What letter writing software is available?
Gary Aderhold
letter forms. We're using a home grown application that has gotten
difficult to maintain. It's written in COBOL and we're printing to AFP
controlled laser.
I'm curious. What software packages are available that do letter writing?
Is anyone doing this on a PC platform? We're definitely open to shipping
the data down to our lan and then printing the letters there, if the PC
world offers more software options.
Thanks in advance,
Gary
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Aderhold - Systems Analyst
Student Loan Finance Corp
605-622-4565 605-622-4547(fax) email: gary...@slfc.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rich Smrcina
Word Processors. But at 60,000 a month you would probably need a room full
of PCs
Rich Smrcina
Grede Foundries
rsmr...@grede.com
rsmr...@execpc.com
----------
> From: Gary Aderhold <gary...@slfc.com>
> To: VSE Discussion List <vs...@Lehigh.EDU>
> Subject: What letter writing software is available?
> Date: Thursday, September 03, 1998 12:05 PM
William J. Matangos
for.
Group1 Software
4200 Parliament Place, Suite 600
Lanham, MD 20706-11644
800-367-8950
www.g1.com
Bill Matangos
VSE Systems Programmer
Gancom
Ted....@mutualofomaha.com
I don't know if running something under VM is an option for you or not.
Here at Mutual they produce huge numbers of letters and personalized
insurance policy statements, riders, etc. every month using DCF (IBM
Document Composition Facility) (a.k.a. Script/VS) which runs under VM. The
boilerplate (text) for all of the various forms/letters/etc. is stored, and
then merged together with the personalization information to produce the
final output, which is then sent to either one of the main system
high-speed cut-sheet lazer printers, or any of dozens of local PC lazer
printers spread in various work areas around the home office complex or
remote field offices. DCF has been used by many large organizations for
doing "mail merge" for years.
Hope this helps.
-Ted
Theodore W. Manos, Sr. (E-Mail: TMa...@AOCGL.Com)
IS Management and Systems Programming consulting since 1978
DOS-VSE/ESA, VM/370-VM/ESA, OS/MFT-MVS, CP/M-Win/NT, UN*X, TCP/IP, VTAM
Alpha Omega Consulting Group, Ltd., 400 Springhill Dr., Roselle, IL
60172-2573
Ph: 630.980.7919 Fx: 630.980.4458 Alpha Pg: 888.857.2066
gary...@slfc.com on 09/03/98 12:05:05 PM
Please respond to vs...@Lehigh.EDU
To: vs...@Lehigh.EDU
cc: (bcc: Ted Manos)
Subject: What letter writing software is available?
Ed Zell
>letter forms. We're using a home grown application that has gotten
>difficult to maintain. It's written in COBOL and we're printing to AFP
>controlled laser.
>
>I'm curious. What software packages are available that do letter writing?
>Is anyone doing this on a PC platform? We're definitely open to shipping
>the data down to our lan and then printing the letters there, if the PC
>world offers more software options.
>
Hi Gary,
We use a package called NaperSoft. It is written by a firm
in Naperville, IL called....NaperSoft! We have had it on our
VSE system for about 5 years now. I don't work with it personally,
but it seems to be a decent package.
We use it to generate online (CICS) and batch letters that we end
up printing on Xerox laser printer's that are coax attached to CICS.
It supports variable substitution and allows "shell" documents to be
created and used. As far as word processing on the mainframe goes,
it is not too bad.
If you want some more info, give me a call or email and I can put you
in touch with someone on our staff that deals with the product on a
regular basis.
Ed Zell (309) 674-8255 x-107
Illinois Mutual Life ewz...@imonline.com
Ellen Alexander
We are going to be looking for something with a PC front end soon just to make the letter creation easier, so if anybody has any ideas on that?? The actual letter generation would still have to run on VSE as we print 100 of thousands and use VSE attached printers.
Ellen Alexander
Saturn Corporation
EAlex...@Saturncorp.com
G A Sansom
We used to generate letters in a locally written application (Cobol &
Assembler) from VSE. Now days, we generate letters from programs
written in VisualBasic. All of the letter prep (postal codes,
sortation, etc) is done in VSE and shipped down to the network. The pcs
stay busy, but we can stay ahead of the Xerox printers (more than 135
pages/min). The code is all proprietary, but call me, I give you
general outline of the process.
--
G Alan Sansom mailto:gasa...@tek-star.net
Systems Programmer Customer Development Corp
(309) 689-6422
schn...@naspa.net
We also use EZ-LETTER from Group1 but recently bought DOC1 also from
Group1.
The difference is that DOC1 is a true GUI front-end development on a NT
Server. You cut and paste the document together using fonts, logos,
whatever and can actually have data step thru your process so you can
see everything being built . We output thru a BARR PC to channel
attached XEROX printers . With alot of training and preliminary setup,
seems to be a robust package. The newer EZ-LETTER PLUS that just came
out has alot of newer features in it to utilize a PC word processor but
it is not GUI front-end.
Rick Schneider
Check Printers
RSCHN...@Check-Printers.com
VS>Our shop generates around 60,000 letter per month with approx 200 different
VS>letter forms. We're using a home grown application that has gotten
VS>difficult to maintain. It's written in COBOL and we're printing to AFP
VS>controlled laser.
VS>I'm curious. What software packages are available that do letter writing?
VS>Is anyone doing this on a PC platform? We're definitely open to shipping
VS>the data down to our lan and then printing the letters there, if the PC
VS>world offers more software options.
VS>Thanks in advance,
VS>Gary
VS>
VS>-------------------------------------------------------------------
VS>Gary Aderhold - Systems Analyst
VS>Student Loan Finance Corp
VS>605-622-4565 605-622-4547(fax) email: gary...@slfc.com
VS>-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Corkery
I had a former client in the direct mail business that went from Group1
EZ-Letter on the mainframe to a LAN based system (can't remember the name of
the package) that could utilize mainframe based AFP printers driven by the
PCs ... They could take lists processed on the mainframe and download it to
the LAN (using a 3480 tape drive) and at that point all of the "mail house"
functions were done on the PC ... Pretty much worked as well as the
mainframe (4341-2 level) for the tasks involved ... If you'd like a contact
name you can drop me a private E-mail.
Kevin Corkery
Independent Consultant
Voorhees, New Jersey
cor...@bellatlantic.net
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner...@Lehigh.EDU
> [mailto:owner...@Lehigh.EDU]On Behalf Of
> Gary Aderhold
> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 1998 1:05 PM
> To: VSE Discussion List
> Subject: What letter writing software is available?
>
>
> Our shop generates around 60,000 letter per month with approx
> 200 different
> letter forms. We're using a home grown application that has gotten
> difficult to maintain. It's written in COBOL and we're
> printing to AFP
> controlled laser.
>
> I'm curious. What software packages are available that do
> letter writing?
> Is anyone doing this on a PC platform? We're definitely open
> to shipping
> the data down to our lan and then printing the letters there,
> if the PC
> world offers more software options.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Gary
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Gary Aderhold - Systems Analyst
Conrad R. Sanders
>
> Our shop generates around 60,000 letter per month with approx 200 different
> letter forms. We're using a home grown application that has gotten
> difficult to maintain. It's written in COBOL and we're printing to AFP
> controlled laser.
>
> I'm curious. What software packages are available that do letter writing?
> Is anyone doing this on a PC platform? We're definitely open to shipping
> the data down to our lan and then printing the letters there, if the PC
> world offers more software options.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Gary
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Gary Aderhold - Systems Analyst
> Student Loan Finance Corp
> 605-622-4565 605-622-4547(fax) email: gary...@slfc.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary,
I worked previously for a direct mail company and when I first started,
all of the letter writer programs were written in Assembler. Since all
of the Assembler programs were written for specfic jobs and customers,
the programs had to be constantly re-compiled for any changes. We
finally purchased a letter writer from Group1 Software called
EZ-LETTER. The software was very powerful and could pretty much perform
all functions like puncuation, spell check in one pass of the file. The
draw back with EZ-Letter is there was a quite a bit of overhead with the
program. When we converted to all EZ-Letter we had to go through a
couple of processor upgrades just in a few years just to keep our
printers going. We were driving over 15 AFP and NON-AFP printers 24
hours 7 days a week. Our shop was proabably unique since we could be
running 10 partitions at once all spooling EZ-Letter jobs and driving 15
printers. If you only have a couple of printers and a fairly small
volume, then maybe you want to check into driving your AFP printers from
a PC or LAN.
Siemens, now called OSAY, had some software that runs a PC or LAN that
will drive your AFP printers. All of the programming functions are
performed on the LAN along with storing of the forms overlays and fonts.
The name and address information is sent down from the mainframe through
a network using TCP/IP. PSF, the software that runs the AFP printers on
the mainframe can get fairly expensive depending on how many printers
you are running. There all also other versions of PSF that are cheaper
that run under OS/2 and UNIX if you wanted to run the printers from a
Lan.
I am not sure if this company is still in business but they can
duplicate all of the functionality of the GROUP1 EZ-LETTER package and
it all runs on NT servers. The company name is MIRUS and they are based
in Texas. You may want to check them out if your looking for a client
server application.
Good Luck.
--
Conrad R. Sanders
I.S. Tech Services
Piper Jaffray Cos.
222 So. Ninth St.
Minneapolis, MN 55402
w: 612-342-8838 fax: 612-342-6953
Business email : csan...@piperjaffray.com
Personal email : sand...@ix.netcom.com
Kevin Corkery
Yep, that's the name of the company I couldn't remember in a prior post ...
the old client has switch from G1 on the mainframe (MVT/VSE/SPRI) to the
Mirus system on an NT lan ... The functionality is pretty much there and I
think it's a bit cheaper than G1 ... They're driving Seimens Lasers with it.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner...@Lehigh.EDU
> [mailto:owner...@Lehigh.EDU]On Behalf Of
> Conrad R. Sanders
> Sent: Saturday, September 05, 1998 12:06 AM
> To: VSE Discussion List
> Subject: Re: What letter writing software is available?
>
> ----------------------------------- SNIP ---------------------------
> I am not sure if this company is still in business but they can
> duplicate all of the functionality of the GROUP1 EZ-LETTER package and
> it all runs on NT servers. The company name is MIRUS and
> they are based
> in Texas. You may want to check them out if your looking for a client
> server application.
>
> Good Luck.
Kevin P. Corkery
Erich Stadler
Windows/NT, fully graphical interface, Input your variable Data and get
Document-output as AFPDS, PDF, XEROX-Metacode, PCL, Postscript e.t.c..
You may uses Windows fonts for your AFP-Output.
http://www.printsoft.com has a product called PReS, running under
Windows/NT, uses Script-language to format your variable Data (Graphic
Version in Beta Test). Similar output features as above.
document science has a product called Compuset. Input has to be 'tagged'
( like DCF). runs on various platforms (NT,AIX, Mainframes,Unisys...),
may output options available.
many good products around to choose,
hard to find the one, that fits best.
One important thing is to whatch how you can automate the processing if
it's on a regular (daily) basis, and maybe archiving/indexing if you
want to do reprints or online-viewing.
regards,
Erich Stadler
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