What is the closed-loop procedure?

Each and every day, millions of data sets reach businesses and citizens. These can be invoices, payment reminders, and insurance policies, all of which include sensitive information. To keep these data confidential and make sure they get to the correct recipient, transactional printing facilities use the so-called closed-loop procedure.

Have you ever wondered how banks and insurances always deliver the correct information about a loan or an insurance policy to the correct recipient? Since the GDPR came into effect, personal data are more protected then ever and may only be made accessible to specific persons. Companies need to take this security aspect into account when printing personalised items, both physical and digital.

Printing and envelope stuffing services are usually provided by transactional printing facilities. These need to make sure that the entire process, from document creating and data transfer to the printing service and all the way to the produced envelope, follows strict data protection guidelines. This area also benefits from digitalisation, e.g., from the so-called closed-loop procedure. Ultimately, it is a sort of “smart envelope stuffing” process. It makes sure that the desired documents for a mail item areproduced and, more importantly, that every envelope includes exactly the information intended for the recipient in question.

Efficient tracking

The centrepiece of the closed-loop procedure is the so-called document ID. For a produced document to include the correct information and for it to end up in the matching envelope, it needs to be registered beforehand. This makes sure that the entire printing and envelope stuffing process can be tracked and reviewed for completeness.

The document ID is assigned to every document in the form of a 2D code which is also printed on the margin of the document. At the beginning of every process step, the code is scanned. This is the only way of making sure, among other things, that all sheets of a document are placed in the envelope in the correct order. Once this has been done, the printing and envelope stuffing process as part of the closed-loop procedure can be considered successfully completed.

If, for example, an item is not complete or if it is damaged, it will be removed and disposed of as required by data protection regulations. The closed-loop procedure ensures that the document will be automatically reprinted and placed in an envelope. Since problems are automatically identified during the production process, print orders will always be 100% complete.

Highly fail-safe

For handling complex and large orders, Post Business Solutions GmbH, one of Austria’s largest digital and transactional printing facilities in Austria and a subsidiary of Österreichiche Post AG, has a highly fail-safe environment. Data are processed at two data centres with fully mirrored data at two different locations. Every year, we process more than 110 million items using the most sophisticated high-performance inserting machines available on the market. Per hour, each of these machines can process up to 26,000 envelopes in formats C6 to B5.

One of the major assets of these facilities is their modular design, meaning that additional functionalities can be added at a later point. In addition, the digital printing machines by Post Business Solutions GmbH are considered the fastest and highest-quality machines on the German-speaking market. This ensures swift and safe processing of printing and inserting orders at any given time.

Your benefits at a glance:

• Production and shipping of mailing campaign items
• Closed-loop quality assurance
• State-of-the-art printing and envelope stuffing machines
• Fail-safe production