Making informed decisions is important to any business.  Dennis Fatigati is a “hands-on” owner who needs tools that allow him to keep his “finger on the pulse of the business”.  His goal was to find a postal software solution that would allow him to move forward in the mailing industry marketplace knowing that his business would remain viable.  This decision was of core importance to the business and its employees.

Dennis Fatigati, Inc. was founded in 1988 and incorporated it in 2004.  Their customers expect and trust them to use and deliver on words like “guarantee” and “accountability”.  Mistakes lose them more than money.  Disgruntled customers will leave and find other service providers to work with when their projects are not successfully executed or are limited by a vendor’s capabilities.  Dennis believes quality is a “base level expectation of our customers.”  He stated “We cannot afford to purchase elaborate systems to ensure quality.  We have to do our jobs correctly and utilize the tools we have to deliver a quality product every time.”  Dennis knew the software product he had was not the solution so he researched and analyzed all options he could find using these criteria:

• Features – Wanted the solution to be “feature rich”
• Function – Solution had to be easy to use and intuitive
• Scalability – Solution had to support automation and integrate seamlessly
• Customer Service and Support – Needed a true partner to act quickly to resolve issues
• Value (Price is one factor) – Was tired of annual increases deteriorating his profits
   

Dennis started his research, feeling that one of the products was more feature rich and would provide a better solution.  When he actually tried to use the product he found it to be “rigid and cumbersome”.  He also found that it lacked the features his business required and were promised by the manufacturer.  The vast majority of the available products were not “user-friendly or intuitive” according to Dennis.  In many of the products, the composition functions and the database views are disjointed.  They often did not link the header to the list view which to Dennis “Is a really bad design”.  During his research and testing, Dennis asked himself many times “What were they thinking when they designed this?”  Competing solutions did not add the “old address” to the file structure easily.  “They want to fit everything into a “fixed and standardized” format which does not represent what happens in the industry every day.”  This left Dennis wondering if the software products from these companies were designed by “Robots or at least people that have seemingly lost touch with the daily needs of mailers”.  Some examples he mentioned include:

• The name and address fields are limited to a fixed number of characters
• The text fields are limited and their locations are “fixed” within the database
   

In the end, all roads led to AccuZIP.  In AccuZIP he found what he needed.  For example, he could get a count without turning on “count records” for each count or selection created.  AccuZIP allows users to do this at the touch of a button which is vitally important when performing quality control on your data files and setups.  In AccuZIP he found functionality that the others simply could not match.  Getting a separate list of changes (in red) and viewing those same changes (still in red) in the original database view to “see and validate” that work was done properly is one example.  This “user-friendly, intuitive and common sense” approach and philosophy was essential.

Dennis highlighted other features that make AccuZIP the “best solution in the industry”.  “The competitor’s products had limitations related to address formats.  For instance, during our evaluation, they allowed for USPS abbreviations only without changes or exceptions.  Some of our customers prefer the full state (or other address component) and will only accept that in their final output.  AccuZIP accommodates this and allows these choices.”  Dennis once lost a client for abbreviating the street name in the address before he had AccuZIP and he stressed that there are customers who require some fields to be expanded or compressed to their specifications.  “The mailing business is not one where customers accept limitations or formats that restrict their ability to address their mail pieces.  They already view the USPS as too rigid and my business has to show them what is possible and only restrict them from doing things that are definitely out of compliance.  That is enough of a challenge!”

Dennis likes his relationship with AccuZIP because “AccuZIP understands what it means to guarantee and deliver solutions much like we do. They have delivered for us every time.”  Fatigati, Inc. works with a wide range of customers and needs the ability to “accommodate any file or data format imaginable”.  Dennis commented, “We do not have the luxury of sending files back to our clients or forcing them to provide them in certain formats.  If they wanted to do all of that work, they would not need us!”  Dennis needed a partner who would support him to make this possible while controlling costs.  Again the answer was AccuZIP.

Dennis highlighted a few of the features in AccuZIP that he found superior.  “The de-dupe functionality in AccuZIP is “far superior” to the competition and that he “loves” the AccuZIP EDDM feature.  He shared “I used to dread EDDM work but with AccuZIP it can be done easily and in seconds.  One printer called for a bid/quote and while we were on the phone I was able to provide not only the information he asked for but also the counts.  I sent him a copy (PDF) of the postage statement while we were still on the phone.  We got the job!”  Dennis shared that “The new flexibility and functionality that AccuZIP provided enabled us to gain new business and made us stronger.”

Dennis commented that AccuZIP “Is a perfect relationship between form and function.  AccuZIP provides flexibility, scripting to drive automation and nimble execution which has saved us hours of work.”  The company has benefitted from the functionality and standardization of process that AccuZIP supports.  “The template (Master) that is the foundation for every job acts to standardize processes internally.  It is functional and can be set up by job or customer and is what we needed based on the needs of each job.  The scripting features available are outstanding and allow us to automate steps previously completed manually.  We cannot operate with something that is rigid or does not accommodate change.”  The data management and manipulation features in AccuZIP are vital to Dennis’ staff.  The command window provides functionality to combine, swap, move and delete data elements independent of “add-ons” like Excel or Access to manage this data in one place.  Dennis summarized his feelings toward AccuZIP this way, “Their products do it all and their staff is dedicated to going above and beyond to serve their subscribers.  Quite simply, their service and support are unmatched in the industry.  They have helped resolve issues that had nothing to do with their product and it means a great deal to me to know they are there to help us be successful.  Their “Price Lock Guarantee” (Who else does that?) only cemented my decision to partner with them as our postal software solution.  I am very pleased with the decision and look forward to a long relationship with AccuZIP!”