In mid-May 2009, USPS released the Full Service initiative, making USPS the first postal organization in the world to offer national Intelligent Mail®. Having been offered the incentive to use the new service with free operational data (such as updated address information) and a lower postage rate, mailing companies immediately began submitting electronic documentation and inducting Full Service mailings.
Subsequent releases in November 2009 and March 2010 added new electronic mailing data options to begin to use piece-level data to measure service performance.
Adoption has been rapid, with electronic data submissions totaling more than US$200 million in postage per week as of January 2010 and rising. In that same time period, the program averaged more than 500 million pieces of Full Service mail per week with continued significant growth, such that total volume through the system has already surpassed 7 billion pieces.
With a backlog of mailers working through the certification process, Full Service has been one of the most successful new products USPS has ever launched.
USPS and Accenture delivered the Full Service solution in record time; indeed, 60,000 days of work were completed in an accelerated seven-month time frame as a result of the robust program governance and the “one-team” mindset adopted from the outset. Furthermore, USPS and Accenture are moving ahead with future enhancements and further development of the Full Service capabilities.
By transforming the business to better create operational efficiencies without having to alter existing rate structures, USPS is taking an intelligent approach to accelerated change that places it firmly on the path to high performance.