“Data is the King” – Article I
Understanding Full Service roles for the USPS® FAST® Appointment management system
By Shariq (aka Sharick) Mirza
This article is part of a series of articles that describe the USPS Full Service Intelligent Mail (IMb®) program where “Data is the King” and future implications and benefits of intelligent mail to the industry.
CONTEXT
Communication changes bring opportunities for those who can avail them:
Communication changes from telegraph to telephone (late 1800s) and from telephone without phone numbers to telephones with phone numbers and area codes (mid 1900) changed the speed at which business could be done and actually created new economies several decades ago (remember the AT&T and the Bells, where are they now?). Then came cell phones and PDAs creating a communications revolution. It is cheaper (free) to talk to someone in China over the internet than talking with someone in California via a local phone service company.
Just ten years ago we could not fathom the fact that our children will go to school with a cell phone or a laptop and the internet will change our lives and put the knowledge of the universe on our fingertips. This also meant that the buyers have a lot more choices at their fingertips and it’s a buyer’s economy for the most part. The internet based communication also impacted the mailing industry in a big way removing large volumes of mail within the last decade from the mailing supply chain. For decades, the old economy has been transformed into a new economy through the changes in communication technology. No one thought just a few years ago, that we will stop going to a Blockbuster store to rent movies and instead can order the movies on demand through the internet. This is a never ending capitalist economic cycle. Blockbuster and many other business’ survival depends upon quickly utilizing the new communication technology and moving their business from the old to the new economy. Same is true for the mailing industry. The only way for industries and businesses to survive and thrive is by producing solutions in a better, cheaper, and faster way. The web services technology that the IDEAlliance Mail.XML® specification utilizes is the new communication change for the mailing industry. With a lot of promises to bring down the overall cost of doing business (cheaper, better, faster) and improving efficiency throughout the supply chain.
Digital Supply Chain Vision: The Full service infrastructure, created by the USPS, and supported by the industry (where industry is also creating and investing in the new infrastructure) is in support of a future vision (future is becoming ‘now’ very quickly), shared and agreed to with the IDEAlliance and industry 3 years ago in a Florida IDEAlliance® conference. (more…)
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