Below is a Q&A session with Fred Morgan, Chief Technology Officer of DocuSend. Fred is the developer of DocuSend and has spent his career creating software in the manufacturing, telecommunications, and mailing industries. He is a well-regarded subject matter expert in the field of software development and technology.
Q: Why the name DocuSend?
A: We called it DocuSend because it allows users to send any document as paper mail through the US Postal Service from any place in the world to anywhere; it’s their “mailroom in the cloud.”
Q: What makes DocuSend stand out?
A: Unlike other web-based mailing services, it requires no data. It extracts specific information from the users’ PDF documents, and rebuilds them to USPS automation standards at extremely high speeds. One of the pioneers of cloud-based mailrooms is Mail Technologies, Inc., a document distribution company founded in 1991. They launched their DocuSend cloud-based mailroom in 2015, and it remains one of the few truly “on-demand” mailrooms in existence. That’s because clients don’t pay for it until they use it. Kind of like the US Postal Service.
DocuSend is very simple to use. That’s a direct result of the complexity and agility of the architecture used to develop it. And it is very flexible by design. That’s why we can offer each user a secure, complimentary portal that provides historical data that includes archived images of all documents mailed during the previous six months. Documents can be reprinted or resent directly from the portal. DocuSend works with any accounting, billing, or CRM software, and it even provides mail-compatible templates for QuickBooks Online users.
Q: What are some of the advantages of a cloud-based mailroom over a physical mailroom?
A: It eliminates all the overhead associated with maintaining a brick-and-mortar operation. Space allocation, taxes, maintenance, inventory, insurance, payroll, hardware, building and equipment leases are all replaced by an employee taking a few minutes to upload the documents that would have been produced internally. They simply print them to a PDF file instead of a physical printer, and upload them to the mailroom website. They are mailed the next business day. You don’t even have to order stamps online, print them on special stock, or wait for them to be delivered. And it can all be done remotely.
Another benefit of the on-demand mailroom is that it requires no minimum volumes. Invoices can be sent out as soon as the service has been rendered, without waiting for an end-of-month billing cycle. And of course, the sooner you invoice, the sooner you can get paid.
Q: What if the user doesn’t want their information stored in a portal? Say it’s a sensitive document they’re mailing.
A: No problem—the customer simply makes their wishes known and we set the information to “do not store.” This is actually a requirement for HIPAA-regulated applications.
Q: With so many businesses in a holding pattern or even closing their doors during the coronavirus pandemic, how is DocuSend faring?
A: As a mailing service specializing in the distribution of financial and other sensitive documents, it was designated as an essential business, and it is more relevant than ever before, offering a solution to one of the problems many businesses are currently facing.
As the world continues to struggle with the pandemic, many of us thought we would have been able to control it by now. Since this is not the case, many businesses are considering innovative ways to keep everyone healthy and safe who is connected to their operations in any way, while preserving optimal efficiency. This is a difficult balance that must be measured carefully, because in the stark reality of the world we are living in right now, it can mean the difference between life and death.
One operational area that may be overlooked is the difficulty that businesses of all sizes experience distributing invoices and other business documents via USPS without increasing exposure to the virus. Maintaining and handling physical inventory such as forms, envelopes, and stamps, then having to deliver them to a USPS facility or public mailbox certainly will increase exposure for the essential people responsible to keep the cash flow going.
Q: Can businesses lower that risk without incurring a lot of extra expense?
A: Cloud-based mailrooms can help alleviate the risk involved in sending paper mail by allowing users to print documents to a file, or in some instances type a document online (not very efficient IMHO), then upload them to a website and pay for them by credit card. Service levels vary from a few days to next business day. When factoring in the cost of the employees’ time, materials, and full postage rates, the cost can be less than doing it internally. Some businesses currently using cloud-based mailrooms estimate that it reduces their invoicing costs by 50% while eliminating the potentially compromised touchpoints.
Q: What are some of the lines of business that DocuSend serves?
A: Any enterprise of any size that produces invoices, notices, or statements, whether these are regular communications or event-driven mailings. That’s the beauty of pay-as-you go. DocuSend’s customers include invoicing software providers, VOIP providers, collection agencies, medical services, nonprofits, utilities, and small businesses that take care of pets, lawns or pools, just to name a few.
Q: Does DocuSend offer an API?
A: For developers and resellers, DocuSend’s REST API can be implemented in as little as one hour using their own code, platform, and language. If you’re wondering how we do that, it’s a technology we developed called PDFxTract&Rebuild, which drastically reduces the number of fields that must be mapped.
DocuSend targets only the document’s address information, and the source document is not altered in any way. The document’s variable and static information that is uploaded is what is distributed. Developers have complete freedom to change invoices/documents without incurring any fees, and the privacy of the integrator’s data is protected. The system is HIPAA compliant for those requiring it.
Q: After the crisis has passed, will cloud-based mailrooms be part of the “new normal”?
A: DocuSend was designed to make sending First Class Mail, Certified Mail, Foreign Mail and Priority Mail as easy as sending an email, and much safer and more cost-effective than businesses mailing internally. Did they succeed? Many people think so.
Related Categories: