Release 24.0 USPS Mail.dat client in batch mode. This is a one-time only configuration activity.

 Additional information on these issues can be found on RIBBS under Latest News.

Intelligent Mail Services Update

PostalOne!^® and FAST^® Outage: PostalOne! Release 24.0 will be deployed on Saturday, March 13, 2010. The PostalOne! production system will not be available from 10:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 13 through Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 8:00 a.m. CT.

FAST Release 14.0 will be deployed on Sunday, March 14, 2010. FAST production will not be available from 4:00 a.m. CT through 8:00 a.m. CT on Sunday, March 14, 2010. During this period FAST Web Services, FAST online application, and the FAST Customer Supplier Agreement (CSA) module will be unavailable. 

PostalOne! Release 24.0 and FAST Release 14.0 will be deployed to the PostalOne! and FAST Test Environments for Mailers (TEM) respectively on Monday, March 15, 2010. The PostalOne! and FAST TEM environments will not be available from 4:00 a.m. through 12:00 p.m. CT during this deployment.

To learn about the changes in PostalOne!  Release 24.0, refer to the release notes posted on RIBBS® under Intelligent Mail® Services Latest News.

To learn about the changes in FAST Release 14.0, refer to the release notes posted on the FAST Website under Resources.

Guides Update: To support PostalOne! Release 24.0 on March 14, the following guides are updated and available on RIBBS under Intelligent Mail Guides & Technical Specifications:

• A Guide to Intelligent Mail for Letters and Flats
• Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) Checklist and Troubleshooting
• Postal Service Mail.dat® Technical Specification
• Postal Service Mail.XML® Technical Specification

Assistance: Please call the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 if you have any questions or problems accessing the Business Customer Gateway, your accounts, or submitting electronic documentation. The PostalOne! Help Desk is accessible from Canada at no charge.

DMM Advisory – January 19, 2010

Mail.dat Client: On March 14, 2010, the Mail.dat^® Client used to upload Mail.dat version 08-2 files to the PostalOne!^® system will no longer be available. A new Mail.dat Client for uploading Mail.dat versions 08-2 and 09-1 files became available on November 15, 2009.

Reminder – PostalOne! Release 23.0.0 was implemented on Sunday, January 3, 2010 and supports the Shipping Services price change. With this update, only the January 4, 2010 version postage statements will be accepted.

PostalOne! Release 24.0: The pre-release notes for PostalOne! release 24.0 are posted on RIBBS^®>Intelligent Mail Services>Latest News>PostalOne! Release Notes.

RIBBS New Features: Two tools have recently been added to enhance the RIBBS Website. Check them out:

• Email subscription will provide you with automatic email notifications when pages posted on RIBBS are updated. This will allow you to have the most current information with an update reminder sent to you. Subscribe to one or more page notifications and stay up-to-date.

• Search allows you to locate words or phrases within the RIBBS website.

National Postal Forum: Save the date. The 2010 National Postal Forum is scheduled for April 11-14 in Nashville TN.

Assistance: Contact the PostalOne! Help Desk at postalonehelpdesk@usps.com or call 800-522-9085 if you have any questions or problems accessing the Business Customer Gateway, your accounts, or submitting electronic documentation. The PostalOne! Help Desk is accessible from Canada at no charge.