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:

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.

Intelligent Mail Services Update

New Presentations: Three new educational presentations will be posted next week on RIBBS>Intelligent Mail Services>Education:

  • IMb™ Basic Option
  • How to Work with Your Mail Preparer
  • Intelligent Mail: Initial Steps for Mailers

Beginner’s Overview: The updated Beginner’s Overview guide is being reviewed and will be posted next week at: RIBBS>Intelligent Mail Services>Guides & Specs.

PostalOne!® Release 24.0: The release notes for PostalOne! Release 24.0, scheduled for deployment March 14, 2010, are posted at: RIBBS>Intelligent Mail Services>Latest News>Important Links>PostalOne! Release Notes.

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

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