Use of Mail Merge and Spreadsheet at Workplace

Question: Describe mail merge? Why and how would the employee use it? i) Define mail merge ii) Explain the speed and accuracy provided through the automation of recipient details, especially in a business context e.g. customers iii) Describe the principle of defining a template document that calls data from an external source e.g. text file, spread-sheet and database. Answer: Introduction Mail merge is an important way of communication of messages in large groups. In business operations the mail merge feature can convert the letters in form of documents suitable for reading as an individual correspondence (Taljaard et al. 2015). Mail merge is useful for saving time and human effort when any particular set of information is conveyed to many people. It helps in producing mass amount of mailings with envelopes and labels. The report is an analysis of the use of mail merge in business operations. Employees and workers can be benefited from the use of mail merge by saving their effort and time. The report would explain the automation process and describe the benefits of the business employees for dealing with the customers. The report has shown the principle and importance of the template document for inputting the data values from the external source. Description of Mail Merge and Its usage Definition of Mail Merge Definition of Mail Merge with Example The mail merge is an important feature of database software, email programs and word processor. The mail merge is a standard form and format consisting of unique fields like email address, phone number, name, and other information for making the message appealing and unique (Shanfeng 2012). It helps in creating the message chain for each person in CSV, database and other source of input. Example- A sample mail merge for a business organization that can be sent to its customers is provided below: __________ (email address of the receiver) Dear _______ (name of the receiver), It has been immense pleasure in doing business with you. We would like to show our gratitude to ________ (name of the customer) and hope you would continue with our services. Sincerely, ABC Ltd. (name of the company) Explanation of the Speed and Accuracy of Automation Recipients in Mail Merge Automation recipients are the feature of mail merge that provides speed of generating huge number of letters simultaneously. Mail merge helps in creating personalized documented letters and envelopes that have been pre-addressed (Lu et al. 2014). These mergers have lots of mailing labels in the form of letter especially in business. The data source is practically a spreadsheet or data base that contains the information in its fields and columns for each of the variable in the provided template which allows the people in any company to transfer information more easily (Olfman et al. 2014). The mail merger system can be processed using word software (Olfman et al. 2014). It creates an output document for every individual row of the database. The data is automatically fixed in the processing document as per provided in the template of the letter (Kraft et al. 2015). The values are substituted with respect to the matching column and template of the document. Accuracy: The datasheet of the recipients for any business has number of clients. The transactions occur on daily basis and considerable amount of communication has to be done. It becomes practically impossible for manually sending message through emails to all the clients (Nicola and Sommerlandt 2013). Even if the emails are sent manually, there is a strong chance of making a mistake while manually entering the recipients name and address. Speed: The transactions occur on daily basis and considerable amount of communication has to be done (Nicola and Sommerlandt 2013). Therefore, the datasheet of the recipients for any business has huge number of clients. Figure 2: Mail merge list in a spreadsheet (Source: Dmcritchie.mvps.org 2016) Description of the Principle of Defining Template Document Managing the template documents It is a powerful tool for the sending and writing the personalized letter and email to many receivers at a time. It can be used for creating the envelopes in the labels for each recipients information (Arsenault et al. 2014). The data is imported from some other resource and it is used for replacing the placeholders in the created message. The principal process for template documentation consists of creation of data source and document or template. The principal fields are defined for the document and the merging is carried out. Principles of the template documents The principles for using the template documents are: Usefulness of Template document- The template documents are very distinct need for the business operations. It is a catalog of polished and professional documents that helps in holding the required high standards of the business communication. Time-Saving- The templates help in saving the time of the business communication. It assists the professional approach in many ways. The readymade template for the business is useful for saving the time that can be delegated in some other activity (Kantor et al. 2012). All the necessary documents are inserted automatically in the template within seconds. The finished template can be shared and sent. Customizable- The templates are unique and customizable in nature. The business entity can customize the template as per their requirements (Ji et al. 2013). The startup template is a well-crafted and professional template that can be personalized by adding some individual touches. Consistence and clarity- The template is very useful for business documents and the major benefit is its consistent nature (Kantor et al. 2012). The template maintained by the business is used for generating multiple documents. All the documents generated are consistent and there are no distinguishable features among them. The template would provide the clear understanding of what is meant by the document to the customers. Use of Mail Merge by Employees The basic use of Mail Merge by the employees is writing and sending a standard form of letter to a large number of shareholders and stakeholders (Van der Linden et al. 2015). It would provide benefit of automatic citation of the name and address and save the manual effort of the employees. Conclusion The report had shown various points for the use of mail merge system. Mail merge is useful for saving time and human effort when any particular set of information is conveyed to many people. The report has shown the principle and importance of the template document for inputting the data values from the external source. Mail Merges are used for generating hundreds of letters simultaneously. The mergers have lots of mailing labels in the form of letter. The data source is practically a spreadsheet or data base that contains the information in its fields and columns for each of the variable in the provided template. It helps in retaining 100% accuracy while sending the mail to an individual sender. Bibliography Bcit.ca. (2016).BCIT : : COMP 0367 - MS Word Styles, Templates and Mail Merge. [online] Available at: https://www.bcit.ca/study/courses/comp0367 [Accessed 26 Jul. 2016]. Dmcritchie.mvps.org. (2016).Mail Merge, Printing Labels using Mail Merge with data from Excel. 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