Postal Product Innovation and New Opportunities for Postal Commerce.
-
Upload
dustin-king -
Category
Documents
-
view
229 -
download
0
Transcript of Postal Product Innovation and New Opportunities for Postal Commerce.
Postal Product Innovation and New Opportunities for Postal
Commerce
2
USO Postal Operator
Electronic Substitution/Diversion
LiberalizationPostal Reform Operations driven
Optimized for efficient delivery of a few traditional products (minimum cost given required service quality)Rigid Cost structure, relatively high labor costRigid Infrastructure (expensive to change)Extensively regulated
3
• USO Postal Operator – ”The Postal Service must design and deliver products that meet customer needs in a
rapidly changing market. It must control costs to remain competitive.” USPS STP 2008
– Competing on cost/price and products• Private operators and carriers
– Competing on cost/price and products• Competing on the cost basis is conceptually straightforward
but difficult to execute given immutable constraints• Competing on the product basis is hard both conceptually
and operationally • How to compete on the product basis is the main purpose of
this talk
How to respond to competition?How to respond to competition?
4
5
Responding to competition: RM Responding to competition: RM
Luisa Fulci – Royal Mail (March 13, 2008)
6
There is no disagreement..There is no disagreement..
• All Posts and mailers agree: Postal product innovation is the key
• But how???
7
1. Designing new product2. Evaluating new product operational feasibility
Access requirements3. Evaluating new product economic feasibility
Costing and pricing4. Marketing and selling new product
Distribution channel Enabling access to new products
5. Production (delivering new product)Note:
– First three activities are essentially information gathering and processing
– Fourth activity can be viewed also as information processing– Production is a set of physical and information processing
activities that involves mail collection, induction, sorting, transportation, delivery and data services
What is postal product innovation?What is postal product innovation?
8
• If we make computers to play far more significant role in postal product innovation and consumption, we can substantially improve its quality and speed and product adoption by end users (mailers and recipients)
• How to make computers to play such role in product innovation?
• Hint: If we can only teach our computers the notion of “postal product” – what is the “postal product” from human and computer
perspectives?• Analysis of all known postal products (existing and
planned) reveals that they have a deep structure that can be formalized for computer consumption while preserving their essential human processability
• Postal product can be described as a collection of named attributes which have measurable values
• Postal product can be represented for computer consumption using modern mark-up language like XML
New approach New approach
9
Model Model
• Mail creation, induction, processing and delivery driven by standardized information interfaces between all parties involved
• Model to emulate: e-commerce
–ubiquitous computing
–connectivity
–information presentation standards (XML/HTML)
10
Structure of postal productStructure of postal product• Physical elements
– Physical parameters (dimensions, volume, density, material characteristics) and content (restricted for certain services)
– Geography of induction and geography of delivery– Priority & (where there are options) routing information– Timing and frequency of collection and delivery
• Information about– Events that occurred during mail item processing– Other mail items linked to the mail item being served – Objects linked to the mail item being served (box, signatory, …)– Other mail sent, received or replied to by sender or recipient
• Rules – Conditions imposed on physical and informational elements
(mail unit, mail unit content, mail unit attributes, money)• If (attribute x meets this condition) Then (do this)
– Remedies for when service could not be delivered as specified
11
Postal product access requirements Postal product access requirements
• Postal Product Access Requirements– Mail Item make up (data, format and
placement)– Computerized data to accompany mailing, its
timing, messaging and protocol requirements • (Statement of Mailing Submission, Manifest,
PostalOne documentation etc.)– Grouping and containerisation requirements
(pre-sort and mail unit packaging rules)– Pricing and payment requirements
• Rates and accounting rules– Validity period
12
What is EPPML?What is EPPML?
• Acronym for: Extensible Postal Product Model and Language
• EPPML delivers standardized definition of postal products – UPU and CEN TC 331 Standards
• A postal product expressed in EPPML:– Is an information object (for computers)– Can be represented by elements organized as an
extensible collection of measurable attributes– All postal products represented in EPPML have a
common structure across all carriers/posts (defined by EPPML standard schema)
13
Designing new productDesigning new product
• Postal product design must encompass and leverage collective customers’ knowledge rather than simply "marketing existing products to them".
14
Capturing mailer’s needs and constraints
Capturing mailer’s needs and constraints
Mailer Domain
Mailer’sNeeds and
Cons-traints(XML)
Mailer’sNeeds and
Cons-traints(XML)
<MailerNeeds xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=…... <MailerID>1234PB6789-... </MailerID>... <MailUnitAttribute> <Weight>6</Weight> </MailUnitAttribute>...</ MailerNeeds >
<MailerNeeds xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=…... <MailerID>1234PB6789-... </MailerID>... <MailUnitAttribute> <Weight>6</Weight> </MailUnitAttribute>...</ MailerNeeds >
Tracking
InductionEvery DayNone
InductionEvery DayNone
Chicago
Chicago
Mail Operations
Weight (Kg)6
Delivery TimeTuesday
Comm. owner
15
Post
Regulator
Postal Product Development
Operations
Recipient
Application for new product
(EPPML)
New Product Definition File
Operational Constraints
Application for new product
(EPPML)
Mailer Recipient
Mailer’s BusinessCommunication Requirements
New or Updated Carrier Products
Designing New Postal Product Designing New Postal Product
16
Evaluating new postal product operational feasibility with EPPML
Evaluating new postal product operational feasibility with EPPML
Postal Operator Domain
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
<PostalProduct xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=…... <UniqueProductID>CD12-9123-FFE5-912E-... </UniqueProductID>... <MailUnitAttributeConstraints> <AccessRequirements> <MailUnitPhysicalAttributes> <Weight>0-2</Weight> </MailUnitPhysicalAttributes> </AccessRequirements> </MailUnitAttributeConstraints>...</PostalProduct>
<PostalProduct xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=…... <UniqueProductID>CD12-9123-FFE5-912E-... </UniqueProductID>... <MailUnitAttributeConstraints> <AccessRequirements> <MailUnitPhysicalAttributes> <Weight>0-2</Weight> </MailUnitPhysicalAttributes> </AccessRequirements> </MailUnitAttributeConstraints>...</PostalProduct>
Weight Range
Induction0-30 Kg10-100 Kg
Induction0-30 Kg10-100 Kg
0-2 Kg
0-2 Kg Max. Transit Time
2 d5-7 d
2 d5-7 d
2 d
1 d2 d
marketing
Confirmation of events
InductionFirst processingDelivery
InductionFirst processingDelivery
InductionInduction
operations
Access Requirements
17
Evaluating new product economic feasibility with EPPML
Evaluating new product economic feasibility with EPPML
18
Creating mail with EPPML
Creating mail with EPPML
Mailer
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Mailer’sNeeds(XML)
Mailer’sNeeds(XML)
Post
Mailer’sConstraints
(XML)
Mailer’sConstraints
(XML)
Mail Production System
mail tray
Instructionsfor
Mail Production
(XML)
Instructionsfor
Mail Production
(XML)
19
Working in Concert
Working in Concert
PostMailer
UPU Server
product(XML)
product(XML)product
(XML)
New Products
New Mailing
schema(XML)schema
(XML)
schema(XML)
Cons
train
ts
XML CDI
mail traySMS Operations
Needs(XML)
product(XML)
product(XML)product
(XML)
Needs and Preferences
Instructions(XML)
20Mailer Domain Postal Domain
On-demand Postal ProductsOn-demand Postal Products
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product (XML)
Postal Product Management
Mailer’sNeeds(XML)
Mailer’sNeeds(XML)
Mailer’sConstraints
(XML)
Mailer’sConstraints
(XML)
Comm. owner
21
Benefits for PostsBenefits for Posts• Operations
– Improved quality of mail created by computer assisted systems (cost savings)
• Mail make up, Mail packaging, Statement of Mailing Submission (electronic manifest), Postal Revenue Protection Information
– Mailer and postal constraints can be automatically analyzed and incorporated into postal product design
– More information from mailers enables better:• Operations planning, Dynamic capacity management, Network
rationalization and process optimization• Marketing
– Demand-driven postal products– Product distribution using existing, well established and
understood electronic channels (Internet)– Individualized postal products for customers of any size
• Finance and governance– Distinguish market dominant vs. competitive products– Improved and accelerated cost accounting
22
SummarySummary• We explored a new vision for mail that extensively leverages
computers and Internet
– e-Postal commerce or EPPML-enabled mail
• e-Postal commerce offers unprecedented opportunities in postal product innovation
• By effectively integrating customers and Posts e-Postal commerce creates:
– new automated distribution channel for postal products
– mail provably consistent with postal products access requirements reducing operational cost for mailers and posts
– Virtual private channel between customers and Posts
• Challenges:
– cultural change to radical and open innovation
– rigidity of postal operations and infrastructure
– regulatory framework
• EPPML framework is complete and we are working on
• demonstrable hardware and software
• In discussions with Posts for potential pilots