FuturePost Project

1
Centrelink's

• FuturePost Project
• and
• Bulk Mail Management

Keith Millar Output Manager Bulk
Mail Centrelink The Australian Mail Industry's
Annual Convention 31 July 2002
2

• Overview

• Centrelink - a sketch
• Our mail, and the processes behind it
• FuturePost, and its implementation
• Help along the way
• Conclusion

3
Centrelink - Dimensions

• 2001 2000
• Over 1,000 Over 1,000
• 24 356 22 178
• 20 15
• 51.5 billion 43.5 billion
• 3.4 billion 2.5 billion

• Service Delivery Points
• Employees
• Client Agencies
• Payments on behalf of Client Agencies
• Mainframe online transactions

4

• Centrelink - Customers

• 2001 2000
• 6.3 million 6.4 million
• 97.3 million 101 million
• 5.2 million 4.4 million
• 22.5 million 22.5 million
• 12 million 2.3 million

• Number of customers
• Letters to customers
• New claims lodged
• Successful telephone calls
• Internet web page views

5

• Our Mail

• Overview
• Outsourcing
• Network and Staff
• Performance

6

• Our Mail - an Overview

• 96,100,000
• 16,000,000
• 1,600,000
• 370,000
• 140

• Total mail items lodged 2001/2002
• Peak monthly mail items
• Peak daily mail items
• Average mail per day
• Average batches per day

7

• Our Mail - Outsourcing

• 1985
• Mainframe printing and centralised State mailing
  in 6 major sites
• Late 80's, early 90's
• Move to faster impact printers, and laser
  printing
• Some local outsourcing of mail processing to meet
  peak demands
• Outsourcing slowly increased - locally

8
Our Mail - Outsourcing continued

• Early to Mid 1990's
• Computer centres being rationalised
• a need identified to determine a future for print
  and mail
• RFI, RFT issued for mail processing
• July 1997
• Mail processing contracted to Salmat
• Print retained in house

9
Our Mail - Outsourcing continued

• Late 1998
• Outsourcing of Print and Distribution
• Personalisation and Mailing rolled in
• August 1999
• Contract signed with PMP Communications
• Salmat major sub-contractor
• Today
• 3 years through a 5 year contract

10

• Network and Staff

• Outsourced functions in 5 capital cities
• Supported by local Centrelink staff
• Specialist staff
• Daily reconciliation
• Close consultation and ongoing support
• Contingency
• Handline services
• State by state basis

11

• Performance

• Item, target
• Major inconvenience, 0.1
• Significant inconvenience, 0.5
• Minor inconvenience, 2
• Privacy breaches, 0

• Achieved
• 0.01
• 0.06
• 0.73
• 0.000042

12

• FuturePost

• A false start
• In the meantime....
• Part Two
• Success!

13

• FuturePost - a false start

• Implementation, October 1999
• Address Matching Approval System (AMAS)
• Business Case
• Y2K, Budgets........

14

• In the meantime....

• PMP Communications
• Subcontractors - SALMAT
• Health Care Cards (HCC)
• 7.5 million per year
• Moved to continuous laser printers
• Barcoded - 87.5 success
• Average - 32,715 HCCs per day

15

• FuturePost - Part Two
• Project Timeline

16

• FuturePost - Part Two
• Project Timeline

Business case approval
07/08/2000
Acquire third party software
21/08/2000
Database analysis, design and management
14/09/2000
Forms design
01/12/2000
Build DPID API's
14/02/2001
Update address screens
14/02/2001
Address standardisation run
14/02/2001
17

• FuturePost - Part Two
• Actual Timeline

Address standardisation
19 May 2001
Allocate DPID to all addresses
19 May to 28 May 2001
First barcoded mail
2 June 2001
18

• The Approach

• Address cleansing
• Apply DPIDs up front to all addresses
• Around 7 million customers
• Total of over 20 million addresses
• Background process
• 11 databases across 4 mainframes
• 10 days, up to 210 hours per day

19
The Ongoing Process

• Scrub address and apply DPID at data entry
• Minimal feedback - at this time
• address format
• postcode/locality mismatch
• Check for DPIDs during letter generation

20
The Ongoing Process

• Quarterly rerun of the PAF
• Six monthly data cleansing and PAF rerun
• Response to CSO problems
• Ongoing review of 'classes' of addresses and
  localities

21

• Success!!!
• Initial Results for Letters

• General Letters 76
• Newstart Letters 84
• Overall 78
• July 2001 - THE BIGGEST

22

• Success!!!
• Current Barcoding Levels

• General Letters 80.83 (76)
• Newstart Letters 86.45 (84)
• Overall 82.89 (78)

23

• State by State Variation

• South Australia
• 87.4
• Western Australia
• 86.15
• Sydney area
• 86.63
• Metropolitan Queensland
• 82.44

• Country NSW
• 76.63
• Country Queensland and Northern Territory
• 74.72

24

• State by State Variation

• Queensland 78.58
• New South Wales 81.60
• Tasmania 83.91
• Victoria 84.75
• Western Australia 86.15
• South Australia 87.40

25

• Help along the way
• Futurepost 'helpers'

• MMUA
• Australia Post
• Peter Devenish
• John Otero

26

• Conclusion

• Centrelink's mail outsourcing a complex matter,
  but a successful venture - both times!
• FuturePost a slow starter, but a strong finisher,
  within the bounds of what is possible given AMAS
  and the current PAF

27

• Thank You

Keith Millar Output Manager Bulk
Mail Centrelink The Australian Mail Industry's
Annual Convention 31 July 2002