Lost mail or delayed mail can translate into severe problems in not only losing contact with individuals, but also businesses which can mean a substantial loss of revenue. It is estimated that every year approximately 40 million Americans change their address which makes it difficult to maintain an updated mailing list. Not only does this cause problems to the postal services, but on an individual basis as well. It is cumbersome as their old addresses remain in the mailing lists and mail continue to go the old address and not to the new one. About 80% of undelivered mail is rendered undeliverable because of incorrect addresses. Millions of dollars are wasted in trying to trace new addresses and it is definitely a drain on financial resources.

To combat this, NCOA has come up with the NCOAlink system which has proved to be very effective in making the current address information easily accessible to reduce the load of undelivered mail. It gives out the change-of-address information to mailers before the mail enters their process for creating labels and delivery. This link comprises of computer software which can be bought, leased or developed by the licensed firms/people to avail themselves of the data. It is then ratified by the Postal Services which then allow private sector companies to be licensed for either commercial or internal mail processing. This saves money which would otherwise have been wasted on unnecessary postage. Additionally, names of valuable clients would have been lost.

The Postal Service can provide computerized, updated addresses to licensees of NCOAlink on a regular basis. The NCOA services improve the delivery of mail by giving updated mail addresses for individual, family or business purposes.

For proper functioning of NCOA service providers, the incoming address information has to conform to NCOA USPS needs. Each name and address is matched against the NCOA product and the licensee then is allowed to give the present address information for keeping the mailing list updated.

The benefits of the NCOA service are plentiful.

• It gives the most current address information and re-mailing is prevented because the correct addresses are applied prior to mailing. It thus acts as a catalyst to save money because the amount of undelivered mail is reduced.

• Product marketing and servicing takes place faster because of the correct addresses.

• As an extra advantage, the NCOAlink also provides Return Codes which basically gives an explanation of match and non-match status of the mail. If a match is correct, the Return Code indicates that by being accompanied by the current address or undeliverable status. If a match is incorrect or not found the Return Code indicates this by providing reasons for it to the link file. The mailer can determine whether particular addresses are still deliverable by making an analysis of the Return Codes.

Thus, identifying the movers on the mailing list and updating the list with current address information before actually mailing is possible with NCOA service providers. The link can search for anyone who has moved and is on the USPS file.