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USPS Electronic Postmark enhances trusted email document delivery
Striata has partnered with Epostmarks to enhance security and authentication when delivering statements, bills, collection notices, policies and other high volume, system generated documents securely via email.
This offering guarantees email document delivery, increases inbox penetration, adds the legal protection of the United States Postal Service Electronic Postmark™ and significantly enhances consumer trust.
Striata and Epostmarks bring the trust and legal protections of the US Postal Service to email, through the use of the Electronic Postmark® and the enforcement of the US Postal Inspection Service. The goal is simple: to bring the consumer confidence and trust associated with the physical mailbox to the email inbox.
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POSTAL AGENCY OK GIVES BOOST TO EPOSTMARKS
Software company has worked for years on certified email effort
By Mary Stone, Rochester Business Journal
If you spot an unusual icon in your email inbox, make sure the tag is a blue ribbon before you open the message. The ribbon means the U.S. Postal Service certifies the email, which for one local software company is nothing short of a major feat.
It has taken Epostmarks Inc. close to seven years to bring the USPS into the digital age and coordinate with other software and service providers in the effort to extend to electronic mail the legitimacy of traditional paper mail - minus the junk.
Protecting USPS-certified email from spam and other unsolicited messages required Internet service providers to recognize the emails and ensure that they do not get passed on to junk, spam or bulk folders but go directly to inboxes. It also ensured that senders go through a thorough screening process.
Unlike with traditional mail, not just anyone can buy an electronic stamp. Senders, for example, have to prove that their recipients are customers or have agreed to receive email from the sender.
Epostmarks, which has had its headquarters for the last couple of years in the penthouse of the Times Square Building, is responsible for screening senders and providing the software platform or program add-ons they need to send postmarked email.
The company founders have spent the last seven years developing contracts with potential customers, email service providers, the USPS and a California-based certified email provider to develop the platform.
The USPS announced the platform Nov.25. But Epostmarks customer Striata has been using the USPS electronic postmark for the last nine months, during which time the company has sent out 700,000 to 1 million EPM messages.
An international company with U.S. headquarters in New York City, Striata specializes in sending billing statements for clients. Chief Operating Officer Garin Toren said the USPS-certified email, for example, has been used to send utility bills for United Water, a major water utility in New Jersey and Idaho, to its customers who opt to receive bills electronically.
Bills are encrypted, he said, and attached to USPS-certified emails. "Rather than the common alternative, which is pulling the customer back to a Website, our strategy is to do the delivery right into the inbox, which creates a more consumer-friendly experience," Toren explained.
"Right now, we're the only one with the capability," Toren said. "We pay per EPM, the same way you would pay for a stamp in the real world. Obviously, the costs are a fraction of a postage stamp, but the model is the same."
Epostmarks' platform overlaps with technology developed by the USPS and Goodmail Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. Goodmail has been working with Epostmarks for years to provide crucial relationships with ISPs such as AOL Inc., Yahoo Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc.
On its end, Epostmarks has been coordinating with the USPS to ensure that the legal and regulatory requirements for paper mail can be extended to electronic mail. In addition, they had to coordinate the various technologies in such a way as to make the blue-ribboned email as ubiquitous as they envisioned.
Pivotal to the progress Epostmarks made in 2009 was a decision last December by the Postal Regulatory Commission that authorized the USPS to provide electronic postmark service.
In opposition to the USPS's involvement in digital communications, companies providing various email certification services argued that the expanded role of the USPS would interfere with their business models. Others argued that without the USPS postmark, fully trustworthy email was impossible.
Helped by comments of support filed by Microsoft Corp. and other arguments that the private sector alone was incapable of providing trusted electronic communications, the decision was made to continue deployment of electronic postmarks, and the door was opened for Epostmarks.
But the struggle for Epostmarks stretched farther back than last year to the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. The legislation, Curtis said, was an essential first step to classifying the role of email within the domain of the USPS.
The law created the Postal Regulatory Commission and gave it the job of evaluating all USPS services, both core and non-core, Curtis said.
Beyond its role in recruiting participating ISPs to guarantee emails get delivered, Goodmail provided the email delivery platform that Epostmarks rides on. Both rely on technology developed by the USPS.
Instrumental in that development at the USPS and later Epostmarks is Curtis' father, Dan, who spent 29 years as an executive at USPS, where he helped develop and implement electronic services. At Epostmarks, he is director of government relations.
The USPS "had experimented with a number of things over the last decade. They had done various investments into development of technology, some of which is still core to what we're doing," Curtis said. "I wouldn't characterize it as they went out and tried something and failed. They developed some platform technology that today makes what we're doing possible."
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N. America: +1 88 88 USAPAY
Europe: +44 207 268 3941
Asia Pacific: +852 2159 9450
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Industry Trends
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E-mail links get highest conversion,
engagement rates
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"When it comes to enabling consumers to share a brand or offer with their personal network, email remains an effective power house for getting the word out and driving conversions," said Ryan Deutsch, StrongMail. |
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| Source: StrongMail, "Social Influence Benchmark Report" |
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PostmarkedEmail benefits
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Non-Repudiation: Proof of email delivery and enhanced reporting. |
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Assured Inbox Delivery: Bypasses spam and content filters of 65% of the average B2C email consumer base, including AOL, Yahoo!, AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable and Verizon email users.
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USPS Branding: Introduces the reliability of the USPS brand - providing 200 years of trusted delivery.
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Security: Spoofing and phishing protection.
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Visual Differentiation: Easily recognized, non-spoofable, inbox icon, reinforces email legitimacy AND USPS Electronic Postmark button within the email body.
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Full Message Functionality: Displays with images turned on and active links active.
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Regulatory Compliance: 7 year, 'proof of delivery' audit trail. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN).
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Email Compliance: CAN SPAM compliant, SenderID and Domain Keys / DKIM compatible.
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Legal Protection: USPS protection in 50 states, the analogy of first class mail.
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Enforcement: USPS Electronic Postmark protected by numerous federal statutes.
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| About Striata |
Striata revolutionises the way bills, statements, policies, collection notices,
letters, payslips and other high volume system-generated documents are delivered and
paid.
» Learn more
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| NEW YORK |
48 Wall Street
Suite 1100
NY, 10005
USA |
| T: +1 88 88 USAPAY |
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| LONDON |
88 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6AA
United Kingdom |
| T: +44 207 268 3941 |
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| SYDNEY |
5/9-11 Knox St
Double Bay, Sydney
NSW 2028
Australia |
| T: +61 (2) 9363 9655 |
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| JOHANNESBURG |
158 Jan Smuts Ave
Rosebank
JHB, 2198
South Africa |
| T: +27 11 530 9600 |
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| HONG KONG |
20th fl, Central Tower
28 Queen's Road
Central
Hong Kong |
| T: +852 9132 0200 |
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