An important form of communication between businesses and customers has traditionally been "paper-based" communication, such as letters and bills mailed via a postal service. For example, it is estimated that merchants spend about $10 billion per year for printing and mailing of bills to customers. It is also estimated that banks account for about 6% of all first-class U.S. mail and that insurance companies and credit card companies account for about 4.5% and 4%, respectively.
However, significant interest has been expressed recently regarding alternative, non-paper methods of communication. The term "alternative messaging" refers to the distribution of information using alternative delivery media, including, but not limited to, facsimile transmissions (fax), electronic mail (e-mail), Internet, on-line banking, and the like. For example, in 1995, there were 550,000 on-line banking users performing about 45 million transactions. It has been estimated that these figures might grow to 3.9 million users conducting about 600 million transactions by the year 2000. The World Wide Web (hereinafter the "Web") has also become a popular medium for the exchange of information and for electronic commerce. Literally millions of new Web pages have been developed in the past several years as more and more individuals, businesses and organizations have discovered the power of Internet marketing. One reason for the Web's popularity is that it facilitates interactive communications between businesses and their customers.
Alternative messaging may also be more cost effective than traditional paper-based communications, such as mail, not only because of the higher cost of paper, printing and postage, but also because of the speed of electronic communications. Electronic financial transactions can occur almost instantaneously and have historically had fewer errors than comparable paper-based transactions. Additionally, error resolution time has been historically less than that for comparable paper-based transactions.
Unfortunately, alternative messaging has to-date been met with resistance from both businesses and consumers for various reasons. Businesses have found it difficult to adapt legacy information systems to different delivery media with a consistent format. Additionally, many businesses may be reluctant to expend large amounts of money on upgrading existing communications infrastructures. Concern has also been expressed over the ability to ensure integrity of information transmitted via alternative messaging systems. "Mail-piece" integrity methods and systems are well established for traditional paper-based mail communications, but are virtually non-existent for non-paper communications. The term "mail-piece" generically refers to any single unit of communication (i.e., a piece of mail, an e-mail, fax, etc.).
Consumers have also shown a reluctance to embrace alternative messaging because of the perception that information transmitted via e-mail or over the Web is less secure than traditional paper-based mail. In addition, traditional mail-merge technologies may allow businesses to somewhat "personalize" communications with consumers via paper-based mail. Unfortunately, the extension of personalized communications to alternative messaging media may not achieve the same level of personalization as traditional paper-based mail.