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Inergy designs and builds data warehouse for PostNL

Customer since 2012

Inergy designs and builds data warehouse for PostNL

Every day, eager PostNL customers track the progress and delivery of some 1.2 million parcels via Track & Trace. Dennis van Steijn, Platform Owner Event Data Warehouse at PostNL, talks about the move to the cloud and the renewed partnership with Inergy.

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PostNL

PostNL is completing a colossal job behind the scenes. Two separate applications for logistical information provision are being brought together in the cloud to form one large data warehouse. Inergy advises on the right approach, designs and builds the platform for the mail and parcels company. Dennis van Steijn, Platform Owner Event Data Warehouse at PostNL, talks about the step to the cloud and the renewed cooperation with Inergy.

Actually, "postal company" is not the right name for PostNL anymore. They are now much more than that. PostNL itself calls itself a logistics service provider. But because the company delivers over a million parcels and seven million letters in the Benelux on a weekday, PostNL is generally known as the letter carrier. Behind the scenes, the organization processes an unprecedented amount of data every day. "We record every step surrounding the dispatch of a package or letter," says Dennis. "From pre-notification by the sender to delivery at the door."

MailInfo and ColloInfo become LED

Within PostNL, there are currently separate organizations around the processing of letters and packages. "That's why there are also separate applications for the logistical information provision of those organizations. The MailInfo application focuses on the logistical processes of the letters. And ColloInfo handles the parcels. As we make the shift to logistics service provider, we notice that the two organizations are growing closer and closer together. That is why we want to bring together the logistics information in the cloud in a new system. We are working hard on that now." That system PostNL calls the Logistics Event Data Warehouse, LED for short.

"Inergy has been helping us for years. Thanks in part to the knowledge and expertise of Inergy's employees, we are now really making the step from postal company to logistics service provider."

Dennis van Steijn - Platform Owner Event Data Warehouse at PostNL

Bringing tufts together

The move to a single logistics data warehouse aligns with PostNL's IT strategy. "All of PostNL's applications are housed with different vendors. We want to bring all those tufts together in the cloud to manage information more easily and make connections faster. And yes, ultimately it's also a cheaper solution. Provided we get our transformation right."

Inergy knows PostNL through and through

The starting signal for the large-scale operation sounded in 2018. Inergy and IT service provider Schuberg Philis are working with PostNL on the transformation. Inergy is the architect of LED and responsible for building the data warehouse. Schuberg Philis is managing the infrastructure in Amazon Web Services. "That's going very well," says Dennis. "We work in scrum teams, so the lines are very short.
And Inergy knows PostNL inside out, because we've been working together since 2011. They think along with us about how we process our data, so that it is applicable for us. And so that it meets our requirements in terms of performance and availability. In addition, we have the same open and informal corporate culture. That works fine." The actual construction of LED has been in full swing since June 2019. "The aim is to be fully live by mid-2020. "multiple omni-channel solutions, but due to the necessary closure of our stores because of the corona measures, we rolled out this concept earlier than planned. We are sailing on the insights that the data platform is giving us," Dennis informed.

"Inergy knows PostNL inside out, as we have been working together since 2011."

Dennis van Steijn - Platform Owner Event Data Warehouse at PostNL

Carefree holidays

Once the Logistics Event Data Warehouse is up and running, PostNL will have all of its logistics information in one place. But that's not the only benefit. "The scalability of the cloud is very important to us. PostNL has to deal with large peaks in traffic. Around the holidays the number of shipments doubles. With LED, we can easily scale up our capacity during that period. When the rush decreases, we reduce our capacity again. That saves us a lot of money." Thanks to the cloud, PostNL is also ready for future data growth. "Due to the continuing increase in the number of e-commerce orders, we are producing more and more data. Every year our data quantity grows by fifteen percent. And that doesn't stop there. With LED in AWS, we can facilitate that growth."

All logistics of PostNL in LED

Although the project is still underway, Dennis is already looking at next steps. "We have many other internal organizations besides separate organizations for mail and parcels. Think of companies for conditioned transport in healthcare and the delivery of flowers and plants. Ultimately we want to incorporate the data from the logistics processes of these companies in LED. That's also possible, because Inergy is already taking that into account in the architecture." In addition, PostNL wants to get started with Internet of Things. "Eventually we want to register and store everything. By placing sensors on our rolling containers, for example, we can follow every movement and thus more easily optimize our processes."

With the creation of LED, the partnership between Inergy and PostNL begins a new chapter. "Inergy has been helping us for years. This project is helping us to prepare for the future of PostNL. Thanks in part to the knowledge and expertise of Inergy's employees, we are now really making the step from postal company to logistics service provider."

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Trusted by

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"Inergy simply does a good job."

Joeri Vonk -
Data analyst at Milieu Service Nederland
Logo Environment Service Netherlands