Bills, policies, reminders – month after month in large quantities. The dispatch process runs across several systems and service providers, with manual intermediate steps at each handover. For high-volume senders, this is not a detail, but a process issue with a direct impact on costs and quality.
Insurance companies, health insurers and energy providers regularly send out large volumes of correspondence. Some of it must be delivered physically, some can be delivered digitally. How organisations can transform this dichotomy into an end-to-end process determines efficiency, error rates and compliance.
Why bulk mail is becoming a strategic issue
Anyone who sends out thousands of documents every month is running a process that spans the entire organisation: from the specialist system to preparation and printing, and finally to delivery. As long as this process runs across separate systems, it costs time, ties up staff and produces errors at every handover. For insurance companies, health insurers, energy providers and financial service providers, this is not a side issue, but a significant cost factor.
The real challenge: hybrid dispatch
For legal reasons, some correspondence must be delivered physically – policies, notices, reminders. Other correspondence could have been delivered digitally long ago, because customers expect it. Anyone who serves both worlds separately runs two processes in parallel. It is precisely this combination of physical and digital that makes digitalisation so challenging – and determines whether it will succeed.
From parallel to end-to-end
The central question is not 'digital or physical,' but: how can both be managed in an end-to-end process without replacing existing specialist systems? Rather than building mailing and digitalisation in-house, many organisations outsource the execution to a specialised partner and retain control within their own system.
This is where the ePost Hub comes in: the organisation hands over its mailing data from existing applications, ePost takes care of preparation, printing and delivery – digitally or physically, depending on the recipient. The process remains one, and control remains internal.
Those who want to trigger mailing not via a platform, but directly from the ERP, billing or specialist system, can use ePost oneAPI as the API-based alternative to the Hub. The goal remains the same: an end-to-end, channel-independent mailing process.
What determines success
Whether the digitalisation of bulk mail is successful depends less on individual functions than on a few fundamental questions:
- Integration: Does the new execution integrate into existing systems, rather than replacing them?
- Flexibility: Can individual documents be triggered in addition to mass runs?
- Channel independence: Is every mailing automatically delivered via the appropriate channel?
- Traceability: Is the status of every mailing always verifiable – important for deadlines and compliance?
- Data sovereignty: Do the data remain in Switzerland and is mail secrecy maintained?
Why integration into existing systems is key to success is explained in No parallel system, no extra effort – if integration is right.
Case study: Solothurnische Gebäudeversicherung (SGV)
The SGV serves over 70,000 customers and sends out thousands of policies, invoices and notices every year – many of which are still sent on paper for compliance reasons. The previous mailing process was complex and not fully automated. The goal was to find a way to digitally control physical mailing without replacing the existing IT.
Today, the SGV controls all of its mailing via the ePost Hub – both mass runs and individual documents. Preparation, printing and delivery are automated, while the specialist application remains in control.
'Thanks to ePost, we can deliver individual, complex documents quickly, securely and efficiently to our policyholders.'
Michel Fuchs, CIO, Solothurnische Gebäudeversicherung (SGV)
The CIO's key criteria were: a flexible platform that the SGV can adapt itself; an interface that adapts to the existing system rather than the other way around; and cost. After the implementation, the SGV independently integrated a second application – a sign that the solution is working in practice.
Read the full case study 'How the SGV uses the ePost Hub'.
Conclusion
Digitalising bulk mail is not about individual tools, but about process design: creating an end-to-end process, maintaining control, ensuring compliance and data sovereignty. By focusing on these aspects, you can reduce costs and error rates at the same time.
