1. Parcel Risk-Based Revenue Assurance
Problem Statement: USPS suffered millions in lost revenue due to gaps in the verification process for the last-mile delivery program. Shippers who use USPS for their last-mile deliveries often paid late, or underpaid for the service. USPS trusted Assurety to develop predictive analytics support to identify and target shippers who abuse the program and recover postage.
Solution: Assurety supported multiple initiatives including the expansion of predictive analytics and decision support needs using various platforms and deep knowledge of business and technologies.
Services from Assurety: Sr. Subject Matter Expertise (SME); Technical Lead
Technology: SAS, Oracle, MS Access, MicroStrategy, R
Client: USPS – MEPT
2. Transportation Process Automation
Problem Statement: Commercial printing and mailing house R.R. Donnelly faced extensive labor costs due to their lack of visibility into their induction system and inability to produce early/late reporting for their clients. Plus, their transport management system (TMS), pool management and induction appointment systems were all in siloed databases and there was no way to coordinate between departments, creating operational inefficiencies.
Solution: Assurety developed a software solution driven by APIS that automated the business decision processes through a rules engine that optimized TMS pool management and workflows.
Services from Assurety: Sr. Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Workflow Redesign, Integration, Program Management.
Technology: MS C#, .NET Platform, MS SQL Server, Web Services
Client: RR Donnelley
3. First Mile to Last Mile Product Tracking
Problem Statement: Commercial printer Vertis Communications (now part of the Quad/Graphics family) looked to Assurety to develop a solution that would allow them to report mailings to their clients. Vertis’s clients, including nationwide insurance and banking institutions, require proactive, real-time notification by Vertis of early or late deliveries. Lack of integration between SAP and USPS B2B interfaces caused time-sensitive mail delivery notifications for early or late delivery to be provided after the fact.
Solution: Assurety designed and developed APIs between SAP inventory management and USPS B2B APIS, and a Web services platform for logistics companies to automatically push data to Vertis to generate proactive early/late notification reports.
Services from Assurety: Sr. Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Custom Software Engineering, Integration, Reporting, Visualizations
Technology: MS C#, .NET Platform, MS SQL Server, Web Services
Client: Quad/Graphics (Vertis Communications Inc.)
4. ERP System Development Accounting-Billing
Problem Statement: South West Distribution, the largest distributor for The Washington Post, teamed up with Assurety to reimagine their accounting system. South West was plagued with a legacy accounting system that had too many incomplete workflows, manual processes, and reporting issues for both accounts receivable and accounts payable. That strained the accounting staff and slowed reporting.
Solution: Assurety engineered a solution that included software applications with automated workflows that were scalable and secure, and offered web-based interfaces including dashboards and other data visualization tools.
Services from Assurety: Sr. Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Workflow Redesign, Software Engineering, Integration.
Technology: MS C#, .NET Platform, MS SQL Server
Client: South West Distribution
5. Geospatial Route Optimization
Problem Statement: A route sequencing pilot program showed significant savings for The US Department of Energy. Route sequencing had not been reviewed in more than a decade, and there was a need to provide a robust, dynamic solution that leveraged all available data to maintain the most efficient routes.
Solution: Assurety planned and designed a state-of-the-art application using advanced algorithms to utilize road network data from ESRI, Breadcrumb data from delivery drivers and scan data from mobile devices to re-sequence the routes to save millions of dollars. Assurety developed a machine-learning algorithm to look for anomalies and update the algorithm automatically to add more attributes and rules as more routes are added.
Services from Assurety: Software Engineering, Data Science, Algorithm Development, Reporting
Technology: ESRI, Python, Oracle, R
Client: US. Department of Energy – For cost savings focused on route optimizations using algorithms
6. Automation of Appointment Scheduling Process
Problem Statement: Because it was labor intensive and costly to manage the process manually, many of Assurety’s clients desired optimization of their multi-stop transportation systems. Assurety listened to their clients and got to work designing a solution.
Solution: Assurety worked closely with three large logistics trucking companies in the commercial postal/parcel industry to develop the ShipmentAssurety™ module for the AIMS Plus™ platform. The solution leverages Google maps data and includes a daily/weekly fuel cost UI to manage fuel costs for truckload (TL) and less than truckload (LTL) shipments. The module takes into consideration shipping and postage prices and includes an automated decision-making platform for multi-stop and single stop shipments, as well as short and long hauls to provide results that reduce postage and fuel costs, and optimize delivery times.
Services from Assurety: Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Software Engineering, Algorithm Development, Reporting
Technology: MS C#, .NET Platform, MS SQL Server, Web Services
Client: Assurety’s AIMS Plus™ Shipment Assurety™ Module – For improved service delivery and cost savings.
7. Informed Visibility – Last-Mile Product Visibility
Problem Statement: Congress passed a law requiring USPS to develop an independent service quality measurement system and share its reports with the commercial mailing and shipping industry.
Solution: Assurety led the effort to design the data specifications to enable the capture, processing and dissemination of visibility information for the entire US postal ecosystem. Assurety worked closely with USPS operations and engineering staff, as well as commercial mailers to identify KPIs that would help both groups improve performance and identify potential problems and react to minimize risk. The result was the Informed Visibility® (IV®) platform, which allows USPS and the industry to measure performance and change plans proactively when network bottlenecks occur, exceeding the congressional mandate’s original requirements.
Services from Assurety: Subject Matter Expertise, Data Governance, Mobile Device Management (MDM), Software Engineering, Algorithm Development, Reporting
Technology: IBM WebSphere, Java, Oracle, IBM MQ Series
Client: USPS
8. Load-Leveling Reverse Logistics For Significant Operational Savings
Problem Statement: iRhythm Technologies relies on reverse logistics for ZIO, their single-use ambulatory cardiac monitoring system. Slower than expected transit times became an issue, as doctors and patients eagerly awaited test results. The company expected to add at least one new intake facility to improve transit times.
Solution: Assurety analyzed both internal data and USPS tracking data to provide a complete picture of where they could minimize transit times and postage costs, and ensure volumes remained level-loaded among all facilities. As it turned out, Assurety was able to identify significant time and postage savings without the need to build and staff an additional intake facility, saving the company millions in capital and operational costs.
Services from Assurety: Data Governance, Data Analysis, Advanced Statistical Analytics, Subject Matter Expertise (SME), Machine Learning
Technology: Microsoft SQL Server, MicroStrategy, Python
Client: iRhythm Technologies
