PostNL, Inergy, and Schuberg Philis Build a Logistics Event Data Warehouse in the AWS Cloud

PostNL has been ensuring that everyone in the Netherlands receives mail and parcels for over two centuries. The numbers are impressive. Every day, PostNL delivers 8.1 million letters in the Netherlands and 1.1 million parcels in the Benelux. The company acts as the essential link between senders and recipients and bridges the physical and digital worlds. PostNL is undergoing a steady transformation. While the volume of letters continues to decline year after year due to increased digital communication, the rise of e-commerce ensures that the volume of parcels handled by PostNL's parcel division continues to grow. In 2021, PostNL delivered a record number of 384 million parcels.

Every step visualized

PostNL aims to know precisely where a letter or parcel is at any given moment in the logistics process. Therefore, the company constantly tracks what happens to a shipment. "The vast majority of the parcels we process are sent by businesses," says Dennis van Steijn, Platform Owner at PostNL. "When a customer creates a label for a parcel, that's our first observation of the shipment. At that moment, we receive information about the sender, the recipient, and the associated barcode. We also know if, for example, a signature is required upon delivery. Once the parcel is on its way, it encounters a scanner multiple times. During sorting, distribution, or when the parcel is loaded onto a truck. Every time the parcel is scanned, we see it as a logistics event. We capture all that information and add it to the shipment. On average, there are about fifteen logistics events generated and processed per parcel. We record everything."

PostNL not only sees where a parcel is in the process but can also predict when it will be delivered based on thousands of logical rules. All this information is used for practical purposes. For example, the data finds its way into the PostNL app that recipients use to track their parcels. Customer service employees use the information to answer customer queries. Van Steijn: "Additionally, we use the data for analyses, reports, and internal management."

MailInfo and ColloInfo

The logistics events were stored until recently in MailInfo (for letters) and ColloInfo (for parcels). Both systems were initially developed by Inergy. Subsequently, Inergy worked for almost nine years with several people on maintaining, improving, and expanding MailInfo and ColloInfo. Inergy also provided hosting for the two solutions. Wout Benjamins, Delivery Manager, and Senior Project Manager at Inergy, has been involved in the project all this time. He discovered from the very first day that his ideas about PostNL did not match reality. "I actually expected a somewhat bureaucratic company. But what I found back then was a young, dynamic organization with plenty of room for innovation and investment."

To keep both systems in top condition, Inergy collaborates closely with Schuberg Philis. This company knows PostNL's systems like no other. Schuberg Philis is responsible for keeping all of PostNL's mission-critical IT systems up and running. "We guarantee 100% uptime of the logistics process," says Gert de Jong, Managing Director at Schuberg Philis. "We have only one KPI," says De Jong, "and that is customer satisfaction. In an average IT company, you call the helpdesk when you have a problem. Maybe, if it gets really serious, you might get to talk to a specialist. We work exclusively with specialists who are in direct contact with the customer. This is necessary when you control a process that really matters." Currently, 37 people from Schuberg Philis work on eight projects at PostNL.

MailInfo and ColloInfo gradually reached the limits of their capabilities, explains Platform Owner Dennis van Steijn. Van Steijn: "The system became too old and too expensive." Ten years ago, PostNL processed roughly 500,000 parcels per day in the run-up to Saint Nicholas Day. Nowadays, PostNL easily processes over 2.2 million parcels on a peak day. "The solution no longer scaled with the volume we had to handle. At PostNL, the logistics process and the digital process must always stay in sync. We noticed that wasn't always the case anymore. If the data lags behind the physical process, it creates strange situations."

Additionally, there was a financial reason to scrutinize the situation closely. Van Steijn: "Our busiest period is the SKNJ period. That stands for Sinterklaas-Christmas-New Year. Nowadays, Black Friday and Singles Day are also part of it. Our server capacity was completely geared towards the peak level of that period. That means there was overcapacity for most of the year, which we didn't need but still paid for. We wanted to move towards a system that scales with us."

From two separate solutions to one system in the cloud

PostNL has been following a clear cloud strategy for years. All applications hosted in its own data centers or on servers with partners are moving to the cloud. "We want to move towards an IT landscape that is prepared for the future and can easily adapt to the direction of our organization," says Dennis van Steijn. "Moreover, we want to bring much more control to PostNL and truly be in control of our own IT systems. Cloud also offers a financial advantage."

Consistent with this cloud strategy, Van Steijn wanted to move the two systems he was responsible for to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Both systems had to be merged there into a new platform: the Logistics Event Data Warehouse. However, this was not a matter of simply picking up and deploying. Van Steijn: "ColloInfo and MailInfo were developed in Java. Inergy's developers had to completely rebuild the platform in AWS."

Rob Obdeijn, Senior Software Developer at Inergy: "ColloInfo was a database where everything basically happened. The system answered track & trace questions, but also provided various analytical reports." This was an undesirable situation because it negatively affected the solution's performance. "In the new situation, we needed an environment consisting of small specialized components. This involves various cloud-native, serverless solutions that we were not yet familiar with at the time. It was a steep learning curve, with Amazon helping us a lot. Overall, we are glad we went through that learning curve. Especially now, seeing how quickly and easily PostNL can increase capacity if needed. It's now done in minutes or seconds. In the old situation, scaling up took days to weeks because you had to order new hardware first."

Agile and DevOps

Not only were the applications overhauled, but the way of working also changed drastically. During that period, PostNL completely switched to Agile from the traditional, project-based way of working. This meant that the LED team had to work in short cycles. The team members completely let go of the fixed ways of working that had been ingrained over nine years. Van Steijn hired a scrum master to lead the agile work, and it worked. Gradually, the LED team started working more smoothly according to agile principles.

The transition to Agile work was not the only change. The LED team not only worked agile but also adopted the DevOps development methodology. An important feature of this approach is bringing together developers and administrators, disciplines that 'previously' did not sit together at the same table. In DevOps, a single team is responsible for both the development and management of the platform. The LED team that worked on the new cloud platform consisted of people from PostNL, Inergy, and Schuberg Philis. Inergy provided BI specialists and developers, while Schuberg Philis provided infrastructure specialists who knew everything about the AWS platform. "Within the LED team, we are responsible for the infrastructure: everything up to the application," says Managing Director Gert de Jong of Schuberg Philis. "That means we also sit at the table during design sessions to ensure that everything that is conceived ends up well in the infrastructure. It's not like: we build the infrastructure, here's the login, good luck. We don't develop anything, but we do contribute ideas. By working together in this way, we make much better choices. You constantly reinforce each other." And if a problem arises, Inergy and Schuberg Philis quickly find each other. De Jong: "If necessary, we call each other in the middle of the night for consultation. So far, this has only happened once."

Three lessons

LED is now almost entirely live. Dennis van Steijn looks back on the past period with great pleasure. He doesn't have to think long about the lessons he learned. An important lesson he learned was that you really have to approach agile work in an agile way. Initially, the LED team was a bit torn between two thoughts. Van Steijn: "We started with the migration of the letter system, MailInfo. Initially, we thought we had to migrate and set up everything in AWS before we could go live with a 'big bang'. That turned out to be very tough, not least because you are surprised during the project by new business needs or changes in the IT environment. That's why we decided to gradually deploy the parcel system ColloInfo, part by part. We did that very iteratively. As soon as one part was done, we put it into use. This approach did add some extra complexity because you're working with two systems. The data in both systems naturally has to be completely consistent."

Another lesson Van Steijn likes to share: don't set an end date. "Of course, you have to have a goal," he explains. "But it's annoying to have to explain all the time that you need an extra quarter. The LED team wasn't just busy with the migration; sometimes they also had to work on things the business needed. Sometimes you need forty percent of your fixed capacity to realize business needs and only sixty percent remains for the migration."

Van Steijn's third lesson: communicate clearly and transparently. "Within the team, PostNL, Schuberg, and Inergy have a shared responsibility. That means you have to constantly seek dialogue and involve everyone in the developments. After we decided, for example, not only to tackle the migration but also to meet business needs, you have to discuss that and talk it over with each other. What does that mean for the project? A good project benefits not only from good internal communication but also from keeping all stakeholders engaged and informed. "You also have to keep talking to them constantly."

Fewer disruptions, lower costs

The rebuild of MailInfo and ColloInfo in the AWS cloud has yielded a lot. First and foremost, management costs have decreased considerably. Because the new environment is much more robust, there are fewer disruptions, and therefore less repair is needed. Van Steijn estimates that he will be about half as expensive when MailInfo and ColloInfo are completely phased out. Furthermore, the new platform is fast, scalable, and offers more possibilities. Additionally, the development speed is much higher. Previously, developing and deploying new functionality took at least a month. Now it can be done in half the time, partly because many steps - such as testing - are quite automated. Moreover, improvements to the software can be put into production immediately. Van Steijn: "We have set up a data warehouse and a platform that functions well. Now that the solution is live, everyone is reaping the benefits."

Contributors to this customer case:

Dennis Steijn, Platform Owner LED at PostNL
Gert de Jong, Managing Director at Schuberg Philis
Wout Benjamins, Team Lead at Inergy
Chris Tessels, Senior Java Developer at Inergy
Rob Obdeijn, Senior Java Developer at Inergy
Rick Tijsen, BI Consultant at Inergy
Koen van der Hoeven, Mission Critical Engineer at Schuberg Philis