Tag: France

La Poste entrusts Bull to host its digital postmark application

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

La Poste entrusts Bull to host its digital postmark application.
The French Post Office Group (La Poste) has renewed the outsourcing contract for its digital postmark application for the second year running.

Customer issue

The digital equivalent of the traditional postmark, the digital postmark enables proof of an electronic event to be set up and managed (issuing identity, date and time stamping, data integrity), this proof being legally upholdable to a third party. In essence, the postmark uses specially adapted cryptographic mechanisms to enable basic questions about an electronic event to be answered: WHO initiated the event? WHEN did the event’s author create, see, sign, receive, etc? WHAT is the content of the digital event?

The ‘Digital postmark’, with its signature validation authority and date stamping authority functionality, enables the French Post Office to position itself in France as trusted third party in digital data exchanges.

Bull provided

Developed by Bull, this application is hosted and monitored 24/7 at Bull’s high security production centre. It is based on a replicated architecture distributed across ten Bull NovaScale Universal servers. It was designed in n-tier mode (portal, applications server, database server) and a J2EE environment built around the JOnAS application server developed by the OW2/ObjectWeb consortium, dedicated to Open Source middleware. The application conforms to DPM (Digital Postmark) standards drawn up by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency responsible for standardizing exchanges between the different postal networks.

Bull’s contribution fulfills the requirements of La Poste:
• Very high service quality
• Capacity to handle a rapid rise in throughput
• Minimal timescales for restoring systems in the event of a major incident.

Web Site http://www.laposte.fr

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Hermes Logistik eyes acquisition in Spain

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

Hermes Logistik is considering an acquisition in Spain and potentially elsewhere to strengthen its European B2C network, according to the company’s management.

Managing director Hanjo Schneider told the Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung (DVZ) that in Spain the Otto Group subsidiary was seeking “a solution in the next 12 – 18 months”. The Spanish B2C market is currently at an early stage of development, according to experts.

Hermes currently covers five countries, representing about 85 pct of the European B2C market, through its own network, Schneider said. The UK and France are served by Otto Group subsidiaries Parcelnet and Mondial Relay, while Hermes started operations in Austria in summer 2007.

In Italy, Hermes bought a 30 pct holding in Porta a Porta, which is majority-owned by Swiss Post, in October 2007. The Swiss postal group, however, might be prepared to split off the Italian company’s parcels distribution business, and sell it to Hermes completely, whilst retaining the mail and logistics activities, the DVZ reported.

Hermes currently uses partners to deliver to other European destinations. TNT covers the Benelux area, Swiss Post covers Switzerland, and DPD is used for all other markets.

French sister company Mondial Relay last year announced plans to expand into Belgium, Spain and Portugal, while British operator Parcelnet grew with the acquisition of the Redcats courier network last spring.

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Poste Italiane and Bull – case study

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

Customer issue

The Italian Post wanted to upgrade the IT infrastructure and re-organise the 14,000 post offices, decentralized over the country, to better respond to the new market requirements. The main business issues were:

– Delivery of customer services was very limited, causing end users dissatisfaction.
– Employee productivity did not meet the objectives.
– Late and insufficient information reporting

The Italian Post objective was to equip each post office with dedicated workstations able to run initially the accounting and mail/parcels management applications.

Bull provided

Bull was in charge of the global Project Management, being responsible of the logistic operations including reception, delivery and deployment of the IT equipment to the Post Offices network. In particular Bull was responsible for :
– Site preparation, including electrical equipment supply and installations
– LAN cabling projects for the 14,000 offices
– Hot staging HW/SW of MVS desktops
– Equipment roll out including agency PC’s, 14,000 monitors, 1,300 ZDS servers, and 14,000 printers
– Deployment of the client-server architecture, based on Windows NT

Web Site – http://www.poste.it

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Ciblex launches "H Proximity" network

Posted by | Dec 27, 2007 | |

“H Proximity” involves 3,400 local computerised branches where packages are
available by 8:00 a.m. the next day: 3000 tobacco shops, 300 PartSpeed Sites with 3,200
locked boxes, 100 PUDO2 points (network made up of Ciblex branches and partner drop-off points),

With 80 pct of the French population less than 15 minutes from a point of delivery, this network offers unique geographical coverage. It has a wide range of business hours (some branches are open on Sundays) and even 24/7 access for PartSpeed sites (locked boxes).

The computer system makes real time tracking possible with verification of the correct allocation of the correct package at the correct local branch. In addition, secured package pick-up by the recipient is controlled by a personalised badge system.

This is a feature that guarantees the speed of operations. All outgoing packages are picked up during the day and delivered at the local branch by 8:00 a.m. the next day.

Return packages dropped off at a local branch before 12:45 p.m. are returned to a repair centre or any other site by 8 a.m., 9 a.m., or noon the next day.

Recipients (technicians, traveling sales representatives, medical visitors, traveling professionals, artisans, or individuals) are informed of the availability of their packages in real time by SMS. They can pick up the package at their chosen day and time, within the time limit determined by each package shipper.

The innovation lies in the proximity and accessibility of the network, but especially and above all in the feedback. Computer-equipped local branches, in the case of B to B, allow for automatic management of order and return transfers. Real-time tracking covers all of the steps of the package delivery and return process (from the acceptance of the package by Ciblex…to the pick-up by the recipient).

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Mory Group: Press release from Alain Breau

Posted by | Dec 27, 2007 | |

This very important financial operation shows the desire of all Mory Group shareholders to support the group’s national activity to carry on its very active business development and its growth strategy.
With a global turnover in excess of 550 million euros, Mory Team is France’s leading national integrated parcel and groupage delivery network, operating 75 sites and employing over 3,700 people.
Mory Group, whose size doubled between 1999 and 2007 and which now operates in 15 countries, expects its subsidiary to increase its turnover by 8 pct and profit by 1 pct in 2008.

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