Efficiency boost
for UK postiesb
 The UK’s Royal Mail has invested in 25,000 of Intermec’s rugged, handheld CN3 mobile computers. These discreet, yet powerful mobile computers have been chosen as part of Royal Mail’s drive to modernise its business, improve efficiency and customer service while cutting operational costs.
Royal Mail delivers 80 million items a day to 28 million addresses across the UK. Intermec’s roots in supply chain management have made the company an ideal choice for sharpening tracking and operations processes for Royal Mail.
For over 40 years, Intermec has worked alongside its postal and express parcel clients to improve the productivity, quality and responsiveness of their business operations. Their customers include both national postal operators and parcel carriers in over 80 countries worldwide.
Intermec also understands the postal, express parcel, and home delivery marketplaces in terms of industry requirements and mobility considerations. By having experience and shared investment with these clients, Intermec can help improve their core areas of operation, from item labelling, outward sortation, distribution, inward sortation, delivery, re-
delivery, and proof of receipt.
As a consequence, such expertise is a significant asset at a time when the postal industry faces so many challenges from other forms of communication media, and technical innovation becomes a much sought-after solution.
This is where Intermec’s seasoned experience has played a key role in supporting Royal Mail to respond appropriately to the shifts in industry performance and to enhance its service and operations.
The last mile of delivery
In the last mile of the delivery process (as well as in the collection process) Intermec has seen other clients benefit from a greater use of handheld technology out in the field in order to better document and verify the exit (and entry) of letters and parcels.
The Intermec CN3 mobile computer enables Royal Mail to improve on its current paper-based system for collecting signatures for the majority of its tracked products, including special delivery and recorded signed-for services. A signature is collected on the handheld device which is then sent via GPRS wireless technology to enable sending customers to confirm delivery, and view the signature, within 15 minutes.
Intermec says the CN3 is the leader of the class of small, advanced, rugged mobile computers, with up to four integrated radios, including GPS, enabling more expedient processes for the mobile worker through 1D and 2D bar code scanning. The CN3 handheld also runs Windows Mobile which supports direct push wireless email, giving the Royal Mail users real-time connectivity with the corporate network.
Robin Dargue, chief information officer at Royal Mail Group, views the employment of Intermec’s CN3 as a timely and beneficial tool for Royal Mail’s business: “We embarked on a series of trials across the UK late in 2007 to test the suitability, compatibility and benefits of a postal digital assistant for both our customers and our staff.
“The feedback from both groups was extremely positive, especially when it came to ease of use of the CN3. I am confident that our choice of Intermec, with its innovative technology and expert team, will help Royal Mail continue to meet the needs of its customers and improve its competitive edge in a market where competition is increasing.”
Experiencing ‘the voice of the customer’
Part of Intermec’s customer commitment includes the ‘voice of the customer’ programme where they send their top engineers, product managers and product marketing directors out into the field so they can experience the postal industry ‘life’ for a number of days and even weeks. They then bring this knowledge back to Intermec to better understand the needs of their postal customers and deliver solutions accordingly.
The Intermec client relationship ethos suggests that learning from this experience directly impacts their product development process, delivering more focused products that better fit their intended applications.
Pat Byrne, Intermec president and CEO, says: “As one of the major trend-setters in European and global postal services, Royal Mail is strengthening its leadership position with the selection of the CN3. As the global supply chain continues to evolve, in-transit visibility will have a significant impact on improving customer service and revenue generation.”
Royal Mail can enjoy the benefits of this super functional and cost-effective investment straight away. The CN3 offers any postal or dispatch enterprise the opportunity to re-evaluate existing technology in favour of innovations that drive improved efficiency and customer responsiveness, and provide a competitive edge.
For further information, visit
www.intermec.com
===================================================
you may also be interested in the following article:
Win-win from advanced
refuelling solution |
By Iain MacIntyre
Nationwide onsite diesel refuelling company, Mini-Tankers, has combined GPS, in-vehicle telemetry, hand-held computers and RFID readers to pioneer a new and significantly improved delivery service. While vastly reducing data-handling errors, the innovative system is also said to have improved productivity for both Mini-Tankers and its clients alike. According to a recent report released by Tracient Technologies – the supplier of the system’s Padl-R HF RFID reader – Mini-Tankers sought the new solution to tackle four main challenges, the first of which was simply to ensure accurate identification of the customers’ assets to be re-fuelled. “This is not always easy when the asset’s identity details have been scratched, worn off or obscured by mud,” said the report. Details had also been affected by petrochemicals. |
read article
|
|
