With many years of experience providing print, mailing, and other services for some of the world’s most data sensitive industries, Spectra offers an ideal skill set for organizations that need to get materials to their end users in a secure, reliable fashion. 

Organizations in this category include healthcare providers, who need to send bills and other types of statements to patients that include details of their personal/medical data. Another sensitive field is finance. Communications that discuss the financial information of policy holders or even bank account and routing numbers are highly desirable targets for hackers looking to commit identity theft. 

The following case study is all about Spectra’s ability to take on a challenging set of projects on behalf of a new client in the financial space and to execute those projects to the client’s complete satisfaction. If your organization needs to send out periodic notifications that contain sensitive data, our team is ready to tell you about our process and how we keep our clients’ address lists and other data safe while it is in our care.

Data Security a Non-Negotiable

Spectra is proud to partner with an innovative service provider in the estate planning field to print and distribute their communications to end users. SOC 2 Type II certification was a basic requirement for this client, as the letters and packets that they regularly distribute to members are populated with personal financial information. As the relationship has progressed, the client has increased in confidence as Spectra has proven its ability to distribute these communications on time, accurately, and with a high degree of data security at every step of the process.

The field of estate planning involves communication about extremely sensitive data, such as personal income, bank account information, stock and securities holdings, and other financial information. In the current age of digitalization, it has become more critical than ever before that organizations in this industry maintain the highest standards of data security while moving communications online. At the same time, clients expect convenience, speed, and ease of navigation when working with estate planning organizations.

Financial Communications

The client in this case study is a startup founded within the past decade that serves estate planning advisors. The organization is led by a team of experts from not only the financial space, but from software development and other technology sectors as well. By combining these areas of expertise, the client has developed digital tools that make the estate planning process more streamlined and more powerful for its clients.

As part of its process, the client organization regularly sends individualized and sensitive documents to their end users. It is critical that these documents be accurate, sent to the correct recipients, and protected throughout the print and distribution chain to ensure that personally identifiable information is not exposed along the way. The organization chose to partner with Spectra, a third-party print and fulfillment provider with decades of experience, for their print and mailing services. Spectra’s SOC 2 Type 2 certification and decades of success in handling sensitive data make the team a powerful partner for this organization as they look to meet their end users’ expectations.

Spectra’s resources for quality control in printing and mailing individualized communications include practices such as barcoding and the use of serial numbers. By associating these unique identifiers with documents and envelopes intended for the same individual, the Spectra team ensures that each packet is correctly assembled and mailed to the correct address.

Visibility and Control

In addition to printing, storing, and protecting materials, Spectra also provides the client’s team with a secure online dashboard, through which managers can track orders and current inventory. Spectra’s powerful variable data capabilities make this visibility possible, allowing the client’s team to monitor projects and verify that they are being handled accurately and within designated timeframes.

The online dashboards offered by Spectra resolve a number of serious issues that organizations often encounter when working with print and distribution service providers. When a manager at the client organization does not have the ability to monitor the progress of a project, they may not have any idea that a problem is threatening that project until a deadline passes or until incoming phone calls alert them that a major mistake has occurred.

Data Breach Risks

In the financial industry, a mistake concerning print and distribution can easily lead to the accidental exposure of individuals’ private personal and financial information. While the fault for the exposure may belong to the print partner, ultimately the client organization suffers a loss of trust on the part of its end users, not to mention the added expense of notifying individuals about the data breach and taking other remedial actions.

The best way to avoid this type of data breach disaster is to partner with a print/mailing provider that has proven its ability to keep data secure while processing jobs quickly and accurately. Spectra’s demonstration of these capabilities over the past two decades gives new clients a high degree of confidence as they launch pilot programs and full-scale ongoing print and mailing projects with our team.

Spectra’s Data Security and Versatility

This case study, in addition to highlighting Spectra’s commitment to data security at a level that satisfies even the most demanding industries, also illustrates their versatility. Rather than only accepting print and distribution projects that fall into a simple, repeatable pattern, Spectra also has the structure and digital tools necessary to handle extremely complex variable data projects.

The estate planning field is a unique one that requires high-level data security, timeliness, and accuracy during the print and distribution process. The ability of Spectra to create a solution and dashboard that accomplishes their client’s goals reflects the high degree of versatility, experience, and effectiveness that we bring to every client project. Potential clients who are interested in working with our team can learn about the many advantages of partnering with Spectra by getting in touch with us directly for a consultation.