U UNIVERSAL UP POSTAL UNION - Universal Postal … · CASE STUDY Australia 30 ... is a testament to the UPU’s capacity to turn a dream ... 20 years after its launch, continue to

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U UNIVERSALPOSTALUNION

Published by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Berne, Switzerland Printed in Switzerland by the printing services of the International Bureau of the UPU Copyright © 2016 Universal Postal Union All rights reserved Except as otherwise indicated, the copyright in this publication is owned by the Universal Postal Union. Reproduction is authorized for noncom-mercial purposes, subject to proper acknowledge-ment of the source. This authorization does not extend to any material identified in this publica-tion as being the copyright of a third party. Authorization to reproduce such third party mate-rials must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned. EDITORIAL TEAM: Pascale Stephenson and Arnaud Fourny SUPERVISION: Doris Holland ISBN 978-92-95025-86-8 TITLE: IPS 20 years PUBLISHED August, 2016

CONTACT: Universal Postal Union Postal Technology Centre Weltpoststrasse 4 3000 BERNE 15 SWITZERLAND PHONE: +41 31 350 31 11 FAX: +41 31 351 31 10 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: http://www.upu.int

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Table of ContentsUPU Director General 4UPU Director of Operations and Technology 6Telematics Cooperative Chairman 7PTC mail solutions 8What is IPS? 9

1996 2000 Early years 11

IN BRIEF... IPS’96, IPS version 2, IPS version 3, IPS version 3.5 12

A TALK WITH...Samuel Jabbour 14Shuji Obu 18Marcela Maron 22Chris Grosser 24Tan Yong Chee 26

Congress resolution PTC and IPS cornerstone 28

CASE STUDYAustralia 30India 32Tanzania (United Rep.) 34Mexico 36

2001 2005 Globalization 39

IN BRIEF...IPS version 4, IPS version 4.2 40

A TALK WITH...Glen Phillips 42

CASE STUDY Czech Rep. 44Australia 46Morocco 48Tanzania (United Rep.) 50

IN BRIEF... From Tulips to IPS Light 52

A TALK WITH...Stephen Clarke 54

CASE STUDY Barbados 56

2006 2010 Stability 59

IN BRIEF... IPS version 5 60

CASE STUDYIran (Islamic Rep.) 61

A TALK WITH... David Hamilton 62Maxime Burzlaff 64

REVIEW IPS 10th anniversary 66

CASE STUDY Canada 68France 70

2011 2016 Maturity 73

IN BRIEF... IPS version 5.11 74

CASE STUDYNew Zealand 75

IN BRIEF... IPS version 5.12, IPS 5.20 and IPS Light 3 (IPS.POST),IPS 2013,IPS 2014, IPS 2015 76QCS version 3 79Customs Declaration System – CDS 80

A TALK WITH... Mette Boisen 82Lati Matata 84David Avsec 86Harald Weyerich 88

PTC mail application: Users 90Acknowledgements 92

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UPU - International Postal System 20th anniversary

UPU Director General

Since its creation in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has always been at the forefront of changes in the postal sector. Pursuing the worthy cause of developing seamless postal communications across the globe, the UPU has served as a source of innovative solutions and a provider of products and services for the entire postal community.

The International Postal System (IPS), the 20th anniversary of which we are celebrating this year, is a testament to the UPU’s capacity to turn a dream – the single postal territory – into reality, thereby achieving the vision of a truly universal postal network.

What did it take to make that dream come true? In an environment in which technology, members’ needs, and communication methods change daily, why does IPS, 20 years after its launch, continue to be the go-to solution for the postal sector?

First, it took visionaries and pioneers – people who believed in the need to radically change the postal environment by sharing technology and products. It took people who were not afraid to tackle the most difficult challenges, whether technical or financial. And it took people who were guided by strong principles, such as those of universality, accessibility, adaptability and affordability. Those people had the vision to see that what the world postal network needed was a tool to facilitate postal globalization. That tool was IPS.

Second, it took the support of a dedicated structure and a team of highly trained, responsive and forward-thinking people. The Postal Technology Centre (PTC), the technology arm of the UPU, offers all of this and serves as the driving force behind IPS. The PTC ensures that IPS not only meets members’ needs, but also embraces

Mr Bishar A. HusseinDirector General of Universal Postal Union

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the most advanced technologies, such as mobile and cloud computing and big data systems, in order to adapt to and even anticipate changes in the postal sector.

Since its launch in 1996, IPS has evolved into a full-blown and integrated mail & logistics management system based on the electronic messaging standards of the UPU covering all aspects from EDI messaging, track&trace, accounting, air transport etc. including the integration with the UPU Customs Declaration System. IPS is the backbone of the global e-commerce ecosystem the UPU is building for Posts.

Developments to IPS, pushed by some of the largest Posts, are benefiting the entire UPU community. The ownership of IPS by all its users today in more than 170 countries, whether big or small, has been one of the keys to its success since 1996.

In 2016, our ambition for the UPU and the postal sector remains the same as the ambition of the pioneers who created IPS in 1996: to drive innovation and promote change to the benefit of the entire postal community.

Bishar A. Hussein

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UPU Director of Operations and Technology

The Telematics Cooperative, as a Postal Operations Council (POC) body and with the support of the Postal Technology Centre (PTC) of the UPU International Bureau (IB), has put a veritable constellation in place in the postal sky for UPU member countries over a period of 20 years. This constellation was built on a sturdy, international IT network: POST*Net.

These solutions covered diverse and varied areas, such as supervision of the international postal network, international accounting, money transfers, pre-customs clearance, quality control, etc.

Taking up the cosmic metaphor once more, one could say the formation of the constellation of postal solutions was the result of a Big Bang caused by a first planet that supplied all the energy for its future developments. That planet is named: The International Postal System (IPS).

Drawing a parallel between IPS and the Big Bang is not such an exaggeration. In fact, IPS, which was originally a tracking and tracing system for postal items, went on to set itself up as a full-fledged ecosystem around which other planets gravitate-planets such as: the Quality Control System (QCS) and PTC. IPS enabled the capture of information relating to events occurring all along the postal supply chain. Thanks to its million pieces of data per year, IPS supplies all the other systems with up-to-date information. In particular, this enables designated operators to automate their accounting processes, to conduct in-depth analyses for identifying poor-quality areas, and to better anticipate production highs.

In conclusion, I would like to wish IPS a happy and well-deserved 20th birthday, congratulate all those who contributed to this dream coming true, and salute the unwavering commitment of the PTC teams at the IB.

Abdel Ilah Bousseta

Mr Abdel Ilah BoussetaDirector of Operations and Technology of Universal Postal Union

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Telematics Cooperative Chairman

This year represents a landmark milestone for the Telematics Cooperative’s Universal Postal Union as it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the International Postal System (IPS), of the UPU’s Postal Technology Center (PTC). This renowned software program was the brainchild of a small group of visionaries who conceived a revolutionary idea to streamline and unify global postal operations. Originally a pilot program designed to benefit smaller Posts, IPS is now today’s standard operations platform, providing the tools and capabilities to manage the complete mail flow cycle. Used by over 170 countries around the world, the IPS family represents the superb efforts, vision and determination of its founding fathers and the PTC to bring about a product that has revolutionized the postal sector.

To commemorate the last twenty years, this book gathers insights and perspectives of just some of the people involved. Although not everyone was available to take part in the making of this book, their contributions to the evolution of IPS are nonetheless critical to its success. Inside, you will find a collection of interviews, previously published case studies and Tec Reviews spanning the years from 1996 to today.

It is my pleasure to share with you the amazing stories behind IPS and I hope they will inspire you to continue the path of innovation that began twenty years ago.

Giovanni Brardinoni

Mr Giovanni BrardinoniStandards and International Projects, Co-Chair UPU POC C4, Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative

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PTC mail solutions

IPSINTERNATIONAL POSTAL SYSTEMMail management systemClient/server application hosted by the Posts

PIMS POSTAL IRREGULARITIES MANAGEMENT SYSTEMManagement of verification notes (VN) and electronic verification notes (eVN)

PNGPOST*NET GATEWAYEDI ExchangeTool for exchanging EDI in POST*Net (UPU EDI Network)

CDSCUSTOMS DECLARATION SYSTEMManagement of customs declarations by both the Posts and Customs

QCSQUALITY CONTROL SYSTEMWeb-based application that generates statistics about the quality of mail operations

IPS.POST Mail management systemfor small volumes of mailCloud application hosted by the PTC

RAISREGISTERED ARTICLES INQUIRY SYSTEMManagement of inquiries (CN 08)

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What is IPS?

END-TO-END MAIL MANAGEMENTIPS is designed to provide end-to-end management for all types of international mail.

EXCHANGE OF ELECTRONIC MESSAGES & UPU STANDARDSIPS improves the speed and accuracy of information, the automation of operations and the exchange of electronic messages. IPS supports all UPU-approved standards for EDI messaging, bar coding, and mail identification and tracking. IPS always implements the latest UPU standards and regulation changes.

INTERFACEPosts can easily interface IPS with their own systems.

MANAGEMENT Management screens allow countries to administer all the national and local databases and maintain information such as flight schedules, routing plans, and EDI scheduling.

TRACKING AND INQUIRY The tracking and inquiry features in IPS allow postal enterprises to monitor the delivery process of all identified mail items such as EMS, parcels, registered and insured mail. The management features provide system administrators, at both the national and local level, with a means to monitor and maintain vital operational parameters, such as flight schedules, routing plans, and office codes.

ACCOUNTINGIPS handles the full accounting process, with terminal dues, air conveyance dues, transit charges and airline accounting. IPS also generates monthly and quarterly statements.

IPS helps increase operational efficiency and provides tighter control of domestic and international mail

movement along the supply chain.

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UPU - International Postal System 20th anniversary1

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1996 2000Early years

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History Born from a requirement from Posts for a “generic” mail application Developed in close collaboration with an external software house (France) Initially available in English

Features & improvements Enhanced MDS (Mail Distribution System) functionality.

MDS: “Gift” from German Post in 1994, to enable early deployment of an EDI-capable mail management application. Functions: Generation and management of dispatches and documentation for letters and parcels, with EMS module additionally permitting capture of item tracking events.

Easily localizable into other languages. The PTC has full control over development and maintenance since it owns the

source code “Open” architecture: administrations can interface easily with their own systems

In brief...IPS’96 (1996)

Features & improvements Container processing has been added Letter, Parcel, Inner Bag and Container processing for AIR and SAL

conveyances has been added EDI Services can handle and generate TRAKIT messages

IPS version 2 (1997)

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Features & improvements Air mail transport scheduling Automatic preparation of standard UPU labels and documentation Item and receptacle bar-coding International bi-directional EDI messaging with other postal enterprises and

air carriers EMS, parcel and registered mail tracking and inquiry capabilities at item,

receptacle, dispatch and consignment level

IPS version 3 (1999)

TrackingIPS allows operators to conduct enquiries on individual items and receptacles, reporting both local mail events and those retrieved from EDI messages sent by partner countries, and to generate on-the-spot proofs of delivery and reports for customers.

IPS version 3.5 (2000)Originally published in POST*Info 1 1st quarter 2000

IPS infrastructureThe incorporation of reliable peripheral technologies, such as fixed and portable barcode scanners and fast laser printers, guarantees a swift and efficient man-machine interface, reduces the need to enter data manually, and hugely reduces handling and data capture errors.

Speed up productionOperationally, Posts install IPS to help speed up the flow of mail through their facilities, to speed up the production of dispatch and transport documents, and to exchange EDI messages with their delivery partners. Mail processing efficiency is radically improved - in one documented case, using IPS was an average of almost 80% faster than using existing manual procedures. IPS can also be a major contributory factor in improving the reliability of international mail movements along the transport chain.

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A talk with... Samuel Jabbour

Many individuals contributed with their vision and effort in helping shape what became IPS’96. I would like to take this opportunity to mention some of them, particularly those whose support helped me and my colleagues in the PTC make IPS a reality.

I would like to recognize first Adwaldo Cardoso Botto de Barros, Director Gen-eral of the International Bureau of the UPU.

I vividly remember our first meeting in his office on 26 November 1992. What started as a polite “interview” rapidly

evolved into a warm and intense dis-cussion, sharing experiences and anec-dotes. Later in our meeting I could see the sadness and disappointment in the Director General’s expression. He told me that this was his second and last term as DG and his greatest regret ‘will be going to the Seoul Congress in 1994 with nothing concrete that would help Postal Organizations modernize and compete’. He mentioned EMS and how inadequately Posts were performing against their major competitors, and losing one of the most profitable prod-ucts of the postal business, particularly in developing countries. His last words

Mr Samuel JabbourFirst Director of PTC from 1993 to 2001

The development of the International Postal System (IPS) was one

of the most fascinating experiences during my tenure with the

UPU. It started as an idea whose aim was to help postal enterprises

improve their international operations and compete more effectively.

That objective was achieved with the help of IPS, a state of the art,

community based solution, adopted and implemented by over 100

postal enterprises worldwide.

“Mr Jabbour, I wish I could

only go to Seoul with an

application and give it to

the Posts and tell them to

use it to better manage

their EMS business. Can

you help me make such an

application? ”

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when I was leaving his office were full of hope, ‘Mr Jabbour, I wish I could only go to Seoul with a diskette in my hand, an application, any application, and give it to the Posts and tell them to use it to better manage their EMS business. Can you help me make such an appli-cation? I don’t want to retire next year with the regret that I haven’t achieved my greatest ambition as Director Gen-eral.’

The second person that made an im-mense impact on the UPU’s ability to develop IPS is Mr Kobo Inamura, then Director of the International Affairs Di-vision within Japan’s Postal Bureau.

Shortly after I joined the International Bureau, Mr Botto de Barros invited me to attend a lunch-work meeting with Mr Inamura and his staff at the Sternen restaurant in Muri. That meeting helped me understand the importance of EMS and parcels for the postal business and the importance of regional and international coopera-tion to achieve a better delivery service.

We exchanged ideas and it became ob-vious that we needed more than stand-ards; we needed a technology solution based on applications and communi-cations infrastructure designed to fa-cilitate the end-to-end processing and tracking and tracing of postal items. We agreed that EMS was a priority that would be followed by other postal products covering the entire range of postal services.

Japan Post indicated that it would help finance the development and deploy-ment of the initial EMS phase.The IPS idea was launched.

I would like to recognize Mr Inamura and his successors as Directors of Inter-national Affairs, Mr Toru Azumi and Mr Shuji Obu. I would like to acknowledge as well Mr Akio Miaji who participated in that meeting at the Sternen restau-rant and was a constant guide to me and my team in the years that followed. Throughout the years of design, devel-opment and deployment of IPS, Japan Post was a driving force, supporter, and

contributor without which IPS may not have been a reality.

The development of IPS was a chal-lenge to the small group of individuals that I lead at the International Bureau. Despite the immense talent and capa-bilities of the team we lacked detailed specifications, resources to develop the solutions and, above all, we lacked the specific knowledge of the day-to-day operations in postal offices and ex-changes.

We needed to achieve two conflicting objectives.

We wanted to deliver a solution for the 1994 Seoul Congress to demonstrate to the Posts that solutions were forth-coming. We also needed time to devel-op our functional skills in order to build the best possible solution for the Posts.

Several postal enterprises were gra-cious enough to offer us solutions that we could adopt and deploy. I would like to recognize the French Post and particularly Mr Francis Migone and Mr Edouard Dayan, and the German Post and particularly Mr Uwe Dorken and Mr Herbert Zapf. The solutions were obviously designed to meet the nation-al requirements of each Post, including what we refer to as ‘localization’, such as the language and the use of specific printing and scanning devices. As with every choice, there were advantages and challenges.

After consultation with various stake-holders, we adopted the German Post solution that we renamed Mail Distri-bution System or MDS.

MDS allowed us to achieve several ob-jectives, namely adapt it for rapid de-ployment, use it to help us through our own operational learning curve, and demonstrate such capabilities at the Seoul Congress. What MDS lacked how-ever was the ability to process EMS and track and trace items internationally. The need for IPS became more evident.

“We exchanged ideas and

it became obvious that

we needed more than

standards.“

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Several postal enterprises worldwide in-vited us to visit and acquire the skills we needed by monitoring and understanding their specific operations. Although we noted synergies in processing methods, we also noted the specificity of each Post, mainly in relation to organisational issues and technology platforms that they could support.

The Seoul Congress was a tremendous success and demonstrated the strong interest and support from the majority of postal enterprises. Their views and suggestions helped us consolidate our plans. By the end of 1994, we were ready to engage in the development of IPS.

I would like at this stage to recognize the tremendous contribution of Aus-tralia Post, and specifically Mr Chris Grosser, Mr Sam Curro, and Mr Glen Phillips.

Australia Post committed to help us develop the IPS specifications, act as a pilot for its deployment and help us test the solution before deploying it on a larger scale, and last but not least, contribute financially to the cost of the development.

After a tendering process, we retained the services of a company called Praxis, based in the South of France, to help us develop the software. Their techno-logical skills and their ability to rapidly adapt to our needs were critical to the success of IPS. I would like to recognize Mr Francois-Marc Levointurier Vajda, Mr Claude Guillemin, Mr David Avsec, Ms Cecile Colombet, and Mr Jean Marc Coeffic who were the initial core team that developed IPS and later joined the Postal Technology Centre. Their contri-bution made IPS and the PTC the suc-cesses that they are today. They were later joined by Marilia Carvalho and Lati Matata, the father of IPS Quality of Service.

Another person that made outstand-ing contributions to IPS development and deployment is Ms Christiane Hervé from La Poste, France.

She was instrumental in gathering sup-port for the IPS initiative and its adoption and implementation by several postal enterprises. She was a key driver and supporter of the establishment of a for-mal structure to support IPS specifically, and the PTC activities in general, later known as the Telematics Cooperative.

“It would be fair to call

the development of IPS a

pioneering project in many

ways.“

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It would be fair to call the development of IPS a pioneering project in many ways.

It was the first initiative by the UPU aimed at facilitating common and shared technological solutions between Posts; common use, joint funding, and sharing knowledge and experience in a specific operational area. It was a mo-tivation to develop similar solutions for other aspects of postal operations such as Quality of Service and International Financial Services. Above all it was an inspiration for Posts to share their oper-ational requirements and identify com-mon solutions in several other areas. The creation of the Telematics Cooper-ative in 1995, with membership start-ing in January 1996, was the formal manifestation of such ambition.

The first version of IPS development was released and its first deployment occurred in 1996, hence its initial nam-ing (the first version was called IPS’96).

Its development continued and its de-ployment accelerated and expanded worldwide. I had the privilege of vis-iting most of the Posts that adopted IPS at the time, observing its operation in offices and exchanges, and sharing

with the Posts their experience with its use and ideas for its betterment.

IPS was put on display as a mature ap-plication, adopted and used then by several Posts, during the Beijing Con-gress in 1999.

It was extremely rewarding to observe the support of the Posts using it and the anticipation of Posts planning on using it. Maybe the most rewarding visit was that of DHL, who visited the PTC stand two days in a row and told us how im-pressed they were with its features. In-terestingly, they asked if they could use IPS within DHL. The thought that went through my mind at that time was that the expectations of all the persons I mentioned above were finally a reality.

I am sure I missed many people who made contributions to the IPS story, its development, deployment, and its con-tinuous support. I would be however remiss if I did not acknowledge the in-valuable contribution of PTC staff such as Pierre Hofmann, Michaela Manta, Thierry Duverger, Fabrice Navez, Rich-ard Emmenegger, and others that were instrumental in facilitating the exchange of messages between Posts

through POST*Net, and fulfilling mul-tiple tasks associated with the deploy-ment and administration of IPS.

“The development of IPS

was an inspiration for Posts

to share their operational

requirements and identify

common solutions.“

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A talk with... Shuji Obu

“Japan Post was instrumental in bringing about the development of the IPS system as a means of introducing a tracking sys-tem into EMS,” said Mr Obu. “In 1996, IPS made its debut with version 1.0 which, at the time, was only applicable in Japan.”

As a matter of fact, according to Mr Obu, only a few countries adopted IPS in its early stages. Although it was widely rec-ognized that much had to be done to compete with large integrators such as UPS, DHL and FedEx, Mr Obu claims it was not easy to convince the large posts to implement IPS since it required changes to long-established, complicated internal

systems. IPS was ideal for small developing countries as it was a cost-effective solution to many EMS challenges.

However, IPS quickly gained popularity. During his term as IMS UG Chairman, Mr Obu not only led the Japanese delegation, but he also served as a board member of the EMS cooperative. This, of course, put him in a position to campaign about the importance of EMS in order for member posts to stay competitive against compa-nies such as DHL and UPS, while facilitat-ing improvements to the IPS system.“Member posts were not always so capa-ble to apply IPS so smoothly,” claims Mr

Mr Shuji Obu,First Chairman of IMS UG: 1997-2000Current position: Senior Executive Officer of Japan Post

It has been many years since Mr Shuji Obu took the lead for the International

Mail Services User Group (IMS UG) - 19 years, to be exact. As the group’s

first chairman from 1997-2000, Mr Obu, along with representatives from

the United States, United Arab Emirates, France and Tanzania, established

the IMS UG as a forum to facilitate further development and improvement

of the International Postal System (IPS), a tool that had just recently been

introduced at the time and held a lot of promise for the UPU.

“E-commerce brings new

opportunities

and challenges for posts

to catch up”

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Obu. “There was a lot of effort put in by UPU staff and sometimes there were de-lays [in implementation]. Overall, the chal-lenges were not so big because member countries made the effort to adopt [the system].”

Today, over 100 countries currently use IPS and the EMS cooperative boasts more than 170 members. Mr Obu proudly rec-ognizes the efforts of the PTC in the suc-cess of IPS, noting that developers have done an excellent job in expanding the original scope of the system which can now interface with customs and quality control.

In the year 2000, Mr Obu resigned from his position as IMS UG Chairman because of changes in his role within the Japanese ministry. He has fond memories of the re-lationships he developed with other UPU member posts, especially Australia Post, claiming that his leadership was warmly welcomed by his counterparts. Almost 20 years after he originally took the role of Chairman, Mr Obu recognizes that the postal environment has undergone dra-matic changes.“E-commerce brings new opportunities and challenges for posts to catch up,” Mr Obu said in closing. “I hope that the UPU,

as a whole, will facilitate faster develop-ment of the technology. It’s a big chance, but it’s also a big challenge. UPU must do everything to meet the needs of cross-bor-der E-commerce customers - that is the most important thing.”

Phot

o: IN

TERP

IXEL

S

Tokyo, Japan

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October 1997

Telematics Cooperative Foster exchanges

International Mail Services User Group

Mr Obu of Japan, Chairman of the User Group, presented a summary of the work carried out or planned. Development of the IPS applications available:

improvement of the operational EMS module and airmail module in tests development of additional modules: surface mail, quality control, etc integration of or interfacing with new applications compatible with IPS’96 customer information system

Discussion

Australia announced that an accounting application for terminal dues was avail-able, developed as part of its responsibilities within POC Committee 8 (Modern-ization).

The application was compatible with IPS’96 as both were developed on the same technical platform. In addition, an interface software programme be-tween the accounting application and IPS’96 was also being developed. The plan was to tum over the entire system to the UPU by year’s end so that it could be made available to the relevant postal administrations.

Mr Leavey, Director-General, said that during visits to offices of exchange, he had noted irregular EMS transmission times resulting from a lack of effective monitor-ing and checks of carriers. Similarly, numerous verification notes had accumulated and remained unusable. The Director-General stressed the urgency of bolstering the use of this application as a means of measuring and significantly improving the quality of service, the failure of which would lead to loss of customers.

Extract of the report of the first Cooperative Telematics General Assembly

Berne, 10 October 1997

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21Telematics Cooperative, General Assembly, UPU Headquarter, Berne, 2013

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A talk with... Marcela Maron

In late 1996, after hearing about a new tool being tested by the UPU that could pose significant benefits for EMS, Marcela traveled to Bern, Switzerland, to learn about a new EMS tool called the International Postal System (IPS). She returned to Latin America excit-ed about the possibility of improving Argentina’s EMS and becoming more competitive in the market.

Although she faced some resistance in her initial presentation, the management at Correo Argentino eventually agreed to proceed with the project of implement-ing IPS. So in September 1996, Marcela reached out to Sam Jabbour and Chris Harrison in the IT department of the

UPU, eager to initiate the installation of this revolutionary new system.

“I called Sam in September 1996 and said that we needed IPS online by December”, Marcela recalled. “Sam told me that they only had a pilot and that they really didn’t have a system, but I told him we needed it.”

So with the support of twelve team mem-bers, including Chris Harrison and the technical team at UPU, Marcela led the charge to bring IPS online in Argentina by October 1996 - two months ahead of the original schedule. Marcela proudly claims, and rightfully so, that Argentina was key in the development of IPS.

Ms Marcela MaronCurrent position: President of the Consulting Committee of the UPU

When Marcela Maron first joined Correo Argentino over 20 years

ago, the organization was in the process of privatization. In her role

as Manager for international accounts, Ms Maron recognized the

importance of being involved in the UPU’s EMS cooperative and

implementing a tool to help compete with larger express service

groups. Little did she know that she would then take part in one of the

most challenging yet rewarding projects of her career.

“All the members

of the team knew

we were making history”

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Argentina’s first customer to be inducted into the newly implemented system was a law firm which required the overnight transport of important legal documents between Argentina and Uruguay. “We put a person working 24 hours in Bue-nos Aires Correo Argentino, and a person working 24 hours in Montevideo Correo Uruguay to be sure that the documents would be on time,” said Marcela. “Real-ly, I have two children and [IPS] was my first child. It was the best experience of my career.”

When asked to recall some of the most memorable moments during the one-month implementation process, Marcela compared the experience to being part of

a soccer team. Her tight group of twelve people worked together to motivate one another, making coffee for each other and cheering each other on, many times, until 1:00am in the morning.

“All the members of the team knew we were making history,” Marcela proudly states. Although she admits there were many moments of self-doubt, she does not regret one second of that exciting time.

Twenty years later, as President of the Consulting Committee of the UPU, Marcela Maron has a clear perspective on the role IPS plays in today’s postal sector. She applauds the new IPS.post platform

and believes that it will help in building a more efficient overall network for e-com-merce, which she views as the biggest challenge to the postal sector.

“We need to be clear that IPS is a tool, it is not a solution to the network. We need a network working efficiently,” Marcela stresses. “IPS is the best tool to [provide] support to the postal network, but it is not a solution to all the problems. Of course, we need to give all of our sup-port for IPS, but we need to be clear that it is a tool.”

Phot

o: C

elso

Din

iz

Buenos Aires, Argentina

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A talk with... Chris Grosser

During his successful career with AP which began in 1976, Chris led both strategic and short term planning groups and eventually took over the product marketing portfolio where he assisted in the restructuring of the business into separate product groups: parcels, letters, international and agency services. In the 1980’s, his expertise enabled him to manage the letters division which

was, at the time, the core business unit of Australia Post. Even then, following a consultant’s report into the long term growth expectations for postal services, Chris knew full well that there eventually would be a downturn in letter volumes, as computers and electronic communi-cation increasingly became the standard platforms for communication across the globe.

Mr Chris GrosserChairman of IMS UG: 2001 - 2005Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative: 2005 - 2009Current position: Retired since 2010, but still active with the UPU

Although Chris Grosser officially retired from Australia Post in 2010, he

still remains active with the UPU and continues to serve as a consultant

and advisor. Chris originally graduated from Sydney university studies as

a biochemist/chemist in the early 1970’s and then went to work in the

Australian research laboratory of Dulux Paints, one of the world’s largest

paint manufacturers.

Soon after, he went back to university to obtain his Masters of Administration

(M Admin) degree where, as fate would have it, he met a senior finance

executive from the Postmaster General’s Department, which would soon

transition through the separation of posts and telecommunications to

Australia Post (AP) and Telecom Australia.

This later led to a phone call from Australia Post which ultimately convinced

him to leave the private sector … and he never looked backed.

“The dream of over

20 years ago has come

to fruition”

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In 1991, his experience and in-depth knowledge of operations, marketing, planning and strategic directions led Chris to take on the international busi-ness division, worth an estimated $0.4 billion at the time, and was considered to be the most complex business unit of Australia Post, embracing both domestic and international contracts, agreements, services and customers.

“It was difficult because we were not not only dealing with our own people, local customers and our own country for take-up and delivery of services, we had to work with and serve postal adminis-trations (international customers) across the globe” said Chris. “And this was the original reason the UPU came about, because it was the forum that could tie all the various posts into a harmonised universal operation.”

He emphasised how the posts faced increasing difficulties and challenges in the 1990’s posed by growing global competitors such as DHL, FedEx, UPS and TNT. Chris quickly realised, after joining the international business group, that there was a serious lack of information concerning the post’s mail processing and delivery processes in providing inter-national services.

“Some of the mail would go missing, some of the mail would go off-route; loss of mail was a serious issue,” recalled Chris. “We weren’t able to give custom-ers feedback to let them know if their parcel had been delivered. We didn’t

have an information system that could tell people that we had completed the service for which they had paid us.”

Before the genesis of IPS, an electronic messaging and communication sys-tem was in its infancy with the larger and more developed posts of Western Europe. Australia Post, given its large volume of express items and internation-al mail, was in desperate need of a com-prehensive and streamlined system that could assist in managing the flow of mail through its gates and between the air-lines, other transport modes, border con-trol authorities and other posts. The cost of a standalone system was huge and would entail costly maintenance without adding benefit to those posts that were not in a position to invest in a compre-hensive IT development. This led Chris, in conversation with Sam Jabbour (then of the UPU’s Technology Centre) and Sam Curro (Australia Post) in Singapore, to dis-cuss the possible development of a global information system which would connect all of the various posts and resolve exist-ing issues in the exchange of information concerning postal despatches and items.

What was lacking, however, was the seed money to launch such a project within the UPU. With the prospect in sight, Chris managed to convince both the Deputy MD (Bob Ludlow) and Managing Director of Australia Post (Graeme John) to ad-vance an initial investment of $0.5 million Australian Dollars to start the ball rolling. This in time would prove to be a most val-uable decision with significant paybacks

for the postal community. Without it, the posts may have lost a major slice of their market share and remained poorly positioned to offer comprehensive inter-national services to the developing global e-commerce market.

“We imagined a comprehensive system for use by posts and the UPU which would embrace postal functions in the handling, despatch, transport, receipt and delivery of mails across the posts, transport operators and border agen-cies” said Chris. “Additionally, it would be available in a form so that alternative languages could be displayed on all screens. We were talking about a global system that could enable any country to see the screens in their language, and that was the task that lay ahead for Sam Jabbour – not only to design the system with Australia Post’s dedicated assistance, but also to ensure its flexibility in design for use in all countries.”

From a fledgling startup but with this global vision, the system was aptly named the ‘International Postal System’ during its development phase. Indeed, IPS is now an essential and critical sys-tem used by some 170 posts around the globe offering its operators enhanced tools to streamline communication, pro-cessing, despatch and item tracking and performance information.

“The dream of over 20 years ago has come to fruition” Chris proudly stated. “My only regret is that it took this long.”

26


A talk with... Tan Yong Chee

General experience 20 years ago

The name of the IPS system at that time was IPS’96, first launched in the year 1996 as version 1.6. At first, the countries in the Asia Pacific region implemented IPS’96 only for its EMS service and they were exchanging EDI messages that began with item level message EMSEVT V1 using POST*Star Secure Gateway (PSSG) via POST*Net (a virtual network using the SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) network). Most of them were using a 56kbps dialup MODEM connecting to the POST*Net network.

During that time, the hardware speci-fication was slow and expensive. CPU speed was running at 512 MHz with 128MB RAM, and the cost of a Small Computer System Interface (SCSCI) hard disk of 1 GB was between $1000 USD and $1500 USD. The software used was Microsoft Windows NT 3.51

Mr Tan Yong CheeManager Regional Technical Centre Asia Pacific (RTCAP)

I would like to share my general experience in IPS implementation 20

years ago and today.

and SQL Server 6.5. Tape devices were used to back up the database, one tape for a week, 4 tapes for a month.

“Not only were the hardware and network speed slow, but the staff of the countries implementing IPS’96 were not familiar with computers,” said Mr Tan Yong Chee, Manager of the Regional Technical Centre for Asia Pacific. “When they moved the mouse to the edge of the table, they did not know what to do next; they did not know where to locate the ’Esc‘ or ’Enter‘ key on the keyboard; they would hold the laser scanner with their hand shaking.”

Besides the hardware and network constraints, most countries were not technically staffed with IPS System Administrators or equipped with Windows administration, database administration and network adminis-tration skills.

“The customer service staff

could easily make

an enquiry into an item

at the touch of a finger”

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They were also not operationally ready: they were neither familiar with the mail operations nor did they understand the postal terminology such as ‘item’, ‘re-ceptacle’, ‘dispatch’, ‘consignment and EDI events (EMA, …, EMH and EMI), etc.

In the end, Mr Tan Yong Chee admits, “It was a great challenge to implement the IPS system at that time. After all the hard work and effort from the IPS implementing team, we had seen great improvement in the operations for EMS service in the country. The operation staff did not have to spend longer time to fill up the receptacle manifest form. With a click of mouse, the bag label was printed and the receptacle manifest form was clearly printed with all the item numbers scanned into the receptacle. The customer service staff could easily make an enquiry into an item at the touch of a finger.”

General experience as of today

The hardware and software have im-proved tremendously over the years. Quad core GHz 64 bit CPU with 8 GB or greater RAM and 500 GB (or greater) hard disk, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012, and SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2012.

The connection to POST*Net is using POST*Net Gateway (PNG) via Internet using SFTP or FTPS via high speed (more than 1 GB) Internet connection provid-ed by the local network provider.The staff of the countries implementing IPS are now computer literate and tech-nically trained. They have upgraded their IPS to the latest IPS version (IPS 2013 and above), and extended the use of IPS from EMS to Parcels and Letters services and the accounting module. They have extend-ed the exchange of EDI from item level to dispatch and consignment level,

from EMSEVT V1 to EMSEVT V3, and from PREDES 2.0 to PREDES 2.1. Many have also interfaced IPS with their own domestic applications.

“My great satisfaction in serving the IPS countries in the Asia Pacific region is to see them not only receiving UPU cer-tifications and awards, but also seeing them providing excellent customer ser-vice to their customers,” says Mr Chee

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Congress resolution PTC and IPS cornerstone

UPU activities in the field of EDI, 1995-1999

Congress,

Recalling the Washington Congress resolutions aimed at introducing telematics in the Union,

Noting that a telematics project has been established in the UPU, consisting, in particular, of a global postal telecommunication network and associated network services, for the benefit of all postal enterprises,

Convinced that this telematics project will make it possible to considerably speed up activities designed to improve telematic communication facilities between postal enterprises, reducing the technological gap between them, and raising the quality of global postal services and to facilitate expansion of existing products and the creation of new products,

Instructs the International Bureau to maintain the EDI Development Unit as a busi-ness unit under the authority of the Director-General of the International Bureau and with responsibility for conducting the telematics project in an efficient and flexible manner and according to the principles and objec-tives approved by the Postal Operations Council.

Extract of Resolution C 27 /Seoul 1994

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Future organization of the telematics activities

Congress,

Noting that a Telematics Cooperative has been established within the POC with the goal of developing synergies between Posts and stimulating the de-velopment of the postal service through the use of modem technologies,

Convinced that the Telematics Cooperative will make it possible to considerably speed up the introduction of telematics and other technologies designed to improve communications between Posts, to reduce the technology gap between them and other market players, to raise the quality of the global postal service and facilitate the expansion of current services and the de-velopment of new ones,

Charges the Telematics Cooperative, under the Postal Operations Council to as-sume competence for all strategic, operational, technical and economic matters concerning telematics, having authority to make and amend telematics recommendations and operational standards for telematics activities;

Instructs the International Bureau to maintain the Postal Technology Centre as a service provider with responsibility for carrying out the implementation of the strategies approved by Congress and the Telematics Cooperative in the field of telematics and technology;

Extract of Resolution C 52/Beljing 1999

UPU Congress Beijing

30


2000

Case studyAustralia Post keeps track using IPS

Since 1994, Australia Post has worked with the Universal Postal Union

(UPU) to realise a shared vision of developing a global computer system

to record, track and manage the movement of international mail.

That vision became a reality in the form of the International Postal

System (IPS) application.

In Australia, IPS captures and records the outbound movements of every international parcel, express, insured and registered item. The system also enables tracking of inbound and out-bound EMS International Courier items, interfacing with systems used by other postal administrations and courier com-panies.

Australia Post’s Group Manager, International, Chris Grosser, says the idea for the system was well ahead of its time. ‘’In 1994 we decided we needed a sys-tem to electronically record internation-al mail and we recognised that global systems are the way of the future,’’ Chris explains. Australia Post became the first postal enterprise in the world

to install the system, in May 1998. IPS changes international mail from a labour intensive, paper environment to a mostly automated, electronic data process. The system attaches a bar-code to international dispatches and this enables automatic documentation processing and instant tracking of mail items. Peter Thain, National Manager, Air Linehaul for Australia Post, says the introduction of IPS has streamlined the relationship between Australia Post and its main international carrier, Qantas.

‘’It means we can be proactive in our planning with the airline because they know how much mail they are going to get for a particular destination before the mail arrives at the terminal,’’ Peter says. ‘’Details of our route plan and the

Originally published in POST*Info 22nd quarter 2000

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associated costs for parcel delivery are built into IPS, so this system has elim-inated the paper war that we used to have with our carriers.’’

IPS also produces daily, weekly and monthly reports on international mail volumes, so Australia Post’s manage-ment is always up-to-date on the lat-est mail trends. Another advantage of the system is its ability to reduce the time-consuming and costly paper trail flowing between national postal enter-prises.

Glen Phillips, Project Manager of IPS at Australia Post, says IPS is a very easy-to-use, sensible system thanks to the work of the ‘’highly responsive’’ team at the UPU in Switzerland.

‘’Once you’ve got a centralised system in place that most postal enterprises are using, the spin-off benefits are pro-found,’’ Glen explains.

According to Chris Grosser, the real advantages of IPS will only be properly recognised when more overseas postal enterprises install the system. ‘’It’s a very sophisticated system,’’ he says. ‘’Its potential is still to be realised.’’

Melbourne, Australia

25 usersIn 2000, IPS was installed in 25 postal

enterprises worldwide, including Argentina, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, In-

donesia, Macao, Morocco, Mauritius, Poland, Senegal, Tanzania, Turkey

and Yemen.

+20 usersIn 2000, projects were underway

for the installation of IPS in over 20 additional postal enterprises.

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2000

Case studyIndia Post’s IPS “the lived experience”

The need for a track and trace system for international EMS has been

felt from the day the service was introduced in India in 1986. The

first step in this direction was taken when Mr Vinod Dhamija, Deputy

Director General, India Post, persuaded the Postal Technology Centre to

implement IPS in India.

In 2000, India had four OEs, located in New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai, that handle international EMS items. IPS, there-fore, had to be implemented at these four sites for track and trace of international EMS items.

The process began in 1996 with a site sur-vey in New Delhi in May 1996. The com-plexities of the task were such that the final project report by Regional Support Centre for Asia Pacific (RSCAP) was finished until 1997.

The implementation began with the setting up of IPS in New Delhi in August 1998. Initially, the project was carried out on an experimental basis and EMS items for only four countries were processed. Subsequently, in May 1999, we began the processing of all international EMS items.

IPS was implemented in Mumbai in September 1999. In January 2000, Mumbai went on-line with two-way connectivity to POST*Net. Due to compact and stream-lined methods, our operators have found IPS to be extremely user-friendly.

The support from PTC and RSCAP in our endeavor is praiseworthy. The constant feedback from RSCAP has helped us in improving our performance.

The success of IPS has been largely due to meticulously planned activities that took care of finance, staff selection, training, site preparation, procurement of equipment etc.

Originally published in POST*Info 33rd quarter 2000

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New Delhi, India

IN 2000 INDIA HAD FOUR OES, LOCATED IN NEW DELHI, MUMBAI,

CALCUTTA AND CHENNAI, THAT HANDLE INTERNATIONAL EMS

ITEMS.

New Delhi

MumbaiCalcutta

Chennai

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2000

Case studyTanzania Posts Corporation tracks with IPS

Tanzania Posts Corporation (TPC) in its focused efforts to cope with

ever-growing courier competition in the international courier services

market, as well as positioning itself strategically in meeting new

demands from transnational and cross-border companies, with branch

offices in Tanzania, decided in 1996 to connect to POST*Net, so as to

be able to use the International Postal Systems (IPS) applications to

track international EMS courier items.

One of the enshrined Tanzania Posts Corporation management strategies to combat challenges from competition has been to focus on customer care and provision of a High Quality Postal Service. ‘’ Our customers have always demanded better services including after-sales infor-mation especially in the courier services, postal financial services (Money Orders and EMS-Moneyfax) and registration and parcel service.‘’

The demand for tracking facilities has also been registered by customers, particularly

by those who send/receive international items regularly. TPC, which boasts their motto of listening to what customers say, embarked on the IPS (POST*Net) project confidently and by July 1997 it was con-nected to the global network coordinated and managed by the Postal Technology Centre, because of its future potential (the possibility of being interlinked with all correspondent postal administrations with which Tanzania exchanges EMS courier items, parcels and mail in general).

Originally published in POST*Info 3 3rd quarter 2000

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Tanzania Posts Corporation started using IPS in July 1997, for EMS International items only. After a six-month trial period, it started live connections with Singapore and test trials with the USA.

In December 1998, the mails section of the Dar es Salaam Office of Exchange (letters and parcels) started using the sys-tem, exchanging information with other countries through the EDI process. The system installed in the Office of Exchange in Dar es Salaam General Post Office is connected to several countries which include: USA, Great Britain, Japan, Singa-pore, Switzerland, Denmark, Cuba Eritrea and Ireland.

The use of IPS in tracking and tracing EMS items at TPC has been of much benefit, as it replaces the costly use of telephone services for international letter inquiries. Since it started operations, the speed of processing international EMS and mails

despatches and delivery has improved and little time is spent on tracking and tracing inquiry of customer items. Indeed, produc-tivity per employee has increased as well while service quality has enhanced.

Another beneficial fact is that the manual time-consuming procedures have been minimized, thus maintaining optimum staffing levels. It has become relatively easy to prepare reports and statistical figures of outbound and inbound mail items per day, per month and even per year can be easily obtained from the system in place.

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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (United Rep.)

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2000

Case studySepomex goes to the forefront with IPS installation

In 2000, Servicio Postal Mexicano (Sepomex) implemented a

modernization program that was focused on improving the efficiency

of its domestic and international postal services.

As part of its modernization program, Servicio Postal Mexicano

installed IPS to enable complete management, including track and

trace of outgoing mail bags to the USA and all incoming international

mail. The Postal Technology Centre successfully installed IPS during the

last three weeks of September 2000.

The installation of IPS allowed Sepomex to operate more effectively with its neighboring country, the United States of America, by providing detailed infor-mation such as pre-advice on the vol-ume and number of outgoing mail bags.

In addition Mexico receives electronic pre-advice of incoming mail items sever-al hours before they arrive. This enables more efficient planning in terms of the resources required for processing incom-ing dispatches.

The Office of Exchange is operating IPS for outgoing ordinary mail destined for the USA and all incoming international mail.

Each dispatch is scanned and the infor-mation, such as the pre-advice to the USA, is automatically generated and for-warded to the USPS. This has resulted in a significant improvement in the overall quality and efficiency of the internation-al mail process.

Originally published in POST*Info 4 4th quarter 2000

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Sepomex is using portable scanning de-vices (PSD, from Symbol Technologies). These wireless scanners offer a maxi-mum of flexibility in the organization of the work for processing the dispatches.

The Sepomex technical team translated the IPS application to Spanish, during September 2000, resulting in all graph-ical user interfaces being in Spanish for the end users in Mexico.

Mexico City, Mexico

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2001 2005Globalization

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In brief...IPS version 4 (2002)

Features & improvements

IPS V4 databaseThe IPS v4 database contains the data that IPS uses for management and user functions. The IPS database contains two kinds of data:

- Reference data is all the information pertaining to administrative functions, such as country codes, airlines and user permissions

- Operational data is the daily information about the processing of items, receptacles and dispatches

IPS V4 softwareThe IPS v4 software consists of the screens that users use to enter data.

ReplicationReplication is necessary in countries with multiple offices. Replication is the process that allows the transfer of data between databases.

EDI servicesEDI services install the software for exchanging EDI message data.

External system interfaceThe external system interface is used to exchange data between IPS and an external software system, such as a country’s domestic application.

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IPS version 4.2 (2005)

Other new features of IPS v4.2

In addition to the accounting module, version 4.2 provides the following main features:

Domestic dispatching: The domestic module is enhanced, with the concept of a domestic dispatch, similar to the international one. This eases the domestic process, especially when handling large volumes.

Concept of ‘Product’: IPS v4.2 makes it possible to differentiate between products related to the same mail class, such as EPG, PRIME, etc.

Routing: More functionality is provided both in the management and usage of routes in the operational process.

EDI: Information received through EDI is used more efficiently in the operational process (as well as the accounting process).

Consignments: Miscellaneous improvements are provided in order to better monitor what carriers do with the mail and deal with closed transit in the most efficient way.

Accounting module

IPS v4.1 already handles part of the international accounting for mail, with the generation of monthly and quarterly statements. Version 4.2 covers the full accounting process, with terminal dues, air conveyance dues, transit charges and airline accounting.

With an impressive number of accounting forms and the fact that the accounting process can be largely customized for each partner, the PTC realized that it would not be enough to only provide the possibility to print the accounting forms. It was therefore decided to add a monitoring function that tells the user the current status for each partner and each accounting process (terminal dues, air conveyance dues, transit charges and airline accounting).

This full accounting module is closely linked to the operational side of IPS, using the information entered during the operational process plus information received through EDI, to automatically populate the information required for accounting. This guarantees maximum efficiency with minimum work.

Wireless-enabled portable scanning device

Evolving technology and the wish to fulfil customer needs even better have resulted in the development of a PSD (portable scanning device) plug-in for IPS which was made available with IPS (version 4.2).

The Brazilian and Australian Posts were involved in designing and testing the IPS PSD software.

42


A talk with... Glen Phillips

“We were trying to move to a comput-erized platform that would promote consistent operational processes on a global scale, and that was truly a radi-cal idea,” said Glen Phillips. He recalled how operational staff used to stand inside the big service doors of the of-fice of exchange each time a transport truck would leave for the airport. He shared how the mail bags would then be placed in one long line and a su-

pervisor would manually record details off each bag label, recording each and every bag as it was sealed, to create the dispatch manifest. “You can imagine the transcription errors that crept in, the last-minute changes to the paper-work, and the amount of paper that had to be kept track of. There were no bar codes on everything in those days as they were a still a relatively new idea in the postal sector in 1995/1996.”

Mr Glen PhillipsCurrent position: Head of International Capability & Projects, Parcel & Express Services, Australia Post

Glen Phillips’ excitement was evident when recalling his experience of

implementing the International Postal System (IPS) in Australia Post 20

years ago. In 1995, as a newly engaged Project Manager, Glen, along

with Sam Curro and Chris Grosser, set out to develop a computerized

system to better manage international operations, replace manual

paper-based procedures and standardize varying forms and labels

into a universal format. This eager group envisioned a system which

would allow members of the UPU around the globe to synchronize

logistics, employ uniform operational procedures, produce standardized

documents, and exchange electronic information between posts.

“There are thousands

of people all around the

world standing in front

of a screen ... and that

screen is there because you

drew it with a handful of

people”

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Glen credits Sam Curro, Robert Major, Grant Edge-Williams, Paul Jordan, and Wayne Jones as being just a few of the operational experts and change cham-pions who worked together to design and test the functionality and usabil-ity of the IPS in its early development stage. IT experts including Roger Forsey, Sridhar Chari and Chi Tran worked very closely with the business and opera-tions personnel to find solutions to all sorts of challenging problems associ-ated with the new database tools and client-server architecture. As the UPU Postal Technology Center (PTC) did not yet exist at that time, IPS was the first major IT project sponsored by the UPU. Glen applauds Chris Grosser and Sam Jabbour as having been the vision-aries who brought the IPS concept to life, with Chris particularly noteworthy for having persuaded the Manager Director of Australia Post to fund this revolutionary new concept to the tune of $500,000 Australian Dollars.

“I was completely new to the Post and knew nothing about international op-erations,” Glen admits. “So early on it was a fairly daunting project. I am truly very proud to have been involved in the genesis of IPS, of having helped design

the screens and functions that are now being used in over 160 countries around the world.”

He recalled how in the early days of IPS implementation, he and other team members would often walk into the facilities early in the morning or late at night, only to find scanners, printers and scales not functioning, having to plug and unplug equipment, installing software fixes on-the-fly, and working side by side with operational staff sometimes until the early hours of the morning. And although Glen is very proud of what he and the team achieved, he is most fond of how well they worked together during the early stages of design and development. “It was great fun. It was really agile in its very best sense. You saw a problem, you got a bunch of people together in a room, you worked it out on a white board, you came to a decision and away you went and you did it.”Now as Head of International Capability and Projects at Australia Post, Glen Phillips is very quick to stress that the teamwork and leadership involved in the development and deployment of the IPS were the keys to its success. “I can’t stress enough how important our change champions were to the success

of this project. I remember sitting with these guys and thinking how brave they were to get involved even while others doubted if it would ever work. It was a tight little team with a very clear goal and it was all about achieving an objective,” he added.

Glen continued to share amazing sto-ries from the early days of IPS, apologiz-ing that after so many years he couldn’t remember all of the names of everyone who’d been involved. However, Glen graciously ended our interview by say-ing, “There are days when you look around and think that making a major transformation in the business is diffi-cult and the pace of change is slow, but it’s great to stop occasionally and think that there are thousands of people all around the world standing in front of a screen doing their job, and that screen is there because you drew it with a handful of people twenty years ago, and that’s a very rewarding thing on both a personal and professional level.”

Melbourne, AustraliaPh

oto:

Tar

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2002

Case studyCzech Post: A long time IPS-user upgrading to version 4

Czech Post decided to use IPS for processing outgoing EMS mail

(items, receptacles and dispatches) in 1998. The next year, IPS v3.1

was implemented in the office of exchange of Prague, belonging to the

Czech Post International Operations enterprise.

Simultaneously, another system was used for letter and parcel

dispatching. Unfortunately, none of these systems supported surface

dispatching and had to be operated manually.

BackgroundAt the end of 2000, IPS was extended to all airmail, together with the upgrade to IPS v3.5 and an upgrade from MS SQL Server 6.5 to 7.0. The extended EDI capability of IPS v3.5 was a decisive factor to this exten-sion, as Czech Post was invited to the CAPE project of EDI messaging exchanges.

The implementation of IPS v3.5 in-volved close communication with the PTC development team and specific requests from Czech Post continued to be incorporated into IPS.

IPS v4 testingAs Czech Post operates part of their mail exchanges by surface conveyance, they were looking for a quality software solution for surface mail handling. Czech Post therefore took part in the design and testing of IPS v4.

As early as the initial development analysis, Czech Post was invited to set requirements for the new function-alities of IPS v4. The new version was developed to process all mail categories (air, SAL and surface) using all types


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of conveyance, including railway and truck transport. Czech Post regarded this as a major advantage.

Other advantages included the extend-ed possibilities in EDI messaging and the import/export interface for data exchange with other applications.

As Czech Post was using the IPS pro-gram for outbound flow only, their tests were limited to this area of the IPS functions.

After initial tests of the IPS v4 beta versions in lab conditions, Czech Post decided to continue testing with real traffic at two surface offices of ex-change: one on the western border for exchanges with Western Europe, especially with Germany, and one on the eastern border for exchanges with Eastern and South-eastern Europe, pri-marily with Slovakia.

For historical reasons, letter mail ex-changes between the Czech and Slovak Postal Administrations are very inten-sive and the regular volume was about 2.500 items a day. In August 2002 IPS v4 was installed at the eastern border office for testing.

IPS v4 in operationAfter some initial problems were solved, thanks to the close communication with the IPS development team in the PTC, the program was soon stabilized and in September 2002, IPS v4 was running in routine operation for EMS and letters at this office of exchange. Czech Post then shifted its attention to parcel processing. Specific conditions for handling parcels by surface, such as large volumes of parcels ‘’out of bag’’, required additional modifications to IPSv4. Additional modifications were also made to functions calculating transit dues and returning charges and gen-erating consignments. All these re-quests were incorporated by the end of October 2002 and at the end of 2002 IPS v4 covered the whole outbound surface flow from the eastern office to abroad. This included all irregularities of postal traffic, including automatic la-beling of items without a barcode, cre-ating M-bags and registered M-bags, and on-line calculation of item insured value from local currency to SOR.

Prague, Czech Republic

The general impression of Czech Post with IPS v4 has been very positive:

The installation procedure was sur-prisingly fast and easy compared to previous versions.

The application is faster and smoother.

The graphic user interface was very similar to the previous version, but more simplified.

It is possible to insert items with non-standard UPU barcode into the database - even without any code.

All printouts are printed immediately, and all forms and labels comply with UPU rules and recommendations.

Routing plan maintenance and con-textual functions are completely re-vised and simplified.

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2002

Case studyAustralia Post Implements IPS version 4

At the end of 2002, Australia Post was in the final stages of the

implementation of version 4.0 of the International Postal System

(IPS) at international mail processing facilities across Australia. This

implementation adds the capability to process all classes of incoming

international mail to the existing capability to record, document and

track all outbound mail, as well as incoming EMS items.

BackgroundThe implementation of the IPS system in Australia follows the installation of PC servers at mail processing facilities, on which the IPS database and application were installed. Mail processing at each facility is done on PC workstations con-nected to the IPS server via a Local Area Network (LAN). The LAN connection also enables the printing of both docu-mentation and labels. Each workstation is also equipped with other peripherals appropriate to the tasks performed at the workstation, including wireless barcode scanners and weighing scales. These devices are connected directly to the PC workstation.

All IPS servers at mail processing facili-ties are also connected to the Australia Post Wide Area Network (WAN). This permits the replication of transactional data (e.g. item details and track event information) from each IPS database to a national IPS database located at Aus-tralia Post Headquarters.

This database serves as a back-end for an extensive customer service offering, available either via the Australia Post corporate Web site, or via the internal corporate Intranet. It enables custom-ers and staff to enquire on the status of any international item and to receive details of the handling and location of the item.


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The Web-based enquiry facility is built around software developed by Austral-ia Post, designed to employ data stored in the national IPS database.

Inbound capabilityThe implementation of IPS v4.0 has expanded the scope of Australia Post’s international mail processing to include the capability to record details of all in-coming mail receptacles, and identified articles. Previously only EMS items were subject to recording and tracking.

Progress with IPSinstallationIn 2002, with the implementation of IPS v4.0, Australia Post had IPS installed and operational on 13 production servers, as well as a number of devel-opment and support servers. IPS v4.0 was installed on 166 production PC workstations across Australia, of which 53 were primarily used for inbound processing, and 93 for outbound.

The implementation of IPS v4.0 at the mail processing facilities and Headquar-ters was the final step in a project that has spanned some nine months’ work

for Australia Post business and IT per-sonnel. Australia Post involvement ex-tended from assisting in the drafting of the business requirements for IPS v4.0 (including mapping the process flows for the various classes of incoming mail), through system and performance testing, to defect investigation and cer-tification for release into production.

Cooperation between Australia Post and PTCThe project has been characterized by a very close working relationship between the design and development team of the Postal Technology Centre (PTC) and the project team of Australia Post. The interaction between an experienced Australia Post project team and a highly responsive PTC development team ena-bled a large project to be implemented on schedule and within budget.

The PTC team was able to immediately find solutions to problems identified by Australia Post. This degree of respon-siveness on the part of the PTC team has been critical to the successful implemen-tation of IPS v4.0 in Australia.


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2003

Case studyInstallation of IPS version 4 in Morocco

One of the principle objectives of the Moroccan Post is to provide

the population and public and private enterprises with high quality

postal services at affordable prices. To meet this challenge, Barid Al

Maghrib (BAM), has embarked, in 2002, on a vast modernization

programme involving the launch of new products and services, gradual

decentralization of postal operations, diversification of postal and

financial services and the creation of new partnerships. This programme

is based on the implementation of new technologies. By the end of

2002, more than 500 Moroccan post offices had been computerized.

The UPU Postal Technology Centre (PTC) has worked with the Moroccan Post to help it achieve these objectives on a number of occasions. As early as January 1999, the PTC installed IPS at the Casablanca exchange office.

This system is fully operational with partner countries. In September 2000, the PTC assisted BAM with the intro-duction of the IFS system for tracking international money orders, which is in full use with a number of countries.

A PTC mission to Morocco took place from 14 April to 2 June 2003 and cov-ered two areas: Installation of IPS for postal parcels and domestic EMS mail

A site survey for expansion of the system before the end of 2003 to in-clude tracking of registered mail and dispatches

IPS Installation The extension of IPS to postal parcels and domestic EMS, following a PTC site

Originally published in POST*Info 142nd quarter 2003

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survey, which took place in December 2001, involved the establishment of a new IPS platform in a multi-site archi-tecture. Such architecture permits the centralization in a single ‘’national site’’ of all the basic data used for mail track-ing and the decentralization to various local sites, generally housed in the main regional processing centres, of all oper-ational tasks.

The initial installation carried out re-cently with the assistance of the PTC involved the installation of the national site at the BAM headquarters in Rabat and the installation of two local sites in Rabat RP and Casablanca CP exchange offices. A data replication procedure between the sites was established to exchange information between the central IPS server and the regional IPS servers.

This first phase was carried out during the second half of April 2003 with the assistance of a PTC expert, and in-cluded, along with the training of the system technicians, administrators and trainers, the installation of:

The national IPS server and the com-munications server for EDI exchanges within the BAM IT unit’s premises as well as two workstations for adminis-trative work on the national database and the definition of postal partners, the creation of domestic and interna-tional delivery routes, the definition of all the country’s post offices and their characteristics, etc.

The local IPS server for Rabat RP to manage the operational data con-cerning domestic and international postal parcels and domestic EMS

Rabat, Morocco

mail as well as five stations for mail handling operations including two stations at the counter for entry of data on posting and delivery

The local IPS server for Casablanca CP, the main exchange office for parcels and EMS items, as well as ten stations including three counter stations for operational processes which, in addi-tion to almost all domestic parcels and EMS items, are equipped to handle all international mail, whether inward, outward or in transit

All the work on the installation and interconnection of these three IPS platforms was carried out in direct collaboration with the engineers and technicians of the Moroccan Post.

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2004

Case studyIPS, thumbs up from Tanzania Post

Tanzania Post first joined the Telematics Cooperative to share and

foster postal business by applying the latest technological applications

available. Andrew Gewe, IT Manager of Tanzania Post, says his

organization has been actively involved in the use and support of PTC

products since 1994. Tanzania Post was especially impressed with IPS

which helped them to be more competitive.

Introduction

In the era of rapid technological advancement the use of state-of-the-art information technology has a significant impact in the business competitive world. In the early 1990’s Tanzania Post noticed a downward trend in mail volumes especially for international items, and it had to take some action to reverse the trend. It was found that a lack of a track and trace system forced customers to look for alternative couriers despite the higher costs involved.

Customers demanded prompt respons-es on the status of items sent to other countries. To address the situation

Tanzania Post first acquired the Mail Dispatching System (MDS) in 1995. Two years later the Post migrated to the more powerful product for mail management, at that time called the International Postal System ‘96.

IPS

IPS ‘96 was implemented in July 1997. EMS was extended to letters and parcels a year later and Tanzania Post started full EDI transmission in 1998.

The number of partners has now grown to 40. The use of IPS led to an immediate reverse of the downtrend of volumes of international EMS items. In 2004 Tanzania


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was using IPS for international processing of items at two Offices of Exchange – Dar Es Salaam with office code TZDARA and Arusha with office code TZARKA. The system processed all mail categories and all mail classes.

Positive feedback

Tanzania’s experience with the use of IPS has been very positive. With IPS im-portant volume statistics are just at the fingertips thus helping management to make important decisions timely. It also helps in attending to customer enquiries in a friendlier manner and with more prompt responses.

IPS has also played an important role in the reduction of operation costs espe-cially on international calls since delivery information is easily obtained through EDI exchange. Tanzania Post has always received prompt service from the help

desk facility. The UPU’s Regional Support Centre for East and Southern Africa (RSCEA) based in Dar-Es-Salaam has contributed to a growing demand for IPS in Africa. Tanzania Post also benefit-ed from services offered by the Centre.

Tanzania believes there is much to gain from its partnership with the Postal Technology Centre on the maximum utilization of its available products.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (United Rep.)

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In brief...From Tulips to IPS Light

TULIPS (2001)

TulIPS, the ultra light-weight IPS, is an Internet application designed for postal administrations that only process relatively small volumes of EMS items or who do not have the resources to implement the full version of IPS. TulIPS (also called IPS Web Capture) provides these postal administrations with a means to capture and send event data of postal items to their partner postal administrations.

The PTC strives to bring the most current technology to EMS, to ensure that EMS can remain competitive. Using TulIPS UPU member countries can capture tracking events and using the companion Internet-based utility QCS (Quality Control System) they can obtain tracking information on specific items. The member country needs only to have access to the Internet and a TulIPS logon ID and password - no software installation is necessary. The TulIPS application provides item tracking, and helps to enhance customer support. Data from TulIPS can be also used for regular performance analysis.

In September 2000, the PTC began conducting pilot tests.In February 2001, Rwanda Post became the first user of TulIPS.

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IPS Light (2003)

IPS Light was developed in response to the demand for more features in TulIPS. IPS Light was developed on the IPS v4 technology to ensure compliance with the UPU Products and Accounting Rules & Regulations.

These features include: Optional information - TulIPS collects just enough information to generate a valid EDI message. Optional information collected with IPS Light includes sender and addressee details, flight details and the condition of the mail item.

More reports - TulIPS provides on-screen results of the data that has been received, processed and sent as EDI. With IPS Light, printable reports on volumes, queries on individual mail items and UPU standard documents are included.

Handling Dispatching - This includes providing the relevant UPU standard documents that accompany dispatches and gene-rating the relevant EDI messages. TulIPS only provides item level handling.

It provides; EMS, Letter and Parcel handling Generation of UPU standard documents and accounting reports Optional information such as sender and recipient information EDI messages to both POST*Net and GXS networks. (to GXS via the POST*Net-GXS link)

Customs handling operations Dispatch and receptacle processing Management of local users and local offices Volume reports and queries on mail items Multilanguage support available in English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

From the launch of IPS Light 2003, up to 70 postal operators were able to perform international postal mail operations on a centralized IT system.

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A talk with... Stephen Clarke

The lack of delivery information chal-lenged us to maintain our customer base in an environment where our competitors provided their customers with up-to-date information as to the current status of their items.

About a year or so before IPS Light was deployed, Herbert Niles, the former UPU Regional Adviser for the Caribbean saw the need for a Mail Management System (MMS) for English Speaking Caribbean postal operators and re-quested my input to source a suitable one.

IPS Light readily came to mind from the presentation previously made by Lati Matata at the Caribbean Christmas Transportation Plan in Miami. I imme-diately contacted Lati who graciously provided me with the wherewithal to familiarize myself with the software.

This initiative was geared towards:

Providing better accountability for mail movement among the Posts in the Caribbean and internationally

Providing our customers with a better quality of service

Mr Stephen ClarkeCurrent position: Retired Previously:Postal Superintendentof Barbados Post

IPS Light was introduced at the Barbados Postal Service (BPS) during

my tenure as Postal Superintendent, with specific responsibility for the

EMS product.

Before IPS Light, we depended on the fax and the telephone for

information concerning the delivery status of EMS items. The exclusive

reliance on these media created problems. Prompt information

whether positive or negative empowers the Post.

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Taking the first step in narrowing the space that existed between the Posts and the private couriers which operated within the region with regards to track and trace

The testing phase was particularly excit-ing, even if it did require long hours on the computer. During the testing period I sent Lati countless emails requesting functionalities, some of which were pe-culiar to Barbados and could not be en-tertained. Lati jokingly reminded me that IPS Light was for the entire postal world. I’d like to express my thanks to Lati, who went way beyond the call of duty.

spect, it is strange that the three players involved in the initiative never met, yet performed roles that were pivotal to its success.

A special mention must also be made of Nigel Cobham of the BPS manage-ment team. Nigel ensured that the hardware required was provided and that the sorting office was in a state of readiness. He also arranged computer training for those staff who needed it. There were a few hiccups which result-ed in a somewhat prolonged adoption, chiefly, the usual fears associated with computerisation.

His foresight and critical thinking were vital to the success of the BPSs adop-tion of IPS Light, as were the roles played by Herbert and Lati. In retro-

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2003

Case studyBarbados Post excited with IPS light

Barbados Post was one of the postal administrations asked to test

the new IPS Light system. Although the tests were limited to certain

features, Barbados Post expressed satisfaction with the possibilities of

the new product and its functions. Here the view of Stephen Clarke,

Postal Superintendent of the Barbados Postal Service.

Introduction

Our experience with using the applica-tion has been limited to tracking EMS items. The improvements we requested for its predecessor, TulIPS, have been in-cluded along with several other features that we did not expect. Like TulIPS, the application is user friendly and minimizes training requirements. Even if an operator has difficulty at some point, there is the help feature on every page that can be referred to. We found this to be extremely useful when we first attempted to manipulate the system.

All of the events for inbound and out-bound items are displayed in detail along with the categories of mail products and corresponding activities such as enquir-

ies, customs and reports. This makes it very simple for the end user who only has to select the function required to enter data or retrieve information.

It definitely makes it easier to navigate. Being able to configure the system to give our delivery offices access provides our administration with the capability to track items through out our postal net-work.

This feature will significantly reduce the time spent dispatching and tracking our local mail products manually.


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Receptacle TrackingAlthough our experiences with IPS Light have been limited to EMS item tracking, we are excited with the receptacle dis-patch, PREDES and RESDES. With this function, we will be informed of what mails were dispatched to us, when they were dispatched, and the transporting airline.

As a consequence, these functionalities will allow us (origin/ destination) to place more accountability on the third party involved, the airlines, and also, to better prepare for those shipments.

In addition, the system’s capability to generate documents and print labels will not only reduce the time it currently

takes to prepare them manually but will also improve the efficiency of this exer-cise.

The IPS Light system should reduce op-erational costs and will help small postal administrations with limited financial resources.

Barbados

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In brief...IPS version 5 (2007)

Features & improvements Migration to new .NET technology Software redesigns, in particular with configurable scanning functionality IPS 5.03 (2010) incorporates all the decisions taken by the 2008 Geneva

Congress

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Stéphane Herrmann (PTC) conducted an IPS migration mission to Iran (Islamic Rep.) at the beginning of July 2010. He also trained staff on the use of the adopt-ed version – 5.03 – of this application.

The Iranian Post had been using IPS version 4.24 for the processing of EMS items and parcels at the Tehran office of exchange, and for part of its accounting. The remain-der of its operations (verification notes, inquiries, mail in closed transit, etc.) and accounting were previously conducted using various applications developed by the Iranian Post.

Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

The Iranian Post wished to adopt the above-mentioned application for all its mail processing operations. It requested the PTC to conduct a mission to update the IPS platform (migration to version 5.03), extend the use of IPS to letter-post and train staff in the use of all the opera-tions and accounting functions.

2010

Case studyIPS version 5.03 in Iran

Originally published in POST*Info 44 July 2010

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A talk with... David Hamilton

Despite the fact that the USPS does not use IPS, the organization has al-ways been a big supporter of the PTC. David’s previous responsibility for USPS operational and technical requirements for its EDI messaging system, combined with his deep involvement with IPC and the UPU, prepared him well for his role as IMS UG Chairman. During his term, Mr Hamilton worked hard to strength-en relations with and amongst IPS user countries, fostering close collaboration on IPS development and enhancements while building a bridge to other UPU groups such as the Operations and

Accounting Review Group, Transport Group and Standards Board.

“Serving as IMS UG Chairman was one of the highlights of my postal career,” said David Hamilton. “I value the inter-action with people from different coun-tries, working to develop a true ‘single postal network’ and assisting posts of developing countries.”

Indeed, David still carries that same en-thusiasm and passion today. In his cur-rent role at IPC, David maintains a high level of involvement with the ongoing

Mr David HamiltonChairman of Telematics Cooperative’s International Mail Services User Group: 2007 – 2009

Current position: Process Manager, International Postal Operations, Operations & Technology, International Post Corporation, Brussels

For those familiar with IPS and its 20 year history, David Hamilton

is certainly a name many will immediately recognize. In 2007, David

Hamilton served as Chairman of the IMS UG, succeeding Chris Grosser

from Australia Post and preceding current IMS UG Chairwoman Mette

Boisen. Originally from the United States Postal Service (USPS) office

in Washington DC, David is now based in Brussels, serving as Process

Manager for International Postal Operations at the International Post

Corporation (IPC).

“Serving as IMS UG

Chairman was one

of the highlights

of my postal career”

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developments of IPS, as several IPC members currently use the system. In addition, IPC runs Interconnect, a sys-tem which attempts to improve the en-tire end-to-end service for e-commerce mail items. As one can imagine, Interconnect poses high-level requirements that set the standard for IPS features such as EMS, EBT and ITMATT messages. David continues to collaborate with the PTC, on behalf of the international postal operators, regarding IPS development and ensuring user-compliance to Interconnect guidelines relating to EDI messaging. Seven years after he left his post as Chairman, David still has high expectations for IPS.

“IPS is absolutely essential to meet the needs of the International Mail Market,” he continues. “Particularly over the last 4-6 years, I am very pleased with the development of the IPS. It serves a key role for the posts in collecting, transmitting and report-ing important data about mail items,

dispatches, consignments, transpor-tation, accounting and other aspects. In today’s technology-intensive world, postal operators must use an electronic system for dispatching, receiving and EDI messaging for international mail.”

As many in the postal sector have ac-knowledged, there are tremendous challenges ahead. IPS offers services to help streamline e-commerce fulfillment and serves as a tool for posts across the globe to compete in today’s market. The IMS UG continues to champion the adoption and expansion of IPS across the UPU’s member posts.

Today, just 20 years since its initial roll-out, IPS is used by over 150 member posts in their daily operations – an ex-cellent testament to the many people, including David Hamilton, who pushed the technology envelope and promot-ed a system which has withstood the ever-changing demands of the postal sector.

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A talk with... Maxime Burzlaff

The process to implement IPS in Australia required nothing short of a battalion of soldiers. Mr Burzlaff credits the success of AP’s IPS implementation to folks includ-ing Chee Tran, Robert Major, Grant-Edge Williams, Hasan Ali, Sridhar Venkatachari and many others who he worked with on both the IT and end-user side.When he joined the project, an EMS-focused version of IPS was already in place and Mr Burzlaff and his team were responsible for finalizing the introduction of the letters and parcels process.

As Maxime Burzlaff explained, expanding the role of IPS within AP was no small challenge, but it brought tremendous and immediate benefits to an otherwise manually intensive operation.

“I remember I got a call a couple of years ago,” recalled Mr Burzlaff. “A manager called from an OE and asked me if it was normal to have two people do the outbound dispatching of letters: one to do the dispatching in IPS and one to be a witness. It turns out that these people were involved [with this process] before IPS when there had to be two people: one writing down the numbers and one verifying that nothing was missed.”

As a matter of fact, there are many at Australia Post who remember life before IPS and the massive amount of paper-work and manual data entry required prior to implementation.

Needless to say, there is an extraordinary level of appreciation for the PTC and the

Mr Maxime BurzlaffManager, Border Agencies and Postal PartnersInternational OperationsAustralia Post

Before joining Australia Post (AP) ten years ago, Maxime Burzlaff worked

for an IT company called Praxa where he met long-time colleague and

friend, Glen Phillips. The initial concept to provide a stable and suitable

system for EDI messaging and mail tracking was a new and revolutionary

idea, one that Mr Burzlaff is proud to have helped realize in Australia.

“The challenge for the PTC

is to make sure

that the software quality

and the testing required

for a new version are

comparable to that of any

other external IT provider.”

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ongoing enhancements to an already comprehensive system. When the team introduced the accounting function approximately ten years ago, bill data capture was quickly streamlined because of prepopulated data from IPS and from EDI data exchanges, thus making the lives of data entry teams much easier. Apparently, streamlining a cumbersome process was not a smooth process in itself.

“I did a lot of work with the system and understanding where the errors were so I could provide feedback to the PTC,” said Mr Burzlaff. “It was a bit of an early ver-sion of “Agile” project management in the sense that we had software versions in production, [we would] find a bug, report it, get it fixed in two days by the

PTC, and release the fixed version almost immediately, and not have to go through more time intensive release management like we do today.”

Today, of course, there is a more so-phisticated and structured approach for feature development and launch. Thanks to the efforts of the PTC and the IMS UG, version releases have been streamlined from 2-3 per year to one release per year, making it easier for member Posts to im-plement and maintain.

When asked to foresee the future of IPS, Mr Burzlaff confidently stated, “IPS will adapt. The PTC is pretty responsive when a country has a specific design re-quirement: they set up a project, make it happen, then they make it available for

everybody. As the complexity of IPS has grown over the years, the challenge for the PTC is to make sure that the software quality and the testing required for a new version are comparable to that of any other external IT provider.”

With an ever-growing list of responsibil-ities and user requirements, the PTC is certainly in for an uphill climb. However, the nimble nature of this group will not only ensure its effectiveness, but it will also ensure the long-term success of IPS as it evolves and redefines itself over the coming years.


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2006

Review IPS 10th anniversary

In 2006, the International Postal System (IPS) was in use by 58 postal

organisations. The system came about because of the cooperation

and sharing of knowledge between postal administrations under the

umbrella of the Telematics Cooperative. 4 Countries share their own

IPS experience.

Originally published in POST*Info 5 February 2006

GREECE

HUNGARY

KENYA

BRAZIL

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GREECE

HUNGARY

IPS in Brazil by Luiz Carlos Villela de Andrade and Natália Querido Hissa Technical Coordinators of the International Business and Operations Department

‘‘Before IPS, each Office of Exchange worked in a different way and it was dif-ficult to establish standards. Now with IPS, information is updated at the same time, speedily and reliably. All the proce-dures are standardized, and all the forms and labels are printed automatically. IPS was created with the participation of postal administrations and is always being adjusted to the needs of clients. For the Brazilian Postal Administration it has become indispensable. The admin-istration would like to congratulate the IPS team for what has been achieved up to now.’’

IPS in Hungaryby Tibor Rapai, IT manager, International Business Unit, Hungarian Post Co.

‘‘Posts are serving the human commu-nity worldwide, and they form a special

community themselves. At Hungarian Post we think IPS is one nice face of the postal community. This feeling was behind our choice of technology de-velopment when we started using IPS from its beginning. Being an IPS user is somewhat similar to being married - together we can solve the problems successfully.There might be those who claim “this system is perfect, just according to my need”, but we at Hungarian Post regard it as the best existing and com-mon solution. We are looking forward to continuing our fruitful PTC partner-ship.’’

IPS in Kenyaby Mary W. Mbatia, IPS System Administrator, PCK, Kenya

‘‘Since implementation of the system four and a half years ago, Kenya Post has the benefit of knowing first-hand every detailed movement of its international import and export of EMS items. The information captured is accurate and is available at the touch of a button. This is crucial for timely management decisions

and confidence from our collaborators and customers.IPS has also given Kenya Post the neces-sary impetus to face competitors whose key advantage has been derived from technology. Customers can now get in-formation on their consignments fairly fast with sufficient proof. ’’

IPS in Greeceby Theodor Tountas, Head of Division of International Mail Accounts

‘‘IPS is a valuable tool for all our oper-ational and accounting procedures. It provides reliable data and at the same time requires less human sources. It guaranties quality of service and speed-iness. For Hellenic Post (ELTA) which is a REIMS member, it is of great importance to obtain accurate and reliable data (both sampling and accounting) whenever we ask for it. IPS covers all our needs!!’’

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2006

Case studyThe Canada Post international mail settlement project

Canada Post completed the International Mail Settlement (IMS) project

which included the implementation of the International Postal System

(IPS). The project’s goal was to improve the accuracy and timeliness of

IMS processes and systems.

Pierre Delisle, Senior Consultant – Innovapost, gave more details:

When Canada Post began looking at solutions for their IMS requirements, the IPS off-the-shelf software of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was iden-tified as the best option. IPS is an inte-grated international mail management application that combines mail process-ing, operational management and EDI messaging into one application. The system provides a means for postal en-terprises to have an accurate and com-prehensive view of their mail movement covering every point between origin and destination, including transit offices of exchange, international carriers, and handling through Customs.

Canada Post’s requirements included monthly invoicing and payment with their largest trading partner based on the existing electronic data interchange (PREDES) and the scanning of recep-tacles and/or items. The solution also needed to support the internal control certification of the IMS processes. There were some risks in working with IPS, namely its perceived lack of flexi-bility and concerns around the Postal Technology Centre’s (PTC) ability to de-liver changes to IPS on schedule. These risks were critical to Canada Post be-cause its new settlement model with the United States Postal Service was unique and required significant changes to the

Originally published in POST*Info 7 June 2006

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IPS accounting module. The project also had considerable work to do on the CPC SAP back end to achieve the necessary level of integration. Any delays on the IPS side would have important cost ramifications. Canada Post managed these risks by working closely with the Postal Technology Centre at every step of the development. Jean-Marc Coeffic, the PTC’s Project Manager, was included in the detailed requirements and design sessions and delivered key functional designs. In order to avoid rework or integration issues with the development done in Canada, technical designs were shared and conference calls were held twice a week.

A CPC resource was assigned to Switzerland to help align the two project

teams (Switzerland and Canada) and minimize the impact of the time zone difference. A project plan was co-de-veloped and monitored through regular status reporting.

The Postal Technology Centre delivered two major releases on budget and on schedule. The PTC showed the neces-sary flexibility and was able to adjust to evolving requirements. Canada Post found the development team to be responsive and focused on solutions. As a result, the IPS architecture was able to integrate in the CPC technical environment with few issues. We are able to use our automated software distribution tools for new patches of IPS impacting the client and we are also able to execute major processes in batch

Ottawa, Canada

mode, monitor their completion and automatically generate problem tickets.

The final IMS solution developed in-cludes the core IPS system, with some modifications implemented by the UPU; several custom modules integrated with IPS, which were developed by Innovapost; interfaces and modifications to the SAP back end; interfaces between the United States Postal Service and Canada Post at both the front end mail operations (PREDES exchange) level and at the back end accounting level (elec-tronic invoice exchange); and several reports.

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2006

Case studyColiPoste chooses IPS

ColiPoste, the parcel operator of La Poste France, chose the IPS application for its Office of Exchange responsible for all destinations except Spain, Germany and Eastern Europe. A semi-mecha-nized system was installed consisting of conveyor belts and a frame making it possible to read the barcodes automat-ically and to weigh the parcels at the same time.

IPS is used for the export of the parcels. Two screens were developed specifically for this purpose. The screens are adapt-ed to the semi-automatic system and make it possible to treat large volumes of parcels in an optimal way. The new screens can also be used by other IPS users.

ColiPoste was assisted by the PTC to configure the IPS application in an opti-mal way as well as the various peripher-als used. In 2006, ColiPoste, with more than one million delivered parcels per day, was the leader in France and sec-ond in Europe for the delivery of parcels to private individuals in 48 hours (and more).

Originally published in POST*Info 10 December 2006

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In brief...IPS version 5.11 (2011)

IPS v5.11 was released in March 2011. It includes all the changes made in IPS v5.10 which was used by only one country for a short period of time.

Here are the mains evolutions for IPS v5.11:

Accounting Performance of the accounting screens has been improved.

Calculations have been adapted to manage bilateral parcel rates.

IPS now provides more flexibility for generating cover letters.

IPS now manages Direct Access dispatch documents, invoices and rates. Direct Access is the access to all domestic letter-post services a designated operator offers to other designated operators sending mail into that country, under the same conditions as those offered to national customers.

IPS now includes the 24th Universal Postal Congress decision for misrouted items (new CN51 and CN67 forms).

Operations

Several improvements have been made to the Generic Scanning functions, which are being used by more and more users.

EDI messages ITMATT messages are supported (first implementation phase). ITMATT messages provide a mechanism for Posts to exchange detailed information about postal items with the Posts concerned. This includes the information required for customs declaration purposes.

All EMSEVT 3.0 events are now managed by IPS.

Several improvements have also been made in the IPS interface for email notification, transport data and mail items.

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New Zealand Post commenced produc-tion use of the IPS Accounting module on 21 June 2011.

They are importing the accounting data from their own local operational system using the PTC-provided XML dispatch importing script.

The New Zealand Post project manager for the implementation, Paul Adams, stated that the successful and smooth implementation of IPS was in large part due to the two visits by Jean-Marc Coeffic, and the regular project tele-phone calls that were had with him and his colleagues in the PTC.

Resulting from the latest visit by Jean-Marc, New Zealand Post has now commenced a project to replace its 15 year-old international mail dispatch-ing and receiving system with the IPS Operations module. With New Zealand Post’s close neighbor Australia Post offering support, a number of Webex discussions have been held to better understand the workings of the oper-ations modules of the system.

The New Zealand Post International Finance Manager, Chris Nicholson, re-marked that his team can already see the benefit of using an international accounting system that has all the UPU rules contained within it.

Wellington, New Zealand

2011

Case studyIPS Accounting module at New Zealand Post

Originally published in POST*Info 53 June 2011

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Features & improvementsVersion 5.12 brings many new features based on specific needs and requests received from users and member countries.

Here is a list of some of the new features:

ITMATT messages: A new data entry screen to capture Customs information has been introduced

S47: New lay-out for receptacle labels

Paper-free transport (possibility to NOT print transport documents when closing transports)

Parcel rates per Office of Exchange

Bilateral returned parcel rates

Possibility to define bilateral rates for bulk mail

Ability to enter EMS ‘Weight rates’ per EMS subclass

In brief...IPS version 5.12 (2011)

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Common pointsThese tools provide international and domestic mail management for all mail classes (EMS, letters, parcels), inbound and outbound.

IPS and IPS Light comprise features for mail processing, operational mana-gement (including accounting) and electronic data exchange (EDI).

In IPS and IPS Light, EDI messages are exchanged using POST*Net, the UPU’s network, which also allows connections with partners using other EDI exchange networks. EDI messages can be sent and received at item, dispatch and consignment levels.

Both IPS and IPS Light automatically print standard UPU labels and forms, but IPS Light can only print main forms.

IPS and IPS Light can be used in any language, thanks to the use of the Unicode standard.

Differences IPS Light is a slimmer version of IPS, aimed at operators with low to medium mail volumes with a modest IT infrastructure.

IPS Light is a web application and IPS is developed on client-server architecture. The choice between IPS Light and IPS is based on the evaluation of the cost and the level of performance needed.

Unlike IPS Light, all IPS screens are fully adaptable.

IPS includes a function for managing route schedules.

IPS can generate detailed inquiries for all mail classes at item, receptacle, dispatch and consignment levels.

IPS handles special multilateral agreements.

IPS is guaranteed to exchange the latest version of EDI messages as early as possible. IPS Light version 3 will also include the latest version of EDI messages.

IPS Light version 3 re-uses a large part of the IPS development code. This allows some parallel enhancements between IPS and IPS Light.

The interface and functionalities of IPS Light remain different, but for IPS Light users it means that many more features are available.

The PTC has only one product to maintain and this has improved the product’s reliability and support.

An additional change for IPS Light users is the new database system. With IPS Light version 3, users have their own database and this has optimized system performance and made it much easier to migrate to IPS.

The IPS accounting module handles the complete accounting process associated with international mail. This includes calculating terminal dues and transit charges.

IPS 5.20 and IPS Light 3 (renamed to IPS.POST)(2012)

The PTC released IPS version 5.20 and IPS Light version 3 in 2012.Both applications are described below.

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Features & improvementsIPS 2013 incorporates the latest versions of UPU standards. It also includes version 3 of the EDI EMSEVT messages and version 2.1 of the EDI PREDES messages, which is mandatory when sending EMS items and postal parcels from 1 January 2016. This will enable the operators using them to participate in the Pay-for-Performance system introduced by the EMS Cooperative and take advantage of the bonuses provided for in the Parcel Post Regulations.

In brief...IPS 2013

IPS 2014

EDI - Interfaces- EMSEVT v3: Support of additional

EMSEVT data elements.- Handling of Consignment

Security Declaration (CSD) and e-CSD (in CARDIT) - Produced when closing a consignment, increasingly requi-red by airlines

Accounting- Ability to upload terminal dues

rates- Implementation of eVN

(electronic Verification Notes)

Operational- Single inbound scanning screen:

A single screen to scan inbound receptacles and mail items of any mail class

- Ability to upload sampling rules- Changes in the regulations- Changes to several operational

and accounting forms


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Track and trace: Display of the location codes from EDI RESDIT in track and trace functions

Accounting: Ability to add a signature to all CN and CP accounting forms

Verification notes: Availability of prefilled outbound data when creating verification notes for parcels

CN61 EMS: Quarterly CN 61 EMS statements now available

UPU*Clearing: Interface with the UPU*Clearing system

Regulations and standards: Updates following changes to the regulations and standards

EDI EMSEVT v3: Processing of additional data elements contained in EDI EMSEVT v3 messages

IPS 2015

In brief ...QCS version 3The Quality Control System (QCS) Mail application

QCS is designed to help postal organizations improve the quality of their international mail service through comprehensive measurement of the mail delivery cycle and end-to-end monitoring of mail items, receptacles and dispatches. QCS is using EDI messages registered in IPS.

QCS Mail version 3 includes major technical improvements, including real-time performance evaluation (volume, ratio and time) and the ability to track and trace items, receptacles, dispatches and consignments.

It also includes access to parcel reports, thus allowing users to take advantage of the bonuses provided for in the Parcel Post Regulations.


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In Brief...Customs Declaration System - CDS

In 2012, the Postal Technology Centre developed an interoperable IT system, the Customs Declaration System, or CDS, which can be used by both Posts and Customs to share information.Customs authorities are an important part of the postal logistics chain. The time that mail items spend at Customs has a significant impact on postal end-to-end performance.

Objectives of CDS Provide a standard IT system for the exchange of electronic customs

declarations pre-advice messages. Implement a globally standardized interface (using the CUSITM/CUSRSP

data exchange standard). Link the systems of Customs and other security agencies to postal systems

and enable the direct use of CDS software by Customs authorities that do not have their own system.

Ensure affordable pricing by enabling all countries to use CDS regardless of their development status.

Create a multilateral solution that any country can use in order to instantly exchange with all other countries.

2014Canada Post has been using version 2 of CDS in production mode since May 2014. 10 Posts tested it, and 80 Posts discussed it with the PTC.

2015CDS 2015, which has been available since the end of 2015, includes new features, namely a Kiosk function to allow Posts’ customers to enter the necessary details on customs declaration forms themselves (using functions designed to facilitate the entry of the customer’s address and customs tariffs).

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Ottawa, Canada

Phot

o: S

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A talk with... Mette Boisen

“IPS is a very important system for PostNord Danmark,” said Ms Boisen. “This is why we decided to get involved so we could have maximum influence to make sure that the systems and technology match our requirements.”

Years ago, Ms Boisen championed for the establishment of an advanced user workshop which serves as a forum for member posts to share change requests and improvement initiatives. Today, the team works to expand the scope of these requests so that they are not only coun-try-specific, but also address universal issues so all member posts can benefit from var-ious system enhancements. This approach has proven to help tremendously in the management of associated costs.

“None of the posts today have a lot of money, those days are gone,” Ms Boisen explains. “We need to get the most out of the money we have got and still get the best processes out of it. Any system that’s used needs to change quickly so it adapts to the changing en-vironment”.

One of her initial undertakings was to streamline the software release timeline. Whereas there were initially 2-3 versions released each year, which made implementation difficult, the PTC group now only launches one version each year. This practice has not only reduced costs, but has made system updates and implementation much simpler than before.

Ms Mette BoisenCurrent Chairwoman of Telematics Cooperative’s International Mail Services User Group

For the second consecutive term, Ms Mette Boisen serves as the

Chairwoman of the International Mail Services User Group (IMS UG).

Since 2009 she has led the development and progression of the

International Postal System (IPS) product family. Based in Copenhagen

as Head of International Operations for PostNord Danmark, Ms Boisen

knows first-hand the value of the IPS.

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But despite her best efforts, Ms Boisen admits that things have not always moved as quickly as she would like. Given the size of the organization, it is not an easy task to implement chang-es given the varying cultures, interests and influences involved. However, she is particularly proud of her work with a group focused on improving the in-ternational transport processes, and following the decisions in the group implementing them in IPS.

“In general, I think that we’ve have been good – or lucky,” she said with a smile . “It’s always a challenge because we’re aiming to decide on changes we hope the entire IPS community will benefit from. Sometimes we have col-

leagues we call and we ask them for their thoughts. We have a really good relationship with our Post colleagues so we can benefit from discussing differ-ent issues among us.”

As in any industry, it’s important for any system provider to respond to constant-ly changing requirements.The requirements from customers, of course, influence the requirements placed on systems providers. Success for any system requires flexibility and feasibility, two principles that serve as the guiding force for Ms Boisen and the PTC team.

“We have a really good

relationship with our Post

colleagues so we can benefit

from discussing different

issues among us.”

Copenhagen, Denmark

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o: S

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A talk with... Lati Matata

Working hand-in-hand with David Avsec’s customer relations team and Olivier Bernieu’s operations team in charge of application testing, networks and hosting of IPS, Lati’s team executes the actual software programming to meet the ever-changing needs of the postal sector. As one can imagine, this is a carefully executed balancing act that aims to please the customer while ensuring the continued feasibility and universality of the IPS software suite. To this end, Lati is very quick to credit the efforts of IPS developers past and pres-

ent, which include Jean-Marc Coeffic, Silviu Lita, Ranjan Mujoo and the cur-rent IPS team.

“Our biggest challenge has been making IPS enterprise-ready,” Lati explained. “In 2007, IPS started be-ing picked up by more high-volume operators and from a purely technical perspective, IPS needed a lot of work. Luckily, we have a team of brilliant en-gineers that made it so and created a technology change around IPS.”

Mr Lati MatataCoordinator IT Development PTC, in charge of the software development team

Lati Matata began his illustrious career in the UPU sixteen years ago,

initially hired to join the development team for a software program

called TulIPS, which offered solutions for low volume remote countries

and served as the predecessor to IPS Light. As a result of his extensive

experience in software development, Lati took the lead of the PTC

development team in the year 2010. His team consists of 23 staff

members, half of them fully focused on IPS software development

while another five are devoted to “quality of service” - the analysis of

IPS-generated data and preparation of many reports used throughout

the UPU’s International Bureau and across member posts worldwide.

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As those in the UPU are well aware, IPS was designed to assist lower volume country Posts in managing their inter-national operations. However, the para-digm shift that quickly transformed the development of IPS to be heavily driven by large Posts has resulted in substan-tial cost-savings for small developing countries.

“We’re here for everybody,” Lati pro-claimed with enthusiasm. “And that sort of DNA is very much part of IPS and the PTC. Everything we do from a technical perspective is to make sure IPS remains available for everybody. I’m very happy and proud to say that the IPS software that runs in Australia, Brazil and Denmark, is the same IPS that runs in Burkina Faso, Tanzania and South Africa.”

In fact, Lati’s team of developers spends a lot of time ensuring IPS runs in as many different environments as possi-ble. As the workload has increased, so has the staff of the PTC, which includes about sixty people in the Bern office alone. Lati stresses that his primary re-sponsibility is “future-oriented design” which means that any and all modifica-tions made to IPS will meet the needs in the future, and keeping costs low rep-resents one of those needs. His group is also tasked with ensuring technical transparency and standards compliance in regards to the movement of data in and out of the system.

When asked about his thoughts on the capabilities of IPS within the

competitive landscape of the express delivery sector, Lati doesn’t see much of a threat. In fact, he sees IPS way ahead of the competition. Out of the estimated 700,000 postal points in the world, 80% of them already use IPS to manage their data and Lati believes that plans to enable mobile and cloud-based applications will make an ever greater impact, further expanding the scope and capabilities of IPS.

But that is just half of the full picture because the other half, which Lati strongly emphasized, is the strategy of “big data”. Given the extremely robust network which allows IPS to serve as the communication tool across all of the various country Posts, there has been a huge explosion in data due to the rapid expansion of E-commerce. Consequently, the PTC is undertaking plans with big data technology to do more for its customers.

As Lati explained, “It’s one thing to give them the report of what happened, but then we need to do more correlation-al analysis to help customers correct large-scale operational inefficiency. The next step is predictive analytics and this requires a lot of technology and in-vestment. I’m happy to say, under the guidance of Economic Expert Dr. Jose Anson and Coordinator Wendy Eitan of the International Bureau, that we have started down that road and what cus-tomers will see is more complex report-ing on their operations, and even more in-depth support for the UPU’s quality certification efforts.”

As with the rest of the PTC team, Lati has a long list of goals and objectives. But given the ever-changing demands of his customers and some of the communication challenges within the global technology network, does Lati believe his team can achieve success? “We will get there,” Lati said with con-fidence. “We will get there.”

“I’m very happy and proud

to say that the IPS software

that runs in Australia, Brazil

and Denmark, is the same

IPS that runs in Burkina Faso,

Tanzania and South Africa.”

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A talk with... David Avsec

“I am responsible for managing two streams of requirements,” David ex-plained. “The first is the UPU’s regulations and standards, because IPS needs to fulfill those requirements, so we constantly ob-serve what is happening at the UPU and how the UPU’s decisions translate into requirements for the system. The second stream is from the users, what they need on top of the UPU regulations and stand-ards in order to manage their business.”

While there is certainly no doubt that much success has been achieved in IPS’s 20-year history, it has not been without challenges, the biggest of which is man-aging the development cycle to ensure

quality and efficiency while meeting the requirements and constraints of all of the various Posts. This is especially critical when Posts face business opportunities that require specific IPS features and func-tionalities that don’t necessarily match the general IPS development schedule.

However, despite the constraints, the PTC is extremely flexible and responsive to the needs of its customer base. In the last five years, the PTC successfully managed large complex integration projects, the most notable being Canada’s expanded usage of IPS. In previous years, Canada Post utilized only the accounting fea-ture of IPS, but they recently integrated

Mr David AvsecAccount Relationships Coordinator,Deputy Director, PTC

David Avsec, like many in the Postal Technology Center (PTC), has a

long-standing connection with IPS, beginning in 1995 when he was a

software developer for Praxis Informatique, the external firm used by

the UPU to bring about IPS. In 1998, David formally joined the UPU’s

PTC group (then the UPU’s EDI Unit) and has successfully transitioned

from software developer to now the Deputy Director of the PTC, in

charge of account relations and product management.

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the operations functionality into all of the new Vancouver facilities. Although IPS made up only a very small part of Canada’s expansion project, it played a crucial role in that any delay in the imple-mentation of IPS could have resulted in huge financial consequences for the Post. Thankfully, the project was completed on time and now represents one of the biggest installations undertaken by the IPS team.

“That’s one of the things [about] my team,” David continued. “Because we are the ones facing the customers, we are the first ones to face an unhappy customer and those situations, of course, are not the good ones. But we are also the first ones to face a happy customer and that is quite good for the motivation of the team.”

Along with Canada, Denmark, Australia and the Netherlands have driven much of the recent development of IPS. The USPS and Japan have historically been huge supporters of IPS and continue to promote the system to their partner Posts to help further streamline global postal operations. However, David stresses his team’s efforts to promote the full func-tionality of IPS within the smaller country posts which tend to use limited feature sets and don’t possess the technical ca-pabilities to fully take advantage of the benefits offered by IPS.

However, David maintains his optimism and believes that the next five years will bring about dramatic changes across the

postal sector. Given the PTC’s plans to bring about mobile-based applications, cloud computing and big data systems, David is excited about reducing costs for his customers and simplifying the imple-mentation of IPS.

“The next big step is the way we deliver software in the future,” David said with excitement. “Today, we are still in the model where we develop software and then it’s installed locally in the Post - small Posts can use the Web version of the system (IPS Light, now IPS.POST), while larger Posts currently have no other alternative than deploying locally. We want to change that and deliver software as a service. Using the cloud means that we will run the services from the PTC and [the Posts] will access it over the internet. We’ll have a faster delivery process, it will be cheaper, the integration will be easier and [our customers] can concentrate on their business.”

David believes that the once key compet-itive advantage of express service provid-ers like DHL and FedEx is no longer an overwhelming concern, given the tech-nologies now available in the Posts: full real-time traceability, guaranteed quality of service/delivery time, flexible delivery options and management of returns are all possible now thanks to progress in in-formation systems. However, David and his team continue to push the envelope to ensure that all of his customers, in turn, provide the best possible service to their customers.

When asked how he would like the post-al sector to view his team and their work with IPS, David said, “I want them to un-derstand that the motivation of the team is still intact. We’ve come a long way and we still want to achieve a lot. There are still great projects ahead of us and we are still good for at least another 20 years.”

“The next big step is

the way we deliver software

in the future”

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A talk with... Harald Weyerich

“When I came in 2006, the first new customer was Denmark,” recalls Harald. “And since then, we’ve been promot-ing our software to more and more industrialized countries. The latest ones, Sweden and Singapore, have joined, along with Macau and, most recently, Finland.”

Harald further explained that unlike commercial software developers, the PTC is controlled by its users. Through the funding provided by its member

Post clients, the PTC is a self-sustain-ing in-house IT service provider of the International Bureau of the UPU that develops products and features based strictly on the needs of its customers. Although general operating budgets are limited, the PTC heavily relies on and is supported by the annual licensing fees paid by its users. As IPS has grown and developed over the years, the larger country users have become the big drivers behind the development and funding of IPS. However, as Harald ex-

Mr Harald WeyerichDirector of PTC

When Harald Weyerich took the position of Director for the Postal

Technology Center (PTC), there were twenty nine people on staff,

responsible for the development and management of all electronic

support tools for the UPU member posts across the world. Prior to

his arrival at the PTC, Harald built a very successful career in the

commercial IT industry, having extensive experience in application

development and project management. Now, with a staff of more than

60 people in Berne and 22 in regional offices, Harald manages a wide-

ranging product portfolio of the PTC and, of course, leads the charge

to further enhance the IPS program.

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plained, this is of great benefit to smaller developing Posts because of the inher-ent “economies of scale”, reducing the IPS maintenance costs to a minimum. As the annual fee comprises all chang-es from the decision of UPU bodies, it is ensured that all Designated Postal Operators of the UPU members have the same level of IT support for international mail management.

When asked if IPS is a hard sell, Harald proudly replied, “No, finally it’s a self-runner. When I came in, we devel-oped a different promotional approach and it helped that I came from the commercial IT industry. At the time, Denmark was comparing our software to another software on the market, and they found that we are equal in the operational functionality but much better in the international accounting [function]. The economy of scale leads to an extremely attractive pricing of our software.”

As the number of industrialized us-er-countries has grown, along with the number of change requests, Harald and his group have worked hard to stream-line the version development process in order to better manage operational costs and improve system efficiency. Harald is very proud of his team’s capa-bilities and their ability to quickly react to their customers’ needs.

“The challenge is basically not to kill ourselves by taking on too much be-spoke development projects,” Harald explained. “The other challenge is man-

aging our growth as we leapfrog into the future with new services.”The future, however, is already upon us and Harald shared his vision for the next five years with great enthusiasm and excitement. Three strategies are already underway: mobile-based functionality, cloud services and big data – all of which are directly linked to IPS which feeds all of these systems. Eventually, the goal is to relieve Posts of the burden of IT infra-structure management as the PTC and IPS offer more services to simplify postal operations.

“You can imagine that [eventually] in the post offices, especially in the devel-oping countries, there are only tablets and all of the IT is running here [in Bern]”, Harald explained. “And if they need reports and analysis, we will have a data platform where they can have deep insight into the business processes and results of their work.”

As eager as he is about the future, in which he also expects another 10-15% increase in personnel to support the growth, Harald is insistent on the quality and responsiveness of his in-house team of experts. The PTC has recently expand-ed IPS to offer Customs Declaration Services (CDS) and will soon connect the PTC’s payment system (IFS suite) to IPS enabling member posts to offer an integrated e-commerce payment service - running within the PTC’s already secure work-flow systems and internet spaces.

“As long as there continues to be inter-national postal services, IPS and the PTC

will be there,” said Harald. “This is really great and it has been the best job of my life. As I go into pension in two years, I’m confident that the great work will continue.”

“The challenge is managing

our growth as we leapfrog

into the future with new

services.”

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PTC mail application ... Users (IPS & IPS.POST users in production - July 2016)

A

Afghanistan Postal administration, Afghanistan

Albania Posta Shiqiptare, sh.a. Albania

Algeria Direction des postes, Algérie

Angola Empresa Nacional De Correios Angola

Anguilla Anguilla Postal Services

Antigua And Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda GPO

Argentina Correo Argentino

Armenia Société anonyme «Haypost» Armenia

Aruba Aruba Postal Services

Australia Australian Postal Corporation

Azerbaijan Association «Azerpocht»

B

Bahamas Bahamas Post

Bangladesh Bangladesh Post Office

Barbados Barbados Postal Service

Belarus Eur Belpochta, Belarus

Belize Belize Postal Service

Benin Office des postes et télécom. Benin

Bermuda Bermuda Post Office

Bhutan Bhutan Post

Caribbean Netherlands BQ Flamingo Express Dutch Caribbean

Bosnia and Herzegovina

BiH - BH Post, Sarajevo

Botswana Botswana Postal Services

Brazil Correios Do Brasil

Brunei Darussalam Brunei Darussalam, Postal Services

Bulgaria (Rep.) Entreprise «Les Postes bulgares» SA

Burkina Faso Société nationale, postes Burkina

Burundi Régie Nationale Des Postes, Burundi

C

Cambodia Direction des postes, Cambodia

Canada Canada Post Corporation

Cabo Verde Correios de Cabo Verde

Cayman Islands Cayman Islands Post Office

Chad STPE, Tchad

Chile Empresa Correos De Chile

Colombia Servicios Postales Nacionales, Co

Comoros SNPT Comores

Congo, Republic Of Office Nat. Des Postes Du Congo Rép

Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The

SCPT, Rép Dém Du Congo

Cook Islands Cook Islands Post

Costa Rica Correos De Costa Rica S.A

Côte D'Ivoire La Poste De Côte D'Ivoire

Croatia HP-Croatian Post Inc

Cuba Empresa De Correos De Cuba

Curaçao Nieuwe Post Nederlandse Antillen

Cyprus Cyprus Post

Czech Republic Czech Post

D

Denmark Post Danmark A/S

Djibouti La Poste de Djibouti S.A.

Dominica General Post Office, Dominica

Dominican Republic Instituto Postal Dominicano

E

Ecuador Correos Del Ecuador

Egypt Organisme National Des Postes Egypt

El Salvador Correos El Salvador

Eritrea Eritrean Postal Service

Estonia Estonian Post

Ethiopia Ethiopian Postal Service

F

Faeroe Islands Posta, Faröe Islands (Denmark)

Fiji Post Fiji Ltd

Finland Posti Ltd, Finland

France La Poste, France (accounting)

France Chronopost France

France La Poste, France (Military mail)

France Direction Colis - ColiPoste

French Polynesia OPT Polynesie Française

G

Gabon Gabon Poste

Gambia, The Gambia Postal Services Department

Georgia Georgian Post

Ghana Ghana Post Company Ltd

Gibraltar Royal Gibraltar Post Office

Great Britain NLRTMV - Rotterdam V Etoe GBA

Great Britain DENTEA - Neuenstein A

Greece Hellenic Post (Elta)

Greenland Post Greenland (Denmark)

Grenada Grenada Postal Corporation

Guatemala Correos Y Telégrafos Guatemala

Guinea Office De La Poste Guinéenne (OPG)

Guyana Post Office Corporation, Guyana

H

Haiti Office Des Postes d'Haïti

Honduras Correos De Honduras, Honducor

Hungary Hungarian Post

I

Iceland Iceland Post

India Department Of Posts (India)

Indonesia Pt.Pos Indonesia (Persero)

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Post Company, Islamic Rep Of Iran

Iraq Iraq Telecommunications And Posts

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Italy Poste Italiane, S.P.A.

J

Jamaica Postal Corporation Of Jamaica Ltd

Jersey Jersey Post Limited

Jordan Jordan Postal Company

K

Kazakhstan Joint-Stock Company Kazpost

Kenya Postal Corporation Of Kenya

Kiribati Postal Division, Kiribati

Kuwait Department Of Postal Affairs Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan Département D'Etat Kirghiz Postacy

L

Lao People'S Democratic Republic

Entreprise Des Postes Lao

Latvia Latvia Post

Lebanon Libanpost

Lesotho Lesotho Postal Services

Liberia Ministry of Posts Liberia

Libya Libya Post Company

Liechtenstein Liechtensteinische Post AG

M

Macao (Special Administrative Region Of China)

Correios De Macau

Macedonia Makedonska Posta

Madagascar Paositra Malagasy, Madagascar

Malawi Malawi Posts Corporation

Malaysia Malaysia Post Limited

Maldives Maldives Post Limited

Mali Office National Des Postes Du Mali

Mauritania Mauritania Posts Corp

Mauritius Mauritius Post Limited

Mexico Servico Postal Mexicano

Moldova Entreprise d’Etat Posta Moldovei

Mongolia Mongol Post Company

Montenegro (Rep.) Montenegro Post

Morocco Barid Al-Maghrib

Mozambique Correios De Moçambique, E.P.

Myanmar Myanmar Posts And Telecomm Dept

N

Namibia Namibia Post Ltd

Nepal Nepal Post, Ktm

Netherlands Royal PostNL

New Caledonia OPT - Nouvelle Calédonie

New Zealand New Zealand Post Limited

Niger Office National De La Poste, Niger

Nigeria Nigerian Postal Service

O

Oman Oman Intl Post Central Office

P

Pakistan Pakistan Post Office

Palestinian Territories Palestine Post

Panama (Rep.) Correos Y Telégrafos Panama

Papua New Guinea Post PNG Ltd, Papua New Guinea

Paraguay Dirección De Correos Paraguay

Peru Serpost S.A., Peru

Philippines Philippine Postal Corporation

Poland The Polish Post

Portugal CTT Correios De Portugal

Q

Qatar Corp. Générale Des Postes, Qatar

R

Romania Compania Nationala Posta Romana SA

Rwanda Office National Des Postes, Rwanda

S

Saint Kitts and Nevis GPO St Kitts And Nevis

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia General Post Office

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

St Vincent and the Grenadines Post

Samoa Samoa Post Limited

Sao Tome and Principe Empresa de Correios, Sao Tomé y P

Senegal La Poste Sénégal

Senegal EMS Sénégal

Serbia (Rep.) Public Enterprise of PTT Serbia

Seychelles Victoria Seychelles Post Office

Sierra Leone Sierraleone Postalservices, Salpost

Singapore Singapore Post Limited

Sint Maarten Postal Services St. Maarten NV

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands Postal Corporation

South Africa South Africa Post Office Limited

Sri Lanka Postal Department Sri Lanka

Sudan Sudanese Postal Service Company Ltd

Suriname Suriname Postal Corp., Surpost

Swaziland Swaziland Posts And Telecomm. Corp

Sweden Posten Ab

Switzerland Swiss Post

Syrian Arab Rep. Syrie, Etbl. Général Des Postes

T

Tanzania (United Rep.) Tanzania Postal Corporation

Thailand Thailand Post Co., Ltd

Togo Société Des Postes Du Togo

Tonga Tonga Post

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad-Tobago Postal Corporation

Tunisia La Poste Tunisienne

Turkey Direction Générale Des PTT, Turquie

Tuvalu Postal Division Tuvalu

U

Uganda Uganda Post Limited

Uruguay ANC Correo Uruguayo Uruguay

V

Vanuatu Vanuatu Post Limited

Venezuela Instituto PT De Venezuela Ipostel

Viet Nam Vietnam Post (VNPost)

Virgin Islands, British British Virgin Islands Post

Y

Yemen Yemen Post & Postal Savings Corp

Z

Zambia Zambia Postal Services Corporation

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Posts Pvt. Ltd.

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The UPU’s Postal Technology Centre team would like to thank everyone involved in the making of this commemorative book. The team especially thanks those who agreed to be interviewed in order to look back on the IPS application’s history.

We are also very grateful to our col-leagues who were kind enough to read over this book, and those who helped in its publication.

Finally, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to the users. Their active contribution to the discus-sions and debates enabled us to continue developing this IT solution so that it could benefit from new technologies and serve as the basis for activities in ECOMPRO, the UPU’s e-commerce project.

Acknowledgements

CONTACT: Universal Postal Union Postal Technology Centre Weltpoststrasse 4 3000 BERNE 15 SWITZERLAND PHONE: +41 31 350 31 11 FAX: +41 31 351 31 10 E-MAIL: [email protected]

Documents

U UNIVERSAL UP POSTAL UNION - Universal Postal … · CASE STUDY Australia 30 ... is a testament to the UPU’s capacity to turn a dream ... 20 years after its launch, continue to