USPS Transforms World's Largest Intranet To Do More With Less

The Postal Service's Chief Technology Officer today unveiled a major Transformation Plan action item underway to upgrade, modernize, enhance, secure, and simplify the world's largest intranet infrastructure. The initiative, known as the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE), will save up to $200 million over five years by centralizing and reducing support functions for 130,000 computer users among 28,000 postal facilities nationwide.

"This effort," explained CTO Charles E. Bravo, "is about doing more with less – a key focus throughout the Postal Service – as it works to transform itself."

"Consolidation and simplification gives us a more manageable support structure, better control of standardization and, with fewer support locations, the ability to significantly reduce costs. Standardization throughout the system is also one of the hallmarks of our transformation efforts."

The Challenge of Enhancing the World's Largest Intranet

The technology infrastructure to support collecting, processing and delivering nearly half the world's mail volume is a daunting task. Bravo said that while planned and managed, the Postal Service's extremely large and complex computer infrastructure developed over the last decade has grown "at warp speed."

"Our current infrastructure is a mixture of new and old – mostly old," he explained. "Most equipment is five- to seven-years old. Seventy percent of our computers are no longer covered by warranty. We support an extremely wide range of software packages. It is a difficult balancing act to support – and integrate — multiple versions of operating software. And 130,000 users are now supported by 11,000 server and equipment support sites."

Bravo said that among other challenges, the skills required to support the Postal Service's range of equipment, software and locations is not readily available in the industry today, making it difficult and costly to manage the current environment.

Increased Security

The recent terrorist attacks have also placed increased emphasis on this initiative.

"In the post September 11 environment, security has become an increasingly critical aspect of every information technology function. "We can simplify and automate future deployments while enhancing overall security," he said.

Making Mail Smarter

Bravo said the ACE effort also supports "intelligent mail products" and other Transformation Plan initiatives.

"It supports the core business and connects all sites, equipment, applications, and users, and enables data transfer across the organization on a 24/7 365 day-a-year basis."

Intelligent Mail leverages bar code technology so that the Postal Service and major customers can identify specific mail pieces as they travel through the mail stream. The Postal Service uses this data to identify mail volume flows so that management can place the right resources in the right place at the right time. Major mailers use this technology to determine when customers receive or send mailings.

Vision of Success

Begun last year, Bravo credited ACE to the direction of Bob Otto, Vice President, Information Technology, and Larry Wills, the postal executive in charge of this effort.

"The Information Technology (IT) group has taken great steps with a clear vision of success. When Bob became the VP of Information Technology 15 months ago, he realized that this infrastructure needed to be upgraded. Our IT group focused efforts on upgrading the entire Postal computing environment "

Doing More With Less

"This is not an expansion – it's actually the reverse," explained Bravo. "ACE significantly reduces the amount of equipment deployed while reducing the complexity of our computing infrastructure. ACE will expand user support from today's 130,000 users to as many as 200,000. It will also:

standardize and simplify the environment to be more integrated by reducing almost 270 software packages to 60;
reduce the 85 District "Help Desks" to just one,
reduce hardware from 13,000 to only 1,500 servers; plus,
consolidate the number of support locations from 11,000 to 540.
Beyond the operational advantages ACE offers significant cost-saving opportunities. These include:

Re-negotiated contracts that resulted in reduced labor rates – some by as much as 30 percent.
Consolidation and the use of remote management tools to lower support costs, such as eliminating 800 contractor positions over the next 30 months.
Reduction of software licensing costs through the reduction of software programs being used.
The Future of Wireless Connections and Online Learning

ACE also offers exciting opportunities for further cost savings and increased functionality. The ability of managers to be connected anywhere, anytime is now a reality using wireless devices. ACE will provide management with connectivity to e-mail, calendars, pagers, addresses, and work tasks using just one device.

"The upgraded infrastructure positions the Postal Service to provide electronic learning courses; thus reducing training costs, as we continue our efforts to develop the leaders of tomorrow," he added. "This simplified infrastructure allows local staff with the ability to perform installations of computer equipment."

"This upgrade is a huge undertaking – and one that offers tremendous savings. ACE is transforming one of the largest infrastructures in the world, to support our future technology needs. As we continue to automate our operations, our mailer interfaces, and provide real-time data across the corporation; ACE makes this vision a reality."