Garnering the support of the mailing community is an important focus for Pitney Bowes as it rolls out it new cloud-based digital mail service Volly, which was introduced in New York City yesterday. While company executives talked up the application’s many consumer oriented benefits (for more on what Volly is all about see this article in Print CEO), during the current beta testing phase the focus is on developing relationships with mailers. Initially, Pitney Bowes is intent on signing financial services firms onto Volly. The company, which already has relationships with a number of these firms through its physical mail offerings, recognizes that financial services mailers are looking for ways to reduce mailing and postage costs. These mailers “have hit an e-adoption wall” said John Schloff, VP, marketing and strategic alliances for Volly, during yesterday’s presentation. By making it easy for consumers to pay multiple bills from one secure, online location, however, Pitney Bowes expects Volly to increase adoption of online payment and electronic statements. If multiple billers are telling consumers to go to Volly to pay their bills instead of directing customers to separate sites, the chance is higher that consumers will actually sign up for online payment, explained Murray Martin, president and CEO at Pitney Bowes. Convincing billers of this, however, has been somewhat of a challenge so far, Martin noted. Creating an interface for Volly that mailers as well as consumers would be happy with was a focus for Pitney Bowes during the development phase, according to company executives. An earlier version of the application didn’t feature much of an emphasis on brands but, after feedback from mailers, Pitney Bowes reworked the interface so those brands are more prominently featured. In addition, mailers have access to screen space where they can include special promotional messages. Mailers clearly said “don’t disintermediate me,” said Bernie Gracy, VP business development and operations at Volly. After the financial services piece is in place, Pitney Bowes will look to sign up coupon mailers. The company expects Volly will make it easier for consumers to keep track of and redeem coupons, thereby increasing their usage. On Volly, consumers opt-in to receive the promotional mail they are interested in. Following coupons, Pitney Bowes will target catalogers. No specifics were offered as to what the catalog portion of Volly would consist of but, company executives suggested the goal is to be able to provide customized, e-commerce enabled digital catalogs in consumers’ Volly mailboxes.