case-studies > American Lung Association of the Central States

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American Lung Association of the Central States

World class organization saves money and increases organizational efficiency.

“Stamps.com is as good as it gets! I evaluated several vendors when looking for a postage solution and Stamps.com was by far the best. I found them to be the most business oriented, most flexible and most in tune with the needs of busy organizations. Their customer service is second to none and their product allows our employees to handle all of their postage needs while giving me easy oversight into how our valuable dollars are being spent. I would definitely recommend Stamps.com to any organization. Using them has saved us thousands of dollars a month.”
– Judy Dirkers, Director of Operations, American Lung Association of the Central States

Customer
The American Lung Association of the Central States is dedicated to the prevention, control and cure of lung disease, the third leading cause of death in the United States. They work to prevent, control and cure lung diseases such as asthma, lung cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, influenza and pneumonia, and fight for tobacco control and clean air through education, research and advocacy. The Central States chapter has 13 office locations spanning the States of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas and is therefore responsible for championing the health and wellbeing of millions of residents.

Challenge
Because the American Lung Association of the Central States handles a wide variety of health issues in a population that resides over hundreds of thousands of square miles, their postage requirements are as extensive as an operation multiple times their size. The organization is funded by contributions from the public, along with gifts and grants from corporations, foundations and government organizations and therefore must maximize the effectiveness of every dollar spent in its operating budget. Previous to using Stamps.com, the ALA relied exclusively on postage stamp rolls that were purchased by central management and allocated on an individual basis. These rolls were used to address day–to–day postage requirements as well as larger mailings that could include hundreds of envelopes at a time. As operations expanded, Judy Dirkers, Director of Operations, realized that an integrated postage solution was a necessity if the ALA was going to be able to keep up with their postage requirements in the future.

Solution
The American Lung Association of the Central States initially rolled out Stamps.com Enterprise in their Dallas and St. Louis locations in order to evaluate the system’s effectiveness. Within a few days of using the system, employees were reporting how easy the system was to use, how much time it saved over using traditional postage rolls and how much money it was saving by allowing them to print exact postage vs. arbitrarily adding additional stamps to heavier envelopes. Management enjoyed the visibility it gave them into the operating expenses of satellite locations as well as the accountability it created by giving each employee a separate login and tracking their individual expenses.

Stamps.com Enterprise was quickly rolled out throughout the remainder of the ALA’s 13 locations with equally beneficial results. Expenses went down, employee accountability increased and overall office productivity was dramatically impacted.

RESULTS

Cost Savings
Prior to adopting Stamps.com Enterprise in each of their 13 locations, the American Lung Association of the Central States relied on traditional postage stamp rolls for all of their postage needs. This required management to purchase large numbers of rolls, allocate them to each of the locations by projected need and ship them in quantity so that they could be used. The employees were forced to spend considerable time keeping track of the postage they had remaining as well as projecting what they would need in the future so that they could send off requests for more. To make matters worse, the only way larger envelopes could be sent was by arbitrarily adding additional stamps and hoping it was enough to get it to its desired location.

Once Stamps.com Enterprise was rolled out, upper management no longer had to worry about the quantities of postage that were available at each location, take time to go to the post office to purchase more rolls or send them off to be used by each individual. The employees could focus on their jobs rather than worrying about whether or not they had the tools to accomplish them and they could avoid overspending on postage by printing out exactly the amount that was needed for each project. According to Judy Dirkers, Director of Operations for the ALA, the savings in man–hours and waste savings has quickly amounted to upwards of two thousand dollars a month.

Employee Accountability
One of the most important features that the American Lung Association was looking for in a postage management solution was an integrated reporting system that could allow upper management to receive accurate reports on the expenses of each individual employee. Because there is no way to track traditional postage stamps back to their use or the employee who used them, there was no way to track their business expenses in order to ensure they were being use properly and in the best interests of the organization.

With Stamps.com Enterprise, each employee is assigned an individual login and password that allows the system to keep track of all of their transactions. Each request for postage is accompanied by a mandatory project reference code that categorizes the transaction according to what program the expense should be billed to. It also enables management to quickly and efficiently identify expense abuse and address it with the employee.

Office Productivity
Stamps.com Enterprise has dramatically increased productivity within the ALA by giving all members of the organization the postal resources they need, when they need them. Employees can easily print postage on individual letter basis, in bulk anticipating of future needs or in large, exact amounts for an upcoming project. Supplies can easily be ordered by management directly in the Stamps.com client, eliminating the need to go to retail stores. Reports can be run at any time or set to run on a monthly basis, simplifying budgeting and accounting issues. Not only has this increase in productivity resulted in a cost savings for the ALA, it has resulted in greater success of their overall organizational goals.