Tag: North America

Bush expected to sign postal reform bill tomorrow

Posted by | Dec 19, 2006 | |

President Bush is expected to sign the postal reform bill tomorrow.
Marketers can now look forward to smaller postage rate increases from the U.S. Postal Service in the coming years.
Unlike past years when some mail categories saw 25%-30% rate hikes, the new law links postage rate increases to the Consumer Price Index.
Because of this, marketers might want to plan for smaller postage increases in the 4%-5% range every year, similar to FedEx and UPS.
It’s expected that the higher rates will take effect May 6, 2007.
Postal officials will be able to set new postage rates much faster once the law is in place. The law transfers responsibility of pension benefits earned by postal employees when they were in the military to the U.S. Treasury Department. This will free up USD27 billion that the Postal Service would have had to fund. After 10 years, the Postal Regulatory Commission will be allowed to modify the price cap or adopt an alternative rate system if deemed necessary.
The PRC gains the power to subpoena Postal Service records to ensure that the agency is in compliance with the law and that the interests of the mailing public are being protected.

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Lockheed Martin delivers last automated package processing system to the US Postal service

Posted by | Dec 18, 2006 | |

Lockheed Martin has completed the deployment of 74 Automated Package Processing Systems (APPS) to the U.S. Postal Service under a more than USD300 million contract awarded in 2002.

APPS provides the Postal Service with a fully integrated, end-to-end system capable of automatically sorting high volumes of First-Class packaged mail, Priority Mail envelopes and parcels, and bundled mail, such as magazines or catalogs, with greater efficiency and higher accuracy. The system is capable of processing more than 9,500 packages an hour while automatically reading machine printed or handwritten addresses.

“Our system offers a modular and scalable solution, and is customizable for each site’s needs, which maximizes the return on investment for the program,” said Brian Tanton, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Distribution Technologies.

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IBM unveils new RFID software

Posted by | Dec 18, 2006 | |

IBM has announced new technology that more easily allows organisations securely share and analyse real-time data generated by radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

The new WebSphere RFID Information Center technology is based on a recently completed EPCglobal RFID standard called EPCIS, which provides a standard way to securely communicate the data created by sensors and RFID tags.

Using the IBM platform, the data can also be integrated with existing business information and shared with trading partners.

The IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center platform has already been successfully deployed by Unilever, the e-customs project ITAIDE in Europe, and pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen.

Shay Reid, AmerisourceBergen vice-president for integrated solutions, said, “AmerisourceBergen sees tremendous potential in the IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center, which will be a key component to meeting track and trace regulatory requirements in California.”

Reid said the platform would become the data backbone in a pilot programme that will enable AmerisourceBergen to improve its service by quickly authenticating products and transactions through direct data exchange with pharmaceutical manufacturers.”

RFID Information Center receives data from RFID middleware, which aggregates, filters and interprets data directly from the readers.

RFID Information Center then stores, manages and enables sharing of all or portions of the data with various business applications across the enterprise, and with trading partners.

More information on the platform is available here: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/masterdata/rfid/

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DHL switching to a customer-centric database model: NCDM

Posted by | Dec 14, 2006 | |

DHL is switching from a product-centric database model to a customer-centric one.

This was a key takeaway from Susanne Albert, senior manager of database marketing at Plantation, FL-based DHL Express, who spoke on the 2006 National Center for Database Marketing panel, “Strategy & Tactics for a Successful Shift to Customer Centricity.”

“Back in 2003, DHL was relatively new in the U.S. and we really had no choice but to utilize mass marketing for our brand transformation when we acquired Airbone Express,” Ms. Albert said.

“[But] today, we are implementing some very strong customer marketing programs, whereby we are segmenting not only by channels, but by customer behavior,” she said. “We still have a long way to go in the U.S. in terms of identifying our customer segments and understanding the kind of clusters required for customer-centricity.”

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UPS Delivers Again

Posted by | Dec 14, 2006 | |

For the seventh consecutive year, UPS has set a new record for contributions to United Way. UPS, its employees, and retirees pledged USD59.3 million during the 2006 campaign to United Way for continuing support of those in need.
In addition, UPS employees volunteered more than 800,000 hours of service around the world in 2006, much of it in the United States helping local communities by repairing schools, reading to children, landscaping for local organizations and assisting food banks.
UPS and its employees’ and retirees’ commitment to create lasting, measurable change in local communities through United Way has continued to grow year after year. UPS is a leader in corporate philanthropy and an example for those across America who strive to make a difference.
More than 246,000 UPS employees participated in this year’s United Way campaign, contributing more than USD51.3 million. The company then contributed an additional USD8 million through The UPS Foundation. In the company’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, UPS and its employees donated more than USD4.45 million, the largest contribution to United Way of any Atlanta-based company.

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