General Questions

What is Prospektservice?

Prospektservice is Deutsche Post's innovative software for planning unaddressed mail campaigns. The new version offers: current household figures for postal codes, towns and districts, current rates, print-ready and zoom-able postal code maps including numerous structural data and other detailed improvements. Forms are also included, already filled in and complete.

What are the differences between the offline and online versions of Prospektservice?

Prospektservice online is a client / server application, in which all data are managed centrally through a remote server at Deutsche Post. Prospektservice on CD-ROM is offline. It is a single-site application, whereby data are locally managed from the local server.

What does Prospektservice on CD-ROM offer me?

• Household figures down to the last detail
• Choice of target areas through list fields and cartographic tool
• Selection possibility on the district level
• Zoomable postal code map with many current structural data
• Various lettershop functions

What does Prospektservice online offer me?

• Permanent online updatable household figures
• Online storage of order data
• Elimination of transmission of data carriers
• Joint processing of orders with different users
• Current processing status can be retrieved at any time
• Message exchange via integrated messaging system
• Joint cross-border order processing

Application-specific Questions

Once Prospektservice has started, I can no longer select locations.

You must first activate the list you wish to select. You'll find the list icons to the right of the search function. The following lists are available:

• City/district selection
• District selection
• Delivery base
• Collection base (P.O. boxes)

How can I select P.O. boxes? The collection base icon is deactivated.

The item "P.O. boxes" must be checked under the "Items" tab in your job settings window. The list of the collection bases will appear after this has been done.

I made a selection using the map. I printed out all the index cards and highlighted various towns and regions on the map. The following message appears, however, when I try to print out the posting and production documents: "You cannot start printing the form until you have completed all the index cards."

For the selected cities/districts to be saved to the table of selected areas, they must first be carried over by clicking the icon "Carry over your cartographic selection into the index card-destination-".

I have to re-enter the name of the customer and sender each time I create a new job. Is it possible to save this information?

On the left side of the window, you can enter the respective customer data under "Stammdaten bearbeiten" (edit master data) and save it with the disk icon. Additional customers can be created with the "Neuer Datensatz" (new record) icon. These must then be selected from the drop-down field on the right side of the window under "Einlieferungsliste" (posting list) as sender, posting party, and/or alternative payer. If you now click the "Als Standard" (as standard) button, these settings will be used for all new orders.

I am planning a large-scale mailing which is divided into various regions and should be posted in stages. Can this option be handled by Prospektservice?

So-called sub-jobs are used in this instance. Once the order for the first region is complete, click on the menu item "File - New sub-job" to enter the next sub-job. The basic job data, i.e. posting person/sender and acceptance office, is carried over. You can now select the next area. Areas which have already been selected will appear in red in the selected destination lists, and in yellow on the map. If you do, however, choose an area that has already been selected, this will have no effect on the destination list. This safeguards areas being selected more than once; separate posting and production documents can be printed for each region.

An already existing job selected in the destination list is modified in the map mode. Once the changes have been saved, the number of households selected is more than originally chosen.

Cause:
Selections based on both cities and districts can be made within the destination selection table. When using the map, however, selections can only be made according to postal code.

If, when in map mode, you click on "Carry over your cartographic selection into the index card-destination-", not just the districts will be carried over, but all towns and districts that have the same postal code will be applied to the list as well.

Example:
60311 Frankfurt - Altstadt
was selected in the destination list
Once you have moved into map mode and the selections are saved to the destination selection, the following locations are now included in the destination selection:
60311 Frankfurt - Altstadt
60311 Frankfurt - Innenstadt

Solution:
A sub-job is added to the preceding job. You can make your desired selections in map mode within this sub-job. Once the data has been applied and saved to the destination selection, you can now pool the two jobs into one single job. To do this, click on the menu item "File - Merge".

The postal code 30669 Hannover as well as three postal codes in routing region 87 will not carry over into the selection. The postal codes are highlighted but when I try to apply them to the selection list, they do not appear.

Cause:
30669 Hannover is the postal code for the Hannover airport; unaddressed mail is not sent to this address. The postal codes in routing region 87 belong to the Kleinwalsertal region, which is served by the Austrian postal service, Österreichische Post. These are:
87567 Riezlern
87568 Hirschegg
87569 Mittelberg

Solution:
None. These postal codes/locations do not receive mail items from Deutsche Post. Items sent to Kleinwalsertal are transported to Sonthofen (freight) or Oberstdorf-Oy (letter mail), unloaded and delivered to the destination regions by Österreichische Post, Austria's postal authority.

I'd like to prepare a job in Prospektservice Online and then send it on to my printer to be processed. I still haven't found out how to save the job on a data carrier.

Prospektservice Online orders are saved centrally in a database on a remote server. They are therefore unable to be saved to a data carrier in file form. You can, however, allow your printer to access the job information by giving them the proper authorization to do so.

Use the menu item "Communication - Send/receive message" to propose collaboration with a printer; use menu item "Communication - Jobs release" to release select orders for sharing. The printer must have already accepted your invitation to collaborate using the "Send/Receive message" function.

In retail outlet optimization, the per retail outlet charge should appear in the log file. It's usually possible to activate the "Log charge per retail outlet" option. It does not seem to activate, however.

Cause:
In order to calculate a per-retail outlet rate, you must have entered the item weight. You probably do not have this information yet. In addition, "Generate import log" must already have been activated.

The solution:
Enter a weight into the job settings and make sure to mark the option "Generate import log".

I cannot find certain postal codes in Prospektservice Online's delivery base mode. How can I select the delivery district for these locations?

For performance reasons, only the delivery bases are listed, and not necessarily every city/town. All unlisted towns can be found under their respective delivery base. If you do not know the delivery base for the location in question, just enter the name of the city/town and its postal code in the delivery district alignment feature ("File - Delivery district - Alignment").

You can find out the delivery base by highlighting the town in the destination selection and opening the information pop-up "View - Info box".

All of the display criteria in the map are deactivated in my Prospektservice Online program. I am unable to select any display criteria.

Cause:
Display criteria data are loaded only as required.

Solution:
Go to "Key" under the menu item "View", and click on the tab "Update DC's". Check the display criteria you need and click on "Update chosen characteristics". Once you have done this, the display criteria will be available for selection.

I chose the "budget-optimized" option in the delivery point alignment feature and entered in all the required information. The "Continue" button remains deactivated, however. What should I do now?

Cause:
Most likely, the item weight has not been entered to the job. This must be set before an item rate can be established and before further steps can be taken to optimize a budget.

Solution:
Click out of the delivery district alignment feature and enter the item weight into the job data (in "Job settings - Items").

Certain locations/towns - appearing in red - do not carry over into the destination index card.

Locations shown in red are already included in a sub-job. This safeguards a city from being included in more than one sub-job.

When importing P.O. box postal codes, some of them simply cannot be found. But the "P.O. Boxes" product option has been chosen in the job settings.

Cause:
This is not an error. It is not possible to enter a single P.O. box postal code for distribution. It is therefore necessary to enter the entire collection base.

Solution:
The collection bases postal code must be included in the import file.

For some towns I'm given packing units comprising just a few items. Is there any way to optimize here?

Click on the "Items" tab in the job settings window and activate "Tolerance with last packing unit". You can now enter a quantity of items by which the last bundle can be "over-packed".

Example:
Four packing units are planned for a locality with 3040 households.

1,000 items
1,000 items
1,000 items
40 items
-------------------------
3,040 items

If the tolerance setting for the last packing unit is at 100, now only three packing units are necessary:

1,000 items
1,000 items
1,040 items
-------------------------
3,040 items

In Prospektservice it's possible to change the language settings to English in the settings menu item ("Settings - Language") I can’t find this option in Prospektservice Online. Is it possible to change the language settings?

You can change the language to either English or Turkish. You can do this in the "Registration" window that appears after logging in to the program. Click on "Ändern" (Change) and select the appropriate language in the "Sprache" (Language) field. Then save.

For the product option "Households with daily post", in some towns the number of households who refuse advertising is sometimes as high as 50%. Is this a program error?

More than likely this is not an error. The average percentage of households who refuse advertising in tariff zone A is approximately 30% (for households with daily post). In locations such as Frankfurt or Darmstadt, it is more than 50%. Even in tariff zone B you'll find similarly high rates - in Sindelfingen, for instance, at approx. 50%.

Technical Questions

Prospektservice Online cannot establish a server connection or constantly loses the connection to the server.

Cause:
Normally the problem lies with the internet connection. Possible causes can be a missing proxy server, the wrong proxy server or a firewall.

Solution - proxy problem:
When a proxy server is used for the Internet, the server name should be entered into the "Proxy Server" window (e.g. companyproxy.company.com). The proxy server address can be ascertained as follows: in Internet Explorer under "Tools - Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings - Advanced" you will find the name entered into the "HTTP" field. The port should always be set to 8080. If a proxy server is not being used, do not change the program settings (proxy.network.com / port: 8080).

Solution - firewall problem:
The firewall must allow traffic on port 443 (HTTPS). If a so-called "packet filter" is activated, it can be selectively deactivated (either for port 443 (HTTPS) or globally). A packet filter checks all incoming data packets for viruses and other kinds of intrusion. However, this can significantly slow down the delivery of data packets and make the efficient and fast use of Prospektservice Online impossible.

If a desktop firewall is in use, it must permit traffic associated with the "jrew.exe" application. These are the java components for Prospektservice Online.

The Prospektservice Online server has the following IP address: 62.225.113.237. This is important information if port 443 (HTTPS) is set to permit only the necessary traffic between the client PC and the PSO server (for security reasons).

Prospektservice Online can not be started when using the Mac OS 9 operating system.

Cause:
The Mac OS 9 operating system is no longer supported. This is the result of the switch to the new Java Runtime Environment. There is no current Java Runtime Environment for older versions of Mac OS.

Solution:
Either update the Mac OS X operating system or use an alternative operating system such as Windows or Linux.

After starting and clicking on "Continue" the following error message appears: "You do not have an appropriate license to use this functionality" - Error 429.

Cause:
During the installation, one or more of the files that Prospektservice tried to install were in use. As a result, these files could not be successfully integrated into the system.

Solution:
Please contact the hotline.

Job data is currently being changed in Prospektservice Online or the server connection is lost.

Cause:
Multiple users may be signed on to the server with the same user ID.

Solution:
Make sure that only one user per user ID is signed on to Prospektservice Online at any given time.

The shortcut to Prospektservice Online has been accidentally deleted or can no longer be found. How can the software be started?

Simply create a new shortcut to the "PSO-Start.bat" start file. Right click on an open area of your Desktop and select "New - Shortcut". In the window that appears, enter the path to the Prospektservice Online installation file. Normally, this is: C:/Programs/PSOnline/PSO-Start.bat.

The following error message appears when opening a Prospektservice job: "The following error has occurred: The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file "xxxxx.p03". It is already opened exclusively by another user or you need permission to view its data."

Cause:
The file is probably write-protected.

Solution:
Please remove the write protection from the file.

In map view, several buttons are missing (print, selection tools, etc.) Why?

Cause:
This is most likely due to the screen resolution.

Solution:
Run the program in full screen mode, i.e. increase the screen resolution to 1024x768.

I would like to change my Prospektservice Online password, but I can't find a way to do this.

It is not possible for customers to change their own passwords. Please contact our hotline.