Geopost saves 75% with open source
“Using proprietary software, the project was estimated at £1.5 million: we couldn’t see the value, when the Open Source alternative would give cost savings of more than 75% for the project”
Vernon Adams, Head of Technology Architecture & Strategy, GeoPost UK
Background: GeoPost UK
GeoPost UK is a leading express parcel carrier and part of LaPoste, Europe’s second largest postal group. Operating as the DPD and Interlink Express brands in the UK, the business has more than 130 depots, 4000 employees and delivers millions of parcels a year.
The Challenge:
Based near Birmingham, at the heart of the UK roads network, GeoPost UK’s headquarters is a state-of-the art facility capable of processing more than tens of thousands of parcels per hour. The company has thousands of customers, ranging multi-nationals to individuals, high street and online retailers.
GeoPost UK’s senior management team, depot and account managers ran and planned the business (day-to-day and long term) using Excel generated reports. Spreadsheets were manually produced, manipulated and reformatted to produce the required information. As the business has grown, the reports have deviated considerably – departments wanted different reports, formats changed and data was processed multiple times to give specific information.
“Whilst reporting had become more complex and time consuming than we wanted, my real concern was data integrity” recalls Vernon Adams, GeoPost UK’s Head of Technology Architecture and Strategy. He continued “As different business operations extracted and interpreted data in different ways, we were starting to see conflicting reports, with the same data being used to produce different results. If it continued, there was potential for key business decisions to be made using data whose accuracy couldn’t be guaranteed. It was obvious that we need to address the situation quickly and decisively”.
The Solution:
GeoPost UK decided to completely revise its information management. Realising that the business needed to analyse data right down to the individual parcel level, Vernon began promoting a dashboard concept which could display the business’ key metrics. “Given that we process hundreds of thousands of parcels a day and each has around 10 touch different touch points, it was clear that we needed a Business Intelligence (BI) solution” recalls Vernon.
Vernon and his team invited several key BI vendors to present their ideas to company’s Board using GeoPost UK’s own data for the project. “We need to involve the Board” outlines Vernon, “Not just to sanction the cost, but because the project – and the dashboard – was a major departure from anything we’d undertaken previously: getting the Board to understand the implications and resulting benefits was vital for its success”.
But the results from the BI vendors failed to impress, as Vernon explains “We were looking at costs of around £1.5million, but the Board just didn’t see the value, particularly as the cost excluded ongoing license and support costs”.
Instead, they opted for a solution based on MySQL and Jaspersoft’s BI software. Vernon and his team were already familiar with MySQL and Jaspersoft’s solution was sufficiently flexible to integrate with their dashboard concept. Results were initially promising, but progress stalled as data volumes increased and presentation times slowed. With the IT team under pressure to deliver results, Vernon was introduced to Open Business Associates (OBA), the management consultancy for Open Source.
OBA analysed GeoPost UK’s approach, existing implementation and then recommended a solution that could be deployed in parallel with the existing dashboards, import scripts and data warehouse. OBA also recommended that GeoPost implemented Infobright’s high performance analytics database, as its column structure would dramatically improve analytical query times and simplify data warehouse operations by reducing or eliminating the need for aggregate tables.
To speed the process further, OBA replaced the manual scripts with Talend’s ETL tool, which not only saved time, but allowed data to be changed and updated more easily and quickly. Its graphical data automation facility enables real time reporting - one of Vernon’s long-term goals for the new management reporting system.
Using the Infobright solution has made a significant contribution to the success of the project according to Vernon: “We can now collect and process data put it into the new dashboard and know that it’s 100% accurate. There’s no longer any potential for discrepancy or questions about data integrity – as everyone from the Board to depot and account managers using the same information”.
GeoPost UK has now deployed the new reporting dashboard to more than 600 users across the organisation. “The business has embraced the new system” commented Vernon, adding: “There’s now a standardised interface through the business, through which we can analyse our operations far more effectively. The Board, depot and account managers and the sales teams can drill right down to the individual parcel or delivery route level - in a way that simply wasn’t possible previously. As a result, we’re better placed to make changes and alter the way we operate to increase profitability and further improve our customer service.”
The Future:
Over the coming months, Vernon and his team will deploy the new dashboard reporting system throughout GeoPost’s UK operation. There are also plans to further standardise reporting, include dynamic user dashboards and instant updates, as well as using the dashboard for more extensive data modelling and forecasting.
Benefits to the Customer:
? Cost savings of over 75%- compared with using proprietary solution
? Improved business efficiency - single dashboard for all management information down to parcel level means changes can be implemented quickly
? Flexibility – solution chosen allowed GeoPost UK to meet existing deadlines and work on future-proof solution in parallel.
About Open Business Associates:
Open Business Associates (OBA) is the management consultancy for open source. The company provides business consulting and systems integration services to develop, design, deploy, implement and support enterprise open source solutions. In addition to business solutions for BI, BPM, CRM and ERP, the company also offers infrastructure solutions such as analytical databases and enterprise systems management. Technical expertise, proven methodologies and fast, effective project deployment are central to OBA’s approach. The company operates in many different market sectors and its global customers include KPMG, Toyota, GeoPost UK, JCDecaux UK and America's Automobile Association. For more information, visit: www.openbusinessassociates.co.uk
