Patent ID: 8401226

Claim:
A method of accessing digital images of mailpieces from workstations of senders of said mailpieces, which method comprises the following steps: at each of the senders of said mailpieces: franking said mailpieces on at least one franking machine fed with said mailpieces; at an office of a postal authority: acquiring a digital image of each of said mailpieces as franked, by using optical reader means to perform the acquisition; extracting, from each of said digital images, at least an identifier of the sender and an identifier of a dealer of the franking machine that franked the mailpiece whose digital image has been acquired; feeding a first database with said digital images and with at least said identifiers, each of the recordings in said database comprising one of said digital images and at least said identifiers that are associated therewith; and transferring portions of said first database to each of the servers of the dealers of the franking machines of the senders, said portions of said first database being determined as a function of said identifier of the dealer; at each of said servers of the dealers of said franking machines: feeding a second database with said determined portion of said first database; and transferring portions of said second database to a workstation of each of the senders, said portions of said second database being determined as a function of said identifier of the sender; and at said workstation of each of the senders: accessing the digital image of each of the mailpieces franked on said at least one franking machine of the sender.