What Is a Digital Mailroom?

What Is a Digital Mailroom?

There have been many changes in the way that companies conduct business over the past year. The pandemic has forced many establishments to work at home in order to keep employees separated from each other, and the workplace. Although the concept of digital mail has been around for decades, it has exploded in popularity since this newfound way of life. Innovative and passionate pioneers of the digital world have stepped up and created modern-day platforms that are able to turn the problems of physical mail into solutions that keep business thriving. It turns out that having a robust digital mailroom to receive, process, track and send mail to the correct recipients can make a world of difference for a business that needs to adapt.

How A Digital Mailroom Works?

Every business that receives physical mail has a mailing address. In order to create a digital mailroom, the mailing address will be a place where all of the mail is sent in order to get processed. When the mail arrives at that place, each piece will be separated and sorted into appropriate categories. Some mail will be junk mail, while other mail will be for specific people. There will also be mail for billing purposes, legal purposes, and other various degrees of importance. Every business will have its own unique mail needs and specifications. The main thing is that each piece of mail is accounted for and gets to the correct recipient in a timely manner. Digital mail makes all of this possible.

Physical Mail is Digitized

Every piece of mail that comes into a digital mailroom will be opened up, scanned, recorded then sent in digital format to the proper destination. Mail that needs to be responded to quickly in order to remain compliant or on time will be handled accordingly so that customers, clients, or government agencies will remain satisfied. In the case where mail is addressed to departments and not individuals, the mail will be sent to the inbox for that department where the users that have permission to receive the mail will have access to it. This way the mail becomes touchless and easy to track. All of the paper mail that arrives at the digital mailroom will be converted to a digital format, then securely discarded, or stored depending on the needs of each document.

Digital Mailroom Software

The backbone of the digital mailroom is sophisticated software that is designed in order to facilitate the incoming mail obligations of an exceptionally large business, or a small one. Robust software applications can handle thousands of users with various permissions and roles within the platform. This software allows users to log in and conduct business from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. Depending on the needs and resources of any particular business the software can be placed in a centralized location and part of a SaasS agreement, or licensed and placed behind a secure firewall. In any case, this software is able to keep records and timestamps of when the mail was sent, when it was read, how long it took to respond, where it went after it was opened, and who saw it. Every action that takes place in the event of each piece of mail is recorded and filed. If any questions are presented about a particular piece of mail, all of the answers will be readily available for inspection for as long as the files exist.

Going Digital

There are a plethora of problems that go hand in hand with traditional, physical mail. From safety issues, and the threat of spreading germs, to security issues, and too many unauthorized eyes on unprotected mail; so many things can go wrong. Digitizing mail can solve a large part of these issues. As technology continues to evolve, more and more businesses are transforming their analog business practices to digital ones because it just makes sense to do so. You can do your research and make an educated decision if you have a look at the digital transformation resources that are available today. Take a look at what the benefits are to making the transformation and see for yourself. But don’t take too long, the digital age is here.