Merrill Lynch is one of the world&singlequot;s leading financial management and advisory companies, with offices in 36 countries and total client assets of approximately $1.3 trillion. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world&singlequot;s largest money managers.

Merrill Lynch wanted to improve the effectiveness of their client communications and increase their efficiency in cross-selling the many products and services to existing clients. However, they were experiencing strategic and operational issues with their client communications. When a prospect signed up for a new client relationship, such as a Cash Management Account or Individual Retirement Account, that individual could receive multiple pieces of mail within the first sixty days, which could pertain to product and service confirmations for the features the client had selected for their relationship. Thus, clients could be overwhelmed with communications, and, in some instances, receive multiple pieces of mail from Merrill Lynch in a single day.

Merrill Lynch determined their client communications needed to be improved. It was agreed that a new, more effective method of communicating with their clients was needed to reinforce the post purchase experience. Armed with data that indicated that the first 90 days of the "client experience" for new accounts were critical, Merrill Lynch sought experienced business partners that could work closely with them to design and develop a customized, automated, one-to-one client communication solution.

Merrill Lynch asked Addison, a marketing communications agency with a specialization in simplified communications, to partner with them in analyzing and clarifying the data-capture and disclosure documents for the basic brokerage and retirement accounts. The review also covered multiple pieces of client correspondence related to the account-opening process.

In conjunction with Merrill&singlequot;s legal team, Addison rewrote all disclosures and program descriptions in plain English, reducing word counts by some 50 percent. They created the final designs for the kit and worked closely with IT personnel at Merrill Lynch as they programmed the new outputs.

Merrill Lynch engaged Bowne Enterprise Solutions, a provider of digital printing and electronic delivery of client communications, to improve the effectiveness of their client communications. Bowne implemented a customized, data-driven, print-on-demand solution. The manufacturing process utilizes leading-edge intelligent binding equipment that ensures the integrity of a secured document consisting of personalized pages and a matching personalized cover.

The Bowne solution combines many different elements, such as a welcome letter, disclosure documents, privacy pledges, forms and a customer reply envelope into one booklet. This eliminates the use of loose pieces that can be misplaced or lost.

This complete, turnkey solution enables Bowne to receive a direct data feed from Merrill Lynch when a new account signs up. When Bowne receives data from the client, it goes through an acknowledgement process. Next, the data is validated through business rules embedded in a "rules engine." Then a customized, personalized booklet is compiled, including different content, documents and mailing instructions. A report is then automatically issued to the client who decides to process or not. When the client authorizes a kit, Bowne compiles and delivers a highly personalized and customized kit to the recipient within 24 to 48 hours.

Using Print on-Demand (POD) offers financial services firms significant opportunities for printing documents faster – providing a shorter time-to-market. In addition, process improvements are another significant advantage. With POD, the client prints only the quantity that is needed, thus eliminating the need for companies to warehouse documents. This ends spoilage and waste due to content obsolescence. It is also a good solution for replenishment, when overflow or requests for additional small volumes require a new run. In addition to requiring virtually no set-up time or expense, POD offers clients the convenience of having all print (four-color, highlight color, black & white), bindery, enveloping, packaging and shipping capabilities all available from one vendor.