NebulaShip

NebulaShip — MV Interface with United States Postal Services

Nebula Research and Development will soon be offering MultiValue developers and end-users new tools and services to make use of United States Postal Service resources. Your MV business software can connect to the USPS® to request various types of address data, or to obtain barcode IDs for labels.

Interfaces available include:

• Tracking and Delivery Confirmation
• Signature Confirmation
• Electronic Merchandise Return Service Notification
• Domestic and International Rates Calculations
• Address Verification
• Address Standardization
• ZIP Code Lookup
• City/State Lookup
• Priority Mail® Open and Distribute
• Express Mail®
• Customs Forms
• Carrier Pickup Scheduling

Features:

• Detailed errors are returned to your BASIC program for re-tries or logging
• Appropriate security ensures the privacy of Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
• Unlimited transactions.

More Information

Address Standardization corrects errors in street addresses, including abbreviations and missing information, and supplies ZIP Codes and ZIP Codes + 4. By eliminating address errors, you will improve overall package delivery service.

ZIP Code Lookup returns the ZIP Code and ZIP Code + 4 corresponding to the given address, city, and state (use USPS® state abbreviations).

City/State Lookup returns the city and state corresponding to the given ZIP Code.

Tracking and Delivery Confirmation returns the delivery status of Priority Mail®, Express Mail®, and Package Services (Parcel Post, Bound Printed Matter, Library Mail, and Media Mail) packages with Delivery Confirmation. It can also provide tracking data for your customers, right from your web site. Additionally, the Track/Confirm Web Tool can be appended to your Intranet, allowing, for example, a customer service representative to answer customer queries about the status of their shipments.

Enhancements planned for future releases include:

• Animated maps with packages moving among post offices to their final destinations
• Maps that show unusual collections of undelivered packages in some part of the country, perhaps due to poor weather conditions;
• Calculated distances between parcels and their intended destinations
• Stored destinations and delivery time to help estimate future deliveries for individuals or regions
• Monitoring for notifications to be sent when specific packages are delivered, notices left, or when packages have not arrived within some defined time period
• More features as they are offered by the USPS®
• Interface to other shipping providers, perhaps including FedEx®, UPS®, and/or DHL®

All operations are performed against servers provided by the United States Postal Services. Nebula Research and Development provides the BASIC interface for your applications and a tested, stable, and USPS®-approved interface to the servers. Your application simply makes a BASIC subroutine call and the results come back as though all of the data were stored locally.

For more information, please contact us at . Visit http://Nebula-RnD.com for other products and services.

© 2008 Nebula Research and Development