Tag: North America

The Strategic Transformation Plan 2006-2010, the Postal Service roadmap for the future, has been updated to reflect changes from last year’s passage of the Postal Act of 2006. The law makes a number of changes to postal oversight and regulation, but does not alter the Postal Service’s mission – providing trusted, affordable and universal service. Among the opportunities is new flexibility to customize products and prices to meet customer needs. The Postal Service now also has the ability to retain earnings and invest profits back into the business. New challenges include the Consumer Price Index-based price cap for mailing services such as First-Class Mail and Standard Mail. The update notes that cost-control strategies will be expanded beyond the aggressive efforts taken so far. The Postal Service will continue to reduce costs by at least USD 1 billion every year by expanding standardization and automation. This effort will be given a boost in the coming year as the Postal Service begins deployment of its new Flats Sequencing System. Known as FSS, this new equipment automatically sorts flat-shaped mail in the order in which it will be delivered. The update also describes how technology is being applied to add customer value. Most significant is the Postal Service’s rapid expansion of Intelligent Mail, which uses new barcodes and systems to provide end-to-end visibility of mail. Intelligent Mail will also enable an expanded service measurement. The system will be developed and tested in 2008 in tandem with implementation of modern service standards for all mailing services.

Postal Service employees everywhere now have access to a new cutting-edge human resources (HR) system to meet the demands of the information age. Rollout of the technology phase of the PostalPEOPLE initiative, the largest implementation of its kind in the federal government or private sector, was completed in October.

Using SAP software, the new platform replaces a system that once consisted of more than 3,800 Postal Service HR professionals relying on more than 200 processes and some 70 systems to support nearly 700,000 employees. Now, those HR professionals, free from repetitive, manual processes, can focus on the Postal Service’s strategic focus to better align the workforce and meet present and future challenges, head-on.

Completion of the nationwide rollout enables the Postal Service to introduce two significant new services to employees. First is a new self-service tool for managers, which provides managers, postmasters and supervisors with information and resources online to help manage the workforce, perform administrative tasks, and assist their employees with skill development.