General Postage Rate Increase Goes Into Effect January 22, 2012

As a reminder, prices for most USPS mailing services will be changing on January 22, 2012. Mailing services includes First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals, Package Services and Extra Services.  While actual percentage price increases for various products and services varies, the overall average price increase across all mailing services is capped by law at 2.1 percent, the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

First-Class Mail Highlights:

• Letters (1 oz.) will increase 1 cent to 45 cents.
• Single-piece letters additional ounce rate is unchanged at 20 cents.
• Postcards  will increase 3 cents to 32 cents.
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) will increase 5 cents to 85 cents.
• Letters to other international destinations will increase 7 cents to $1.05.
• The second ounce will be free for First-Class Mail Presort pieces weighing between one and two ounces.

All of the new prices are available on Postal Explorer – click on the links in the left blue navigation column under “NEW” Jan 22, 2012 Price Change Info.

Nordis Direct customers should contact their Account Manager if they have any additional questions about how these postal changes may affect their programs.

Electric Utility Industry Veteran Robert M. Hall Joins Nordis Direct as Business Development Specialist

Robert M. Hall

Direct marketing and critical communications solutions provider, Nordis Direct, has announced the addition of Robert Hall to the company’s Business Development group. Mr. Hall, a long-time executive in the electric utility industry, has been brought on board to forge new alliances within this vertical arena. He will focus on providing utility partners with cost effective solutions for managing their critical communications with Nordis Direct’s Expresso® technology.

Prior to joining the Nordis Direct team, Mr. Hall spent over 28 years at Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) in North Carolina, where he was responsible for the customer billing and statement process. Mr. Hall’s extensive background on the business operations side of the electric utility industry gives him a unique insight into the client’s point of view. He understands the intricacies of the business and knows the many challenges of effectively managing, producing and distributing utility statements, letters and transpromotional documents.

As Business Development Specialist, Mr. Hall’s initiatives include the expansion of the Expresso client base within the Electric Utility market. Speaking on his new position Mr. Hall said, “I know first-hand the importance of having a proven and qualified strategic business tool to effectively communicate with your customers. Given my understanding of the operations process, I firmly believe that Nordis Direct has the technology, leadership, and expertise to provide a unique service unmatched by our industry peers.”

Richard O’Rourke, Vice President of Business Development for Nordis Direct, stated, “We are very fortunate to have someone of Bob Hall’s caliber leading the charge to grow the Expresso business within the electric utility industry. “

About Expresso
Expresso, developed by Nordis Direct, is a web-enabled proprietary software platform that automates the process of creating and managing customized business communications. User-friendly technology provides complete control over the content development and the production of the communication either as a printed document or email, with considerable and quantifiable cost savings. This technology supports all types of written and electronic communications, including financial, sales and marketing, legal notices as well as transpromotional and direct mail initiatives.

About Nordis Direct
Nordis Direct, headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida, is one of the largest independent business solution providers specializing in high-tech direct marketing and critical document management services in the Southeastern United States. From its lettershop heritage, the company has evolved into an end-to-end solution provider enabling businesses to establish, transact, and maintain relationships through relevant, effective and efficient communications across multiple channels. With a team of over 100 talented employees operating in a 50,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility, Nordis Direct delivers leading-edge solutions to an extensive client list. The company’s solution mix incorporates full-service direct marketing, multi-channel response tracking, web-based one-to-one business communications management, secure invoice/critical document production, data management and lettershop production. Nordis Direct holds active memberships in the following organizations: NRECA, ARDA, DMA, and FDMA
For more information visit www.nordisdirect.com

Nordis Direct Promotes Diego Samuilov to Vice President of Information Technology

Diego Samuilov

CORAL SPRINGS, FL – OCTOBER 18, 2011. Direct marketing solutions provider, Nordis Direct, announced today, the promotion of Diego Samuilov to the position of Vice President of Information Technology.

Mr. Samuilov joined Nordis in August 2010 as Director of Information Technology, and since then has made notable advancements within the company’s technology infrastructure; including the successful completion of security audits and SAS70 Certification. Further, under Mr. Samuilov’s direction, a redesign of company’s landmark communications software platform, Expresso, was recently completed; with improvements made to the user interface, feature upgrades and overall enhancements to functionality. An advocate of cloud computing and its many benefits to Expresso users, Mr. Samuilov is in the process of moving Nordis’ servers to the cloud. 

In his new role as VP of Information Technology, Mr. Samuilov reports directly to Ronnie Selinger, President and CEO of Nordis Direct, and is responsible for overseeing technology strategy, software development, as well as resource infrastructure planning and management.

Ronnie Selinger, stated, “Words cannot truly begin to tell the story of the hard work and dedication Diego has brought to our team since the day he joined the company. This, coupled with his technical expertise and leadership abilities, has taken our technology to a new level. We are very fortunate to have Diego leading the IT charge at Nordis”.

Nordis is Moving to the “Cloud”

Cloud computing, that is… It’s the next phase in the logical evolution of the Internet, delivery of IT services, and the future home of Expresso. Cloud computing provides the means through which everything — from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications to business processes — can be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need.

Benefits to Expresso users include: improved uptime, better performance, and unlimited, immediate scalability whenever needed all without compromising our SAS-70 certification. Further, we have partnered with a cloud service vendor that is SAS-70 T2 certified in order to maintain the compliance level we have recently achieved.

• Improved Uptime – Replacing hardware in the physical servers is now transparent to the server being up. Just like some server disk systems are “hot swappable”, the components that make a Cloud Server are “hot-swappable” as well. More memory, larger storage, and more processing power can all be added by changing a few values in the settings for a server and “without the need to restart”, they are immediately made available in the cloud server.
  
• Better Performance – Our cloud services vendor offers “server elasticity”, which means that any server can provide more than 100% of the raw processing power contractually agreed to by “borrowing performance” from other slices that remain available. Cloud servers can be setup to automatically scale-up or down based on the needs at that particular time. 
  
• Unlimited and Immediate Scalability Whenever Needed – The contractually agreed performance guarantees a minimum performance level that our server will provide, but if we see a need to scale up or if we see our servers getting close to the 100% mark we can always require unlimited upgrades to more server components from the resource pool available from our cloud services vendor. 

The “cloud” in cloud computing can be defined as the set of hardware, networks, storage, services, and interfaces that combine to deliver aspects of computing as a service. Cloud services include the delivery of software, infrastructure, and storage over the Internet (either as separate components or a complete platform) based on user demand. Beyond the user interface, the technology behind the cloud remains invisible to the user, making cloud computing incredibly user-friendly.

A common misconception about cloud computing is that it is not as secure as single or multi-location servers. The truth is that cloud services are secure as long as the implementation is done correctly; which is a top priority for Nordis Direct. Cloud services can be used as a public cloud or private cloud – we are using a private cloud. What this means is that the virtual servers are located behind a physical firewall in a private network at our cloud services vendor (SAS-70 T2 certified); the equivalent to having physical servers co-located.

While the term “cloud” is relatively new, the concept and technologies have been evolving for many years. Cloud computing is not just a fad – it continues to emerge as a game-changing technology. In fact, a recent Gartner Research Report ranked Cloud Computing #1 in CIO strategic technology priorities for 2011. It’s true – cloud computing is here to stay.

To learn more about cloud computing check out this article in InfoWorld.

Nordis Direct Increases Laser Production Capacity

bizhub PRESS C8000

Nordis Direct recently increased its laser production capacity with the addition of a Konica-Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000, a high-speed color digital press that offers high-quality prints to rival costly offset printing. The bizhub PRESS C8000 delivers fast, reliable, high-quality color and B&W output, printing up to 80 ppm at 1,200 dpi; ideal for graphics-intensive color print jobs.

For a complete listing of Nordis Direct’s production line-up, please click the following link to view our Production Equipment List.

Nordis Direct Successfully Completes SAS 70 Audit

Nordis Direct, a provider of high-tech direct marketing and communications solutions, announced today that it has successfully completed a SAS 70 Audit. SAS 70 certification confirms the reliability, security, availability, and processing integrity of the company’s Direct Marketing and Critical Document Management Solutions data infrastructure. Nordis Direct was closely examined in the areas of organizational structure, administration, physical and environmental controls, and physical and logical security. The examination was performed by an Independent Service Auditing Firm in accordance with the standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and was completed in April 2011.

Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70 is a widely recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A service auditor’s examination performed in accordance with SAS No. 70 (also commonly referred to as a “SAS 70 Audit”) represents that a service organization has been through an in-depth audit of their control objectives, which include controls over information technology and related processes.

“Our SAS 70 certification reinforces to our clients and business partners that Nordis Direct’s operational processes, system controls, and infrastructure meet stringent requirements; reaffirming our corporate-wide commitment and dedication to value, reliability, security, and quality”, stated Ronnie Selinger, President and CEO of Nordis Direct.

Michael Rosini Promoted to VP Production Operations at Nordis Direct

Mike Rosini

Direct marketing solutions provider Nordis Direct, has announded the promotion of Michael Rosini to the position of Vice President of Production Operations.

Mr. Rosini joined Nordis in January 2009 as the Director of Production Operations. Since that time, he has virtually restructured the company’s production operation. He has instituted key procedural improvements, enforced departmental policies, and has effectively managed the talent base to meet variable production requirements. Through strategic equipment acquisitions Mr. Rosini has improved Nordis Direct’s productivity levels and enhanced the company’s ability to meet growing client demand.

In his new position as VP Production Operations, Mr. Rosini will report directly to Ronnie Selinger and will be responsible for overseeing production operations, the warehouse facility and data processing.

 Ronnie Selinger, President and CEO of Nordis Direct stated, “Mike Rosini is a true team player and in a short period of time has made a major impact on streamlining company efficiencies. While we have faced our share of challenges during the recent economic downturn, I can confidently say that Mike’s contagious dedication and leadership has been a major contributor to Nordis’ ability to remain competitive through it all”.

Diego Samuilov Joins Nordis Direct as Director of Information Technology

Direct marketing solutions provider Nordis Direct, has announced that Diego Samuilov recently joined the company as their new Director of Information Technology.

Mr. Samuilov comes to Nordis Direct with more than 19 years of experience in Information Systems and application development; focusing primarily in Microsoft technologies, application development, technical compliance, mobile applications and software integration and implementation. Most recently, he served as Manager of IT and Application Development at BlackBook, a division of Hearst Business Media Corporation. In addition, Mr. Samuilov has lectured at prominent IT symposiums including Microsoft’s TechEd, MetroMobility Train-the-Trainer, ComDex-Argentina and Windows World. He holds a BS in Management Information Systems and a BS in Information Technology.

In his role as Nordis Direct’s Director of Information Technology, Mr. Samuilov will be responsible for technology strategy, software development, as well as resource and infrastructure planning and management.

“We are delighted to have Diego at the helm of our IT team. His technical expertise and leadership abilities are the critical component we need to power our technology to the next level; enabling us to continue providing our clients with unrivaled business critical communication solutions”, stated Ronnie Selinger, President and CEO of Nordis Direct.

Timeshare Owner Referral Program Delivers Profitable Results

The practice of generating leads in the timeshare world has evolved into a well-oiled machine. From creative direct mail campaigns and the Internet to savvy telemarketing techniques, the marketing mavens of this industry have honed in on what works and what doesn’t; effectively maneuvering loopholes when faced with obstacles such as the National Do Not Call Registry (DNC). However, as campaigns become more intricate, vacation ownership marketers are facing a new set of challenges when it comes to validating leads and managing their communications programs.

An effective and widely used technique for garnering leads is simply to request owners and prospects to refer their family members, friends and co-workers. Vacation owners and prospects are typically offered an incentive for providing referrals, which can amount to one or more names with their contact data.  Unfortunately in more cases than not, the referrals are incomplete; lacking a valid address. In fact, most referrals supplied include only a name and phone number. This significantly impacts the follow-up percentage due to DNC limitations; thereby reducing the lead potential.

Nordis Direct, a leading provider of resort owner communications and direct marketing programs, recognized the challenge this presented to resort developer marketing teams who needed to improve the marketability of their “deficient” referrals and formulated a program for reaching out to those referrals.

Program Overview

Step 1:  Maximize the Referral Database Marketability

• Sort referral records to isolate those with only a name and home phone number (no address).
• Check isolated records with phone numbers against DNC criteria. Records meeting the specified DNC criteria are marked for further processing.
• Submit DNC phone numbers for reverse appending; a process by which home phone numbers are cross-referenced with a national database to determine a phone–address association.
• Update referral database with the revised records now containing addresses.

Step 2:  Develop the Communications Campaign

• Weekly communications to owners/prospects – thank you & referral acknowledgement.
  • Create and mail letters to owners/prospects thanking them for their referral and acknowledging names of referred individuals.
  • Inform the owner/prospect of any referrals on the DNC list; suggesting that they have these referrals call the resort developer using the toll free number provided.
• Weekly communications to the referral database utilizing a multi-channel strategy that incorporates personalized direct mail with an interactive personalized web site.
  • Create and mail a personalized, customized (variable by destination) postcard to introduce referral-prospect to the vacation destination, referencing the name of their friend or family member (owner/prospect) who referred them.
  • Invite the referral-prospect to visit their personalized web site, accessed via their Personalized URL (PURL) printed on the postcard. The PURL not only lifts response rates, it provides continuity with the mail piece, gives the prospect an alternative response method, and provides information about the vacation offer; while gathering additional contact information about the referral-prospect, i.e. email address, for future follow-up.

The Solution: Nordis Direct’s Expresso™ – a web-based platform that automates the process of creating and managing personalized mail and email communications.

By dynamically merging content (text, images, logos, etc.), business rules (simple to complex), and data, Expresso enables its users to automatically create unique, personalized correspondence for printing and mailing or email distribution. External services, such as reverse-append, are also automated, requiring no user intervention. The Expresso platform provides the ability to easily make changes, approvals, and track the progress of a communications program, each step of the way.

Expresso workflow engine pulls together each component, procedure, variable, and rule to formulate a logical sequence of business processes. The ensuing workflow can automatically manage the Owner Referral Program from start to finish; transforming thousands of unmarketable leads into highly-profitable referral results.

From receipt of the data file and multiple-step processes, to final output, Expresso effectively reduces communications  implementation time, from what typically takes weeks, to a few days – minimizing resources, time, and cost.

Nordis Direct Releases Expresso 3.0

Enhancements to usability and performance highlight this latest release, to further streamline the process of managing personalized mail and email communications.

Direct marketing solutions provider Nordis Direct has announced the release of Expresso™ 3.0. Expresso is a web-based platform that simplifies the process of creating and managing personalized mail and email communications. This latest release provides Expresso users with multiple enhancements including new and improved content management, report management and email management features, as well as overall improvements to usability and performance. In addition, effective with release 3.0, Expresso now supports Internet Explorer 8.0 as a browser alternative.

The Expresso platform empowers users to quickly and easily create, change, approve, produce and track personalized letters, statements, invoices, and other communications for distribution via mail or email. Any document element can be dynamically tailored to the individual customer, from copy, photos, and graphics, to legal disclosures, and regional or other product/customer-specific variations. Expresso is ideal for organizations that send out large volumes or many different versions of documents, including reservation confirmation letters, invoices, statements, medical notices, collection letters, member communications, customer service communications, product recalls, legal information or any other critical correspondence. 

“The success of any organization depends on its ability to effectively communicate with their customers and prospects on a regular basis; and quite often, this process presents a major challenge for many companies. With Expresso, our automated platform for managing personalized communications, we have enabled our clients to face this challenge head-on to more effectively manage their communications, “stated Ronnie Selinger, President/CEO of Nordis Direct. “We are pleased to once again provide our users with a new Expresso release, as part of our on-going effort to deliver improved customer-centric communications solutions.”

Specific details of the enhanced features are available to authorized users by logging on to the secure Expresso web portal or by contacting a member of the Expresso Installation Team.