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1. Digital Supply Chain – Strategy to Implementation
Problem Statement: The US postal ecosystem required a futuristic digital supply chain to enable efficiencies, cut costs, provide end-to-end traceability and allow for development of new digital products and services for consumers. The project would fall under the guise of Idealliance, the non-profit that owns all data specifications that enable business transactions between the parties within the US mailing and parcel ecosystem. Ideallance needed a company that understood both sides of the equation, i.e., the commercial industry (mailers, shippers, consolidators, e-tailers, marketplaces, logistics companies) and the USPS to develop a first and last-mile plan of a future digital supply chain specification.
Solution: Assurety developed an industry-wide data governance strategy, with web services and micro-services development. A new B2B data specification was developed that included Mail.dat and Mail.XML, enabling all parties to transmit usable data among various stakeholders.
Services from Assurety: Technical Strategy, Functional Leadership, Industry Process Expertise, Postal Process and Technology Expertise, Data Governance, B2B Design, Data Specification Development, Technical Collaboration with Stakeholders, Change Management Process Implementation, Communications (External and Internal).
Technologies: Web Services, Oracle, Java
Client – Idealliance
2. Last-Mile Dynamic Routing – Parcel Cost Avoidance
Problem Statement: For decades, rural mail routes were static. The routes included a stop at each address, whether or not any parcels or mail were to be delivered that day. Carriers frequently drove long out-and-back trips to reach an address that had nothing to deliver. This was a significant strain on fuel and labor costs for USPS, which sought a solution to create more efficient rural routes that could change daily, based on need. Additionally, siloed data within the USPS system kept mail and parcel manifests separate, creating another layer of complication.
Solution: Assurety assessed, identified and mapped data from multiple sources into one single interface to support last-mile dynamic routing. The system looks at the volume of mail for each area and reroutes carriers automatically based on daily needs. Assurety created new integrated data structures and APIs, and developed models to make it possible to automatically adjust the routes on a daily basis. The dynamic routing and returns service optimization scheme Assurety developed for parcels is based on mapping Mail.dat and Mail.XML data to the Shipping Services File, which required a deep understanding of the business, data and extensive data translation and transformation needs.
Services from Assurety: Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Technical Consulting, Technical Design, Ideation, Logistics, Project Management, Integration, Digital Transformation, System Analysis, Machine Learning, Visualizations, QA Testing
Technologies: Oracle, Manual ETL
Client – USPS MEPT
3. First Failed Attempt Delivery Cost Avoidance
Problem Statement: The USPS encounters millions of failed first attempt deliveries per year. At an estimated loss of $3 each, these failed first attempts cost USPS hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Adding to the complication, USPS is not allowed to contact customers who have not opted-in for communication. There was a need to support delivery decisions driven by AI and pattern development.
Solution: Assurety developed a predictive Analytics AI platform that recognizes patterns in delivery profiles of households and uses social media handles, operations data and weather data to update the delivery profiles of addresses. This allows for optimization of transportation and delivery routes, saving millions per year on transportation and fuel costs.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Complex Algorithm Development, Custom Software Engineering, Data Sciences, AI Development.
Technologies: IBM WebSphere Java, Oracle, SAS Algorithm Development, Java, Oracle, MPE.
Client – USPS Digital Product Innovations under Marketing
4. Digital Transformation of Commercial Channel
Problem Statement: The commercial mail channel was plagued with costly manual processes that created many opportunities for human error and provided no real-time data that could be used to hone the system. Paper-driven postage, verification acceptance, entry and induction processes were cumbersome and provided little visibility about the customers, products and services that USPS works with every day.
Solution: Assurety helped discover and assess the needs of all stakeholder organizations within the commercial channel. Assurety then developed and implemented an enterprise-scale platform that processes more than 30 billion rows of data and millions of transactions per day. Assurety continues to maintain and improve the system. The system touches every aspect of commercial mail, from uploading and verifying B2B data, calculating postage and debiting accounts, to supporting biannual price and classification of all commercial mail products.
Services from Assurety: Communications (External and Internal), Data Governance, B2B Design and Consulting, Business Process Engineering, System and Application Design and Architecture Development, QA (Customer Acceptance Testing), Revenue Assurance Analytics, Business Modeling/Predictive Analytics.
Technologies: IBM WebSphere Java, Oracle RAC, Java Scripting, Web Services B2B Development MicroStrategy, Teradata, SAS Reporting and Modeling.
Client – USPS MEPT
5. Business Transformation through Platform Initiatives
Problem Statement: Congress passed a law requiring independent reporting of Service Performance measurement and digital incentives from the USPS to the Commercial mailing industry.
Solution: Assurety was selected to lead discovery and assess the needs of the USPS in relation to the new congressional mandate. Assurety implemented new processes, workflows systems and applications that enable a single big data information platform that supports all aspects of USPS. The new system manages marketing, sales, customer support, entry, acceptance, induction, operations, transportation, delivery, pricing and classification and finance needs. It also enables an analytics platform that allows USPS to measure all aspects of the business including service performance and makes the data available to the industry.
Services from Assurety: Technical Leadership and Strategy, Business Strategy, Communications (External and Internal), Data Governance, B2B Design and Consulting, Business Process Engineering, System and Application Design, Architecture Development, QA (Customer Acceptance Testing), Revenue Assurance Analytics, Informed Visibility Design and Architecture, Business Modeling/Predictive Analytics.
Technologies: IBM WebSphere Java, Oracle RAC, Java Scripting, Web Services B2B Development MicroStrategy, Teradata, SAS Reporting, Modeling.
Client – USPS MEPT
6. Universal Pricing Engine (UPE) – Content Driven Rules Engine
Problem Statement: The old system USPS used to communicate and implement the complex rules that govern more than 45 postal/parcel products in a nationwide system was both cumbersome and costly, with a price tag in the tens of millions of dollars annually. The Postal Service needed a new, data-backed system to push out information about biannual pricing changes, as well as new products and services. The old system required writing complex software code with each release, which led to delays, cost overruns and other inconveniences.
Solution: Assurety developed a data-driven set of complex data structures driven by SKUs that allows the software to map and receive new prices with each release, avoiding the complexities of the old system.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Design, and Development, Data Structures, Communication, Collaboration with USPS and Stakeholders.
Technologies: Web Services, TCPIP-based downloads
Client – USPS MEPT
7. Capital Investment Decision Support
Problem Statement: SG360, a multi-site commercial mail company, sought a partner to help their executives better allocate capital during a period of expansion. The company desired a deeper understanding of their operations across all facilities and operations to identify potential cost savings and to develop a long-term strategy for growth opportunities.
Solution: Assurety has deep institutional knowledge of not just the postal/parcel space, but also business operations and transportation logistics. Assurety centralized the Mail.dat data across all SG360 facilities, so it could be loaded into a query-able database, allowing for a fuller picture of their daily – and even hourly — operations. The information was analyzed by entry, destination, sortation, volume, weight, class, shape and other pertinent characteristics to identify consolidation and transportation savings opportunities. Then, Assurety analyzed the feasibility of the creation of a separate transportation organization within SG360. Presort, post-presort workflows, processes and volume operations were also analyzed to identify opportunities for improvement and cost savings.
Services from Assurety: Communications (External and Internal), Data Analysis, ETL, Data Transformation, Data Governance, Development, Reporting, BI & Analytics, Business Modeling/Predictive Analytics.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, Assurety’s AIMSplus™ Post-Presort Software Platform, Python ETL and Data Modeling, Tableau Reporting, Modeling.
Client – SG360, a Seagerdhal Company
8. Operational Optimization to Cut Labor Costs & Improve Service
Problem Statement: Large commercial carriers that use USPS for last-mile delivery consumed valuable time and resources when requesting appointments with USPS facilities. Each carrier, including FedEx, UPS and other logistics companies, used manual data entry to book dock time at each of the 250 intake facilities across the country, leading to high operational costs for USPS. Additionally, since the system was manual, there was no provision for electronic induction tracking, which was a key service performance indicator for USPS.
Solution: Assurety assessed USPS needs, and then designed, developed and implemented an enterprise platform that processes thousands of appointments a day. The system automates and manages many of the induction tasks as well, and removed almost all of the system’s manual data entry bottlenecks, leading to a better customer service and substantial cost savings.
Services from Assurety: Business Process Engineering, System and Application Design, Architecture, Development, QA (Customer Acceptance testing), Technical, Communications.
Technologies: IBM WebSphere Java, Oracle RAC, Java Scripting, Web Services B2B development, MicroStrategy, SAS
Client – USPS Operations and MEPT
9. Logistics Load Pool Management & Workflow Automation
Problem Statement: RR Donnelley used legacy systems including manual processes that required expensive human labor, lacked induction visibility and made real-time early-late reporting to clients nearly impossible. There was also no direct linkage from TMS to pool management, and induction appointments were scheduled manually. Additionally, RR Donnelley wanted to identify the most cost-effective points of induction based on tariffs, cost per mile and LTL trucking costs.
Solution: Assurety provided and implemented a digital transformation and business process engineering roadmap that was software-driven by APIs and automates business decisions through a rules engine and updates the TMS pool optimization and workflows automatically. The system considers postage, tariff, LTL rates and cost per mile. The system provides an intelligent assessment and comparison between different induction entry points to help staff select the most cost-effective and efficient transportation solution.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Integration, Workflow Redesign.
Technologies: Oracle, Microsoft .Net C# WMI Web Services, MS SQL Server, Web-Based Reporting
Client – R. R. Donnelley
10. eCommerce Revenue Assurance Platform
Problem Statement:
The rise of successful USPS B2B partners like http://Stamps.com and Indicia, among others, allows new avenues for some consumers to either mistakenly or deliberately underpay for parcels. Due to the sheer volume of parcels USPS handles per day, it’s not possible to verify the proper postage was paid for each shipment. These underpayments represented more than $225 million in lost revenue for the USPS, which sought a solution to curb underpayments.
Solution: Assurety developed and implemented an APV using manifest systems data, data from MPE including weight, dimensions, packaging and postage, to automatically match actual postage vs paid postage to identify short paid shipments and send an invoice to the client for the balance.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Definition, and Design of APV Pilot Activities Leadership, QA Testing on MPE Onboarding, Communications.
Technologies: MPE hardware, Software, B2B Web Services Interfaces/APIS, Java, Oracle.
Client – USPS MEPT
11. Logistics Accounting and Financial System Re-Engineering
Problem Statement: South West Distribution, the largest distributor of The Washington Post, suffered for years with a legacy accounting system that had too many incomplete workflows that created reporting issues for AR and AP, ad had extensive labor costs. The old system didn’t meet the needs of the business on any level, and wasn’t scalable or easy to use. Labor costs, as well as reporting issues for A/R and A/P were a risk to the business.
Solution: Assurety re-engineered their software applications with automated workflows and scalable, secure and accessible web-based interfaces with interactive dashboard views that reduced accounting costs and met the needs of the company.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Integration, Workflow Redesign, Automation, Software Engineering.
Technologies: Microsoft .Net C#, MS SQL server, web-based reporting
Client – South West Distribution
12. e-Commerce Fulfilment Hub Strategy – Technology & Operations Roadmap
Problem Statement: Morocco Post sought to become the eCommerce hub for West Africa. They required an expert consulting partner to assess their existing facilities and workflows, and to determine the needs of the other countries the new eCommerce hub would ultimately serve.
As parcel volumes and international mail in the area continues to grow, Morocco Post needed an audit and guidance from an expert consultant that could position it to become Western Africa’s hub for eCommerce. There was a need to redesign sortation facilities, sortation operations and workflow. New technologies were needed to increase efficiency and automation.
Solution: Assurety analyzed Morocco Post’s existing sortation facilities and workflows and identified areas that required attention. The plan redesigned both their physical and digital operations to achieve more automation and efficiencies. Assurety’s report focused on four scopes of work: driving PNC operational excellence, volume and capacity optimization, organizational review and physical redesign of existing facilities to improve speed and reduce labor costs.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Roadmap, Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Operations Assessment, Plant Redesign
Technologies: Hardware Sortation (NPI), Tableau, existing software.
Client – Post Morocco – Barid Al-Maghrib
13. 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
14. SSK – Self-Service Kiosk for Mail and Parcel Self Service
Problem Statement: Ever-increasing volume at USPS locations led to long lines and costly staffing decisions for the postal service. USPS needed to add a self-service option for both commercial customers at its Business Mail Entry Delivery Units and retail customers at regular Post Offices.
Solution: Assurety led an effort to assess the needs of stakeholders including the USPS and its various customers, and design a self-service kiosk, as well as provide pilot program and stakeholder management.
Services from Assurety: Discovery, Stakeholder Management, Requirements Development, System Architecture, Customer Experience, Roadmap, Operational Assessment, QA Testing, Communications.
Technologies: IBM WebSphere Java, Oracle RAC, Java Scripting, Web Services, Internal APIS.
Client – USPS MEPT & Retail
15. Performance Analytics Engine for Parcel Shipping products
Problem Statement: USPS constantly rolls out new products and services, but did not have an effective tool to review existing products and services for efficiency, customer experience and cost.
Solution: Assurety developed a real-time analytics reporting engine to help evaluate performance at the product/service level. The system helps USPS add, remove and merge parcel products and services, which led to substantial cost savings.
Services from Assurety: Decision Support, Reporting, Operational Efficiency, Consulting, Development, System Analysis.
Technologies: Oracle, MicroStrategy, Real-time reports.
Client – USPS Shipping Products
16. Hybrid-Digital Marketing Platform
Problem Statement: Without digital access to the millions of US households it serves, USPS was at a disadvantage as the internet revolution siphoned off marketing dollars previously dedicated to the physical mail industry. USPS needed a digital strategy to create new services and products to compete in the digital world.
Solution: Assurety designed a hybrid digital marketing platform that allows mailers, shippers and marketers to market both physically through direct mail and digitally on consumers’ electronic digital devices.
Services from Assurety: Ideation, Targeted Marketing, Customer Experience, Consulting, B2B Integration, SAS Business Modeling, Decision Support ODS Design Development and Maintenance, Apple IOS and Android OS App Development, Communications, Stakeholder Management, Customer Onboarding, Project Management.
Technologies: Apple iOS, Android, IBM WebSphere, Java, Oracle, Oracle DLs, Algorithm Development, SAS, MicroStrategy Reporting.
Client – USPS Digital Product Innovations under Marketing
17. Intelligent and Virtual Digital Addressing – Forever Addresses
Problem Statement: By law, USPS cannot maintain any personally identifying information about the households and businesses it serves, nor can it share details of addresses with third parties. However, the need to generate new revenue through digital products required an intelligent address platform that would comply with legal requirements, but also allow new digital marketing products and services to hit the market. Additionally, USPS spent nearly $5 billion a year for changes of address when someone moves, and sought to reduce that cost as well.
Solution: Assurety developed a system for intelligent and virtual digital addresses so mailers no longer need to update their own address lists. USPS can maintain a database of updated addresses while still complying with the law. The algorithm-based system pulls data from a variety of sources including address coding, barcode coding and social media handles.
Services from Assurety: Consulting, Complex Algorithm Development, Custom Software Engineering, Data Sciences, Ideation, Project Management.
Technologies: IBM WebSphere Java, Oracle, Oracle DLs, Algorithm development. Using Java and Oracle platforms and feeding the coding to the MPE.
Client – USPS Digital Product Innovations under Marketing
18. AIMS plus™ – Software-based Post Presort ERP, Tracking, & Analytics Platform
Problem Statement: Large marketers, mailers and consolidators who use USPS did not have a centralized, web-based platform to manage their production mail streams. This caused mailers to spend more money and time when managing their various tasks.
Solution: Assurety introduced AIMSplus™ (Assurety’s Integrated Mailing Solution), a single platform that centralized business workflows management and reporting. It can be expanded for multiple sites. The system helps manage merging the mail stream, splitting and consolidating, palletizing, barcode management, payment and billing, downstream transportation and entry planning, automation of B2B transactions and tracking mail with partners including Truckload (TL), Less Than Load (LTL) Line Haul and USPS.
Services from Assurety: Licensed COTS Software Solution, Ideation, Visualization, Decision Support, Technical Design and Architecture.
Technologies: Microsoft .Net C#, MS SQL Server, WMIs web services APIS, MicroStrategy, Tableau, Power BI, Data Warehousing.
Clients – Multiple Large Marketers, Mailers, and Consolidators e.g., R. R. Donnelley, LSC Communications, Renkim, Nationwide Insurance, Access Mail Inc.
19. 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
