USPS gearing up for new customer service initiative

In a five year project worth nearly $200 million, the U.S. Postal Service is revamping its customer service operations with a far-reaching Point of Service program.

Begun in January 1998, the three-stage POS program involves replacing tens of thousands of retail terminals at 20,000 postal retail locations with new technologies. NCR (which won the initial contract with IBM) will supply the USPS with 3,500 each of DynaKey mail processing workstations, electronic signature capture devices, barcode scanners and thermal printers. The cost of this technology is reportedly $67 million, potentially ballooning to $173 million with options.

Other technology components in Stage Two include databases (from Sybase), keyboards (Cherry Corporation), scales (WeighTronix) and cash drawers (Cash Bases). NCR will also provide application integration and training during the deployment. The entire system will run on Windows NT.

Goals of the POS initiative include reducing the time customers spend at postal service windows, by providing better and faster service including paying C.O.D.'s, opening and renewing post office boxes, purchasing money orders and applying for passports. Other expected benefits include online payments and authorization and better inventory management (maintaining availability of special commemorative or 1¢ stamps, for example).

With the technology in place, the USPS will "dramatically improve customer service by automating manual processes and simplifying transactions," enabling better management decision-making, according to Van Aggelakos, president of NCR's Government Systems Corp