Editor's Note: Sprint implemented an accountable interoffice mail (AIOM) service in 2003. This article explains why and how they did it and offers some tips and techniques about how to implement an AIOM service in your own organization.
But I Already Have a Pouch Mail System
We had a non-accountable interoffice mail system, too and still do because not everything needs to be accountable. But as you'll see, we also wanted to set up an accountable interoffice mail service, too. In order to make it successful, we had to overcome employees' lack of trust in the non-accountable system and prove that they could trust the new AIOM service.
There are two primary reasons why the average employee does not use internal services for important shipments: lack of trust in the internal option for reliable, on-time delivery and lack of visibility into the shipping process.
A good internal tracking system should solve both problems using online shipping forms, barcode scanners, handheld computers with electronic signature capture and an intranet site for employees to track their AIOM pieces. The tracking system enables desk-to-desk tracking of materials sent from one employee to another, no matter where within Sprint the two employees are located.
We set up an accountable interoffice mail service at Sprint for two reasons. First, the service has helped Sprint reduce its shipping expense by diverting individual carrier shipments between Sprint offices into interoffice pouch shipments. If there are 20 individual envelopes going from Overland Park to Reston each day and each costs $10 to ship, the total shipping would cost us $200 per day. If we put all 20 envelopes into a single mail pouch and send this as a single shipment that costs $30, then we have saved $170 per day. This is a small sum, but if we total the savings over an entire year over all lanes of traffic in both directions, then the total savings can be a significant sum indeed.
Second, this service enables desk-to-desk tracking of materials sent from one employee to another, no matter where within Sprint the two employees are located. This is a value-added service that an external carrier will never be able to offer. Knowing when someone sent an important document or when an internal recipient received a shipment is a very useful service in some situations.
Desk-to-Desk Tracking
Sprint employees get desk-to-desk tracking of their shipments because the entire AIOM process is managed using a tracking system that is internal to Sprint. External carriers can only track shipments from the sender's dock to the recipient's dock. Our tracking system allows both the sender and recipient to check on the progress of the shipment each step of the way.
Desk-to-desk tracking of accountable interoffice mail enables value-added services. For example, if your company processes all expense reports at a single site, then when an expense report is delivered to the expense report processing group, this can trigger an automated email to the sender saying, "Your expense report number 123 dated March 4 has been received at the Acme Expense Report Processing Center." Proactive customer service like this lets employees know what's happening as it happens and provides a higher level of service than would be otherwise possible. This reduces the need for phone calls and other disruptions to the expense processing center which distracts the staff from processing the expense reports in the first place. There are labor savings possible as a result of this; whether they are significant largely depends on the size of your operation.
At Sprint, we don't try to pouch items other than documents. Pouching larger items makes the process more complex because of additional packaging and perhaps additional paperwork.
Reduced Shipping Expense
Although Sprint has negotiated rates with our preferred carriers, it's still less expensive to send 10 envelopes as a single shipment than it is to send all 10 of them as individual shipments. Employees who send AIOM also save internal dollars for their own departments because the Mail Services group pays the freight for all pouch mail shipments.
One of the first tasks in planning the AIOM service was to figure out where the most intra-company traffic was coming from and going to. We did this by analyzing our overnight carrier bills to identify which Sprint sites generated the most shipments to other Sprint sites. As a first cut, we identified which ZIP Codes are the largest sources or destinations of Sprint shipments. While there are other destinations in these ZIP Codes besides Sprint offices, this technique does provide a great starting place for a more detailed review. Based on this information, we decided which routes to support for our AIOM service.
Service Levels
We considered what service levels are appropriate and achievable for our accountable interoffice mail service. On the one hand, the service levels must be attractive enough to employees that they will use the service. On the other hand, they should not be so aggressive that they are too difficult or expensive to achieve on a daily basis.
We can't provide better service levels than the carriers because our service will be built on top of carriers to move mail pouches from site to site. The exception to this rule is that your geography may allow for an internally operated local or metropolitan courier service between your sites.
We set cut-off times that guarantee that interoffice mail will meet the service levels. We needed to allow sufficient time for couriers to return to the shipping department after sweeping all the mail centers and for the pouches to be prepared in time to meet the arrival of the carrier's afternoon pickup.
Processing Accountable Interoffice Mail
The processes for handling accountable interoffice mail during the "first" and "last" miles are almost identical to your processes for handling inbound and outbound shipments.
An outbound piece of accountable interoffice mail is just like handling an outbound private carrier (DHL, FedEX, UPS, etc.) shipment from the sender's mail center until it reaches the shipping department. At this point, private carrier shipments are handed over to the driver. On the other hand, accountable interoffice mailpieces are scanned into a mail pouch for the proper destination. We use our internal tracking system to quickly handle this process. When all items have been scanned into a pouch (usually just a carrier shipping box in practice), the paperwork for shipping the pouch is completed. Basic information (carrier, waybill number) about the pouch is scanned back into the system (Star Receiver), enabling our employees to check on their AIOM when it's in the pouch as it is moving between the two Sprint sites.
The pouch between two sites is handled like any other shipment. Once the pouch is received at the destination, the items are scanned out of the pouch. Since each piece of accountable interoffice mail has an internal waybill, each piece is already addressed and routed for delivery. The items are sorted and then delivered along with all other inbound shipments.
Because the entire process is tracked internally, both the sender and recipient can follow the entire process, step-by-step, as the piece is collected from the sender's mail center, transported to the shipping department, scanned into a pouch, shipped via an external carrier, received at the recipient's mail center and finally delivered to the designated recipient.
Marketing the Accountable Interoffice Mail Service
An AIOM service needs to be marketed to employees or it will never be successful. After all, the service is competing against the external carriers that we have already contracted with. How can you compete with overnight carriers? Well, we have to offer (and supply) some benefits to the sender that the carriers can't offer. As mentioned above, there are two primary benefits. First, the cost of shipping via accountable interoffice mail is usually FREE to the sender, since the business services group often pays the full cost of shipping pouches. Second, being able to track a shipment from sender to recipient every step of the way, including the steps internal to your company, is something that no carrier will ever be able to offer.
Market to employees in general by techniques including putting up posters in offices, putting information on cafeteria tables, appropriate email notices, and announcing the service on your intranet.
Other factors that impact employee perception of the AIOM including the naming and branding of the service. You can also provide indicators of professionalism such as drop boxes for AIOM and even uniforms for couriers.
Some organizations have attempted to implement an interoffice pouch service by intercepting shipments to other company sites and sending them via pouch. Even if you try to email the sender what you're doing, this is not a recommended practice. Employees are expecting to track their shipments on the carrier's website, and when they can't find them, they tend to get upset. This is a not a good way to run an interoffice mail service!
Train the Mail Center Staff
We provided training for our mail center staff at the sites where we had decided to offer the AIOM service. The mail center staff needs to know what the envelopes look like, how to prepare and receive mail pouches and how to answer questions from customers. They also need to understand why you want to implement the service because they can help encourage (or discourage) people from using the service.
Envelopes and Packaging
People don't trust the old string and button interoffice envelopes for anything important. These envelopes are not trackable; no one really knows when an envelope will reach the recipient, they're not secure, the address information is not always legible, etc.
We decided to use simple sealable envelopes like the national overnight carriers. These envelopes are secure compared with traditional string and button interoffice envelopes. Our interoffice envelopes are made of cardboard with a plastic envelope in front to hold the internal waybill. We decided not to print anything on the envelopes to reduce their cost.
Employees print a traveler (an internal waybill) using our eShip system that integrates Star Receiver, Accuship (an online shipping service) and Sprint internal applications. The traveler is folded and put into the plastic sleeve, similar to what's done for overnight carriers.
The traveler has the sender and recipient addresses and other shipment information including a barcoded internal tracking number. This barcode makes the mailpiece easy to track since scanning a barcode is quick and easy. Also, the traveler has the internal routing information for the receiving site printed on it. When the AIOM piece is received, there is no data entry needed other than a single scan then it's ready to be sorted and delivered.
Going Live with AIOM Service
Our supervisors spent extra time focused on the AIOM service during the first couple of weeks as it went live. They monitored the process with our tracking system to ensure that AIOM pieces were being picked up, pouched and delivered correctly, and that our mail center staff was meeting service levels. We also tried to nip any service problems by resolving support calls and complaints about the service before they impacted interest in and use of the service.
Since the service went live, we monitor traffic levels on each lane using our tracking system and by reviewing our freight bills. We're looking to see that employees use the service or whether there are many envelopes being sent directly via overnight carriers.
The AIOM service at Sprint is an example of an internal logistics service. It was conceived as a corporate-wide service, and although the service does not operate at every Sprint site, it could if traffic warrants. We monitor traffic levels between Sprint sites to see if the service should be put in place between two sites or if the traffic is no longer there.
We set up an accountable interoffice mail service to reduce our shipping costs and to provide a value-added service to employees that enables desk-to-desk tracking. We've been doing this at Sprint since 2003. Our savings are in the six-figures and the employees who use the service are happy with the additional tracking capabilities.
Bob Barrette is currently the Manager of Enterprise Business Services within the Enterprise Real Estate organization at Sprint headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. Anthony Meadow is a founder and President of Bear River Associates. Visit www.bearriver.com.
