Industry Government - Assurety Consulting & Solutions Inc.

1. Opioid and Contraband Detection and Enforcement

Problem Statement: The opioid crisis in Canada, which killed thousands each year, was fueled by illegal drug shipments that arrived from China, and street violence was exacerbated by illegal arms shipments from the United States. Canada Border Security Agency sought a way to detect and inspect packages deemed the most likely to contain contraband, and intercept illegal shipments proactively.

Solution: Assurety developed a risk-based program using the first data warehouse driven by Python and ETLS. It looks at six sources of destination-related data to predict, detect and intercept contraband before it enters the country. Assurety performed a statistical analysis of operational and crime data and several other sources. Regression analysis, covariance analysis and correlation analysis were employed to prepare the data for a machine-learning algorithm. The result was successful at reducing unnecessary package inspections and reducing the volume of contraband that entered the country.

Services from Assurety:  Data Science, Data Analysis, ETL processing, Advanced AI, Machine Learning Algorithms, Reporting, Fraud Detection

Technologies: Python, Pentaho, MySQL

Client: Canada Border Security Agency

2. FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid System Re-Engineering

Problem Statement: The Department of Education needed to replace an obsolete system that was used to process FAFSA applications. The old system and code required re-engineering and integration.

Solution: Assurety provided technical architecture, solutions architecture, systems engineering, software engineering and maintenance services to re-engineer the FAFSA platform. Assurety continued to provide maintenance services for several years. The initial challenge was to understand and document all business rules. The solution required integration management and technical expertise.

Services from Assurety: Technical Architecture, Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Integration, Reporting

Technologies: Java, Drupal, Oracle

Client: Department of Education

3. Content Management Migration

Problem Statement: New federal guidelines required Department of Education to move their data to open platforms, which required moving all content management applications to Drupal. Drupal was relatively new at the time, and presented a host of security issues to be addressed as part of any solution.

Solution: Assurety assembled a team of experts who understood migration challenges and had extensive experience with Drupal security vulnerabilities. Assurety was able to provide an extra security layer which was custom-built to minimize the challenges posed by the fledgling Drupal platform. Assurety migrated the entire platform in two years, and provided technical leadership, direction and implementation services.

Services from Assurety: System Migration, Application Development, Integration, Management, Content Management

Technologies: Drupal, Oracle

Client: US Department of Education

4. Marketing Campaign Management and Database Development

Problem Statement: Two external companies managed the USPS marketing database for several years, and the agency sought to bring the management back under their own control. That proved difficult due to technical and documentation-related challenges.

Solution: Assurety engineered a new system that combined USPS marketing, operational and tracking data and customer information including credit bureau data from Equifax and social media data from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The transformation provided a comprehensive campaign management platform for customer relationship management for both commercial customers and consumers. Assurety developed the entire system in less than a year, including migrating existing data to the new Oracle-based solution. The new solution included enhanced capabilities, including algorithms to predict events that might happen at a certain address (for instance, the birth of a child) and use the data to develop campaigns and share data with marketers without divulging personally identifiable information.

Services from Assurety: Data Migration, Datawarehouse and Operational Data Store Development, Predictive Analytics, Algorithm Development, Reporting

Technologies: Teradata, Oracle, Java, Tableau Visualization, SAS, Regression, Predictive Modeling

Client: USPS

5. Business Process Re-Engineering

Problem Statement: USPS sought to transform their commercial channel, but their paper-driven processes and lack of electronic data meant their system lacked the efficiency, transparency and automation opportunities to succeed. They needed a completely new system built from the ground-up with data management at the forefront.

Solution: Assurety applied business process engineering and mapped existing workflows and processes and reengineered them for both efficiency and to simplify the customer experience. The new enterprise system brings in more than $100 million in daily revenue. It was designed to eliminate paper waste and errors inherent in manual processes. Assurety’s challenge also included the development of a very large database (VLDB) – an operational data store (ODS) that processes 30-40 billion rows of data every three to four days that is scalable and provides USPS with information on transactional efficiency and other reporting.

Services from Assurety: Business Process Engineering, Very Large Database Design and Development, Enterprise Systems Development, Engineering.

Technologies: Oracle, Java, ColdFusion, IBM MQ Series, MicroStrategy, Data IQ

Client: USPS

6. Risk-Based Fraud Detection Program Development

Problem Statement: Commercial mailers get a discount for transporting their presort letters closer to the ZIP Code where the final delivery occurs, putting the long-haul transportation cost on the mailer, not USPS. However, some unscrupulous commercial mailers exploited vulnerabilities in the USPS induction system by telling the system they were dropping the mail at an induction point near the final delivery area, but would in reality drop the mail at a facility that was only a short drive from the printer. This shifted the unpaid long-haul transportation burden back to the USPS — to the tune of $1.6 billion per year. USPS did not have a data-driven, risk-based program to provide the Office of Inspector General (OIG) the information they needed to detect and counteract this fraud.

Solution: Assurety assembled a team of specialists to develop an eInduction program that suited USPS needs. The solution harnessed the power of machine learning (AI) to detect fraudulent activity. The system has detected, identified and proven millions of dollars in fraud each year since implementation. Assurety has since enhanced the system to also identify contraband shipments as well. Assurety’s system predicts fraud and contraband with 98 percent accuracy.

Services from Assurety: Program Management, Data Governance, Fraud Detection, Expertise, Database Development, Datawarehouse Development, Machine Learning (AI) Algorithm Development, ETL Expertise, Datamart, Data Lake Development, Reporting.

Technologies: SAS, Oracle, Tableau, Teradata

Client: United States Postal Inspection Service

7. Digital Transformation of the Commercial B2B Portfolio

Problem Statement: USPS sought a digital transformation solution that would allow the agency to measure organizational performance and specific KPIs. The goals included cutting costs, improving delivery service, improving the customer experience and developing new products.

Solution: For more than 15 years, Assurety shepherded the project from strategy and design to implementation of multiple programs. This journey included moving from paper-based transactions to a fully digital single platform that supports all verticals within the USPS. KPIs and other metrics are easily defined and measured. The resulting data is analyzed using BI/Analytics so multiple departments within USPS have the power to make optimal strategy decisions, including R&D, product innovation, operational and transportation cost controls and customer service insight and improvement.

Services from Assurety: Business Strategy, Program and Portfolio Development, Technical PMO, Integration Management, Technical Architecture, Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Database Engineering, Data Warehouse, BI/Analytics, Statistical Modeling and Reporting.

Technologies: Oracle, Java, Oracle Financials, MicroStrategy

Client: USPS

8. Technology Roadmap to utilize Delivery data to develop a Digital Marketing Platform

Problem Statement: Canada Post Corporation (CPC) sought a digital strategy for a new mail visibility and digital marketing platform. The new program would need to help CPC’s commercial customers reach their customers in new ways with targeted marketing and allow for future digital product offerings. The system needed to capture and communicate scan data in real time and integrate the new digital marketing platform with existing structures. Due to the critical nature of mail delivery, there could be no interruption in service to CPC customers during the rollout of the program, so interdependencies and risks needed to be managed upfront.

Solution: Assurety was retained to collect essential requirements, identify gaps and develop a business and technical strategy roadmap for implementing a Mail Visibility and digital marketing platform. Assurety engaged more than 60 members of CPC’s staff and third-party vendors to understand needs and gaps and 230 documents were reviewed. Assurety created a roadmap for immediate implementation and presented a report to the senior management of CPC for future development of the Mail Visibility program. The engagement was completed in a very short amount of time and helped CPC launch their program in a timely manner.

Services from Assurety: Digital Transformation, Data Governance, Consulting, Technology Roadmap, Targeted Marketing, Project Management, Risk Management

Technologies: SAS, Oracle, Java

Clients – Canada Post Corporation

9. Intelligent Mail Barcode

Problem Statement: During the George W. Bush administration, Congress passed a law requiring USPS to gather data and track average delivery times, and to create incentives for the mailing industry to either invest more work-share or pay additional fees to maintain USPS cashflow.

The congressional mandate required a tiered fee structure to give additional discounts to mailings that were sorted in ways that saved USPS labor and reduced sorting times. USPS was only given a timeline, but not a rubric of how to implement or meet any of these new requirements.

USPS saw an opportunity to automate more of their processes, and implement seamless acceptance while they were at it, which would revolutionize the way every aspect of commercial mail was sorted, handled and billed within the system.

Solution: Asssurety helped USPS meet each requirement of their federal mandate, and ramp up Seamless Acceptance. Assurety devised an automated QA program that analyzed the quality of each mailing by a certain company, and after review, assigned them a discount structure based on their ability to meet certain benchmarks.

The solution involved deploying a 17-digit barcode that includes information as granular as the position of the address within a carrier’s route, along with computer-selected, digitally-confirmed spot checks of individual mail pieces as they are inducted into a USPS facility, thus eliminating the need for most DMUs all together. As a mailer increased their ability to sort at the highest level – and maintain the most accurate address information, the system bumped them into a higher discount tier.

This risk-based plan was only made possible by Assurety creating a completely digital supply chain, and played a role as thought leaders in driving the design and implementation of the program, inducing barcode design.

Services from Assurety: QA Testing, Program Management, Project Management, Ideation, Automation, Decision Support, Supply Chain Optimization, Integration

Technology: Barcode,

Client: USPS