Special Delivery: Just-in-time Savings

Logistics Heads Discover New Ways to Eliminate Trips,

Satisfy Customers and Deliver Goods Faster—for Less

W H I T E PA P E R :

F L E E T A N D LO G I S T I C S M A N AG E M E N T
UNITED STATES

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www.pbbusinessinsight.com

CANADA

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©2009 Pitney Bowes Software. All rights reserved. 92181-905

Pitney Bowes Business Insight is a division of Pitney Bowes Software Inc. Customer Data Quality is a trademark of Pitney Bowes Inc.
 W H I T E PA P E R : F L E E T A N D LO G I S T I C S M A N A G E M E N T

Special Delivery: Just-in-time Savings

Logistics Heads Discover New Ways to Eliminate Trips,
Satisfy Customers and Deliver Goods Faster—For Less

2 A B S T R ACT

FLEET AND LOGISTICS MANAGERS ARE FACING EXTRAORDINARY TIMES. RISING COSTS, LESS PREDICTABLE VOLUMES AND

CORPORATE-WIDE BUDGET PRESSURES HAVE RAISED THE STAKES ON DECISIONS AND OPERATIONS THAT ARE ANYTHING LESS

THAN PERFECT. NOW MORE THAN EVER, THESE CHALLENGES WEIGH ON EVERY NEW INVESTMENT.

INDUSTRY LEADERS, HOWEVER, HAVE IDENTIFIED POCKETS OF OPPORTUNITY WHERE MORE PRECISE DATA CAN IMPROVE

PERFORMANCE IN DRAMATIC WAYS—AND DELIVER AN IMPRESSIVE ROI AT A TIME WHEN EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS.

THESE OPPORTUNITIES SPAN THE ENTIRE CYCLE, FROM THE INITIAL ORDER THROUGH THE FINAL DELIVERY, AND ARE

DRIVEN BY A COMMON ENGINE: REAL-TIME ACCESS TO PRECISE LOCATION DATA.

WHILE POINT-LEVEL SOLUTIONS HAVE EXISTED FOR YEARS, WHAT’S NEW IS THAT TODAY’S APPLICATIONS CAN HELP YOU

LEVERAGE THE SAME CUSTOMER, LOCATION AND PROCESS DATA ACROSS ALL OF THE FUNCTIONS THAT ARE CRITICAL TO

A SUCCESSFUL SHIPPING OPERATION. MANY SHIPPERS HAVE LEARNED HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS

ACROSS TOUCH POINTS, BETTER MANAGE EXPECTATIONS AND PROACTIVELY MANAGE THE OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

PLUS, THE SAME DATA THAT KEEPS CUSTOMERS IN THE LOOP CAN HELP MAKE THOSE LOOPS SHORTER — THE KEY TO

MORE EFFICIENT DELIVERY.

www.pbbusinessinsight.com
HIGH-QUALITY, REAL-TIME ADDRESS-VALIDATION TOOLS CAN
HELP IMPROVE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES ACROSS YOUR BUSINESS.

This Pitney Bowes Business Insight white paper examines
how fleet and logistics managers are employing location
intelligence and high-quality data to realize significant
improvements in performance.
They have achieved impressive results by:
The Cost of a Single Bad Address 3
Mistakes do happen. But when you look at the domino
effect that one small address error can send racing through
your operations, it becomes clear why real-time address-
validation makes tremendous sense.

• Getting it right the first time If that mistake means you can’t deliver, you need to notify
• Connecting with customers your customer — and that notification alone can cost you
as much as $5 or more. Then that undeliverable package
• Eliminating wasteful steps
needs to be returned to the warehouse or distribution
• Enabling informed decisions center— and delivery and handling on the unwanted
return can set you back another $10 to $20. Add to these
In fact, this combination of customer, location and
costs the time it takes to correct the error, the hard costs
operational intelligence has already helped save them
of restocking or reshipping the goods, the soft costs of a
millions. We should know. For over twenty-five years,
less-than-optimal customer experience, and other costs
companies that rely on fleet and logistics management
such as delivery delays on other items that occurred
have come to Pitney Bowes Business Insight for data,
while your driver tried to reconcile the initial problem…
analytics and the precise intelligence needed to make
It’s easy to see how the expenses can really start to add up.
more insightful decisions.
Today’s best address-validation tools help ensure that
Getting it Right the First Time: your addresses are both complete and accurate. They are
Ensuring Address Accuracy designed to help you catch— and correct— inconsistencies
right at the customer point of contact. They compare
Customer Data Quality (CDQ), once solely in the purview
address structures between postal and non-postal data
of marketers and database managers, has become an
sets to ensure consistency, eliminate redundancies, and
indispensable tool for logistics managers as well. The ability
support all modes of delivery—shipping, mailing and
to eliminate errors early on, including the misdirection
courier. They also automatically enable data-sharing
caused by faulty data entry and incorrect information,
across your organization, providing real-time updates that
saves significant time and money down the road.
keep every one on the same page.
The first step in accurate, on-time delivery is to ensure
These tools are built on industry best practices. They
that you have exactly the right address. It’s one thing to
enhance the usability of your customer information and
understand that address validation has value, it’s another
make updates and modifications easy. They are built
to recognize how the tiniest errors — like omitting even
for flexibility and sensible support of customer service,
one character — can rack up extra miles, extra fuel costs,
customer communications and marketing efforts.
delays, and frustrated customers.
What’s more, their data structure makes it simple to
High-quality, real-time address-validation tools can help append your files with additional types of information
improve operational efficiencies across your business. that can enrich and strengthen your ability to deliver on
They will enable you to catch errors — and catch them time and under budget.
while you’re with the customer. That, in turn, enables
quick correction, without extra process steps.
 W H I T E PA P E R : F L E E T A N D LO G I S T I C S M A N A G E M E N T
Special Delivery: Just-in-time Savings
Logistics Heads Discover New Ways to Eliminate Trips,
Satisfy Customers and Deliver Goods Faster—For Less
4 Connecting with Customers Every Step
of the Way: Enhancing Customer
Communication Management
The data derived from address validation and geocoding
empowers customers to make the best delivery choices,
benefit from the fastest, most cost-effective delivery, and
better track their shipments along the way. That same data
can also be harnessed by other areas of your business for
more effective communication management.
Customer Communication Management (CCM) is the
business of coordinating communications across your
organization; and, it’s the heart of customer service.
Both proactive and reactive, quality CCM provides
customers with just the information they need for smart
decisions and peace of mind at every juncture, including:
• shopping experience
• point of order
• customer scheduling
• delivery status
• customer alerts
• delivery confirmation
• billing
• manifest reconciliation
• customer service
• feedback and surveys
Excellence in customer communications improves customer
satisfaction. Best-in-class technologies make it easy to share
real-time data throughout your organization and provide
the flexibility to quickly and easily add functionality to
accommodate your changing business needs. For example,
with real-time access and enhanced data, your sales
people can provide point-of-sale delivery information, and
your customer service team can provide for faster, more
www.pbbusinessinsight.com
informed response to customer inquiries. What’s more,
your marketing team can prepare outbound communications
that better reflect customer history and needs. And,
depending on your business, this centralized enriched
data may have a host of other uses.
Eliminating Wasteful Steps:
Using Geocoding to Optimize Delivery
Geocoding tools append addresses with information that
can make your customer data work harder — and increase
your efficiency. They take you beyond the right address
to help you better determine if you should ship, how you
should ship, how best to get there, and what to expect
when you do.
The Power of Geocoding
Geocoding enables you to provide a clearer, smarter
picture of just how to deliver for your customers. With it,
addresses are linked to specific latitudes and longitudes —
not just streets and zip codes.
Geocoding can also add any number of geographic
characteristics to enrich your data with added relevance
and usability. Weather and disaster-related information;
proximity to important locations such as your distribution
centers or stores; traffic and construction updates;
tax jurisdictions; and area shipping restrictions — these
are just some of the types of information that can be
appended to your data.
All of this information powers spatial analysis, an automated
process for:
• Determining the true territory or zone an address is in
• Plotting how addresses are located relative to each other
• Determining ways to optimize all aspects of delivery—
from point of origin, to loading of goods, to routing
deliveries, to tracking of items in transit
EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS IMPROVES
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.
S H O U L D YO U S H I P ?
THERE ARE TWO KEY REASONS TO PAUSE BEFORE YOU SHIP – AND GEOCODING HELPS WITH BOTH:
First, they may be few and far between, but there are times
when you “just can’t get there from here.” Geocoding can
identify situations where shipping is simply not viable.
Take for example, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: hosts
of addresses were literally wiped off the face of the map, yet
shippers who lacked specific information on these addresses
continued to ship—at enormous costs. Situations such as these
can occur due to weather or other natural disasters. They can
be a function of terrorism or political unrest. Or they may just
reflect smaller, still costly delays caused by activities such
as parades, protests, street fairs or construction projects that
temporarily render an address inaccessible.
Second, there are times when shipping may not be the best
solution—there may be other ways to serve your customers
better. For example, if an item is out of stock at the store near
a customer’s office, it may still be in stock in the location near
their delivery address at home. Geocoding can automatically
do a real-time inventory check and raise the option for
customer pick-up close to home. This gives your customer
more choice, and faster access—and it may eliminate the need
for delivery altogether.
HOW SHOULD YOU SHIP? Point-to-point optimization is another
great benefit that can be derived from geocoding. Geocoding
can determine the closest store or distribution center to the
ultimate delivery address—and whether that site has the
inventory to support immediate delivery. At point-of-sale,
it can also identify other nearby sites and compare both their
ability to deliver and the impact delivery will have on their
inventory levels.
5
Armed with all this information, you can automatically determine
the best point of origin for this shipment—and for positioning
your business for shipments to come.
WHAT ROUTE SHOULD YOU TAKE? Gasoline, man hours, and
maintenance all add up fast for fleet operators. However,
geocoding can help. With geocoding, you’ll spend less time
prepping for shipment, get your merchandise to your customers
faster—and get your drivers home in record time.
Geocoding can automatically map out the very best routes,
right down to putting your trucks on the right side of each street
for the most efficient delivery. The information it generates
can help to plan your manifests and the order in which you pack
your trucks for rapid last-in-first-out delivery. It can enable
package-level delivery tracking. And each of these time-saving
steps reduces your delivery costs and improves the level of
service you can provide to your customers.
WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT WHEN YOU GET THERE? Special
geocoding tools can also incorporate other important details
into your delivery planning. They can help pinpoint areas where
it may be best that drivers arrive in daylight, where you can
avoid scheduled road closures, and when traffic on the most
congested routes is at its lightest. You can factor these variables
in when the manifest is prepped and the trucks are loaded.
Geocoding’s real-time capabilities can even provide updates
while your drivers are in transit. Knowing where traffic is
terrible, neighborhoods are less safe, and construction may
slow things down can not only reduce your headaches, it can
protect your drivers and keep events and snags from throwing
off your delivery schedules.
 W H I T E PA P E R : F L E E T A N D LO G I S T I C S M A N A G E M E N T

Special Delivery: Just-in-time Savings

Logistics Heads Discover New Ways to Eliminate Trips,
Satisfy Customers and Deliver Goods Faster—For Less

6 Informing Decisions: Improving Business
Enterprise-wide
As we’ve illustrated, the location intelligence you gain
through improved address quality and geocoding can
have a profound effect on the efficiency of your day-to-day
shipping and fleet operations. It also has the power to
enable you to take a step back and make better big-ticket
decisions for your business.
Location intelligence tools can generate all manner of
insights to support smart strategic planning:
• Are your stores and distribution centers optimally located?
• How can you better allocate your resources—fleet,
personnel and inventory—to best serve your customers?
At the same time, if you were considering opening another
store in a nearby suburban location, location intelligence
could show you how well different suburban populations
match your target customer profile and how much of
those populations you already reach through your
downtown store. This would enable you to pick a site that
would bring you the biggest number—and percentage—
of new customers.
Organizations from telecommunications companies to
police departments are using location intelligence today
to better deploy their resources and enhance the services
they provide. It’s all about making informed decisions—
and today’s tools provide the information that makes better
decisions possible.

• Should you actively promote customer pick-up options?

• Where are the best locations for new stores and distribution
centers?
• What areas/populations offer the best potential for
new-customer acquisition?
The questions—and the answers — depend on your
business; and the opportunities for using location
intelligence for predictive analysis are tremendous.
Beyond the Fleet: The Powers of
Predictive Analysis
Location Intelligence: An Intelligent Investment
Companies that invest in top-quality location intelligence
solutions often see positive ROI inside of six months.
And many achieve a six-figure return on their investment
within the year. Add in the intangibles—happier customers,
happier drivers, and happier customer-service personnel—
that come from greater efficiencies, better communications,
and better information sharing throughout your organization.
Investing in location intelligence can be a very smart move
for many businesses— especially in today’s tough economy
where the customer is king, and every penny counts.

Location intelligence provides insights to support an Pitney Bowes Business Insight can help logistics heads
amazing range of strategic decisions. discover new ways to eliminate trips, satisfy customers
and deliver goods faster—for less. Our industry-leading
Consider, for example, if you had a department store in
software and professional services can help you operate
a downtown, urban location. You might not think of
more effectively by better organizing, sharing, evaluating
displaying yard tools and patio equipment. However,
and decisively acting upon customer-related and location-
if you determine, through location intelligence, that a
centric data. We provide smart solutions that are benefiting
large percentage of your in-store customers actually live
many fleet managers and shipping coordinators today.
in the suburbs but shop near work, you might change
your displays—and increase your sales.

www.pbbusinessinsight.com
LOCATION INTELLIGENCE PROVIDES INSIGHTS TO SUPPORT
AN AMAZING RANGE OF STRATEGIC DECISIONS.

Pitney Bowes Business Insight—formed when MapInfo 7

and Group 1 Software were combined as a single division
within Pitney Bowes— is the only resource that provides
the end-to-end support you need to manage your fleet
and customer shipments more effectively. With expertise
in customer data quality, enterprise geocoding, mapping
and routing, spatial analysis and customer communication
management, we can help you streamline your operation
and save money from the initial order through final delivery.

In these extraordinary times, rising costs, less predictable

volumes and corporate-wide budget pressures have raised
the stakes on decisions and operations that are anything
less than perfect.Learn how Pitney Bowes Business Insight
can help.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL 1.800.327.8627 OR VISIT WWW.PBBUSINESSINSIGHT.COM