LBx:How has Pitney Bowes become proactive using LI?

Gracy:In the mid-2000s, I was responsible for Pitney Bowes’ transaction strategy. In that role, I oversaw the Group 1 Software acquisition in 2004, and this is when the LI transformation began. We acquired Group 1 for a specific set of assets – document composition and data management – and because the organization’s technology was complementary to the equipment and software that Pitney Bowes already had. In addition, Group 1 had previously purchased Sagent Technology, which was a geo-business technology provider.

As one of my responsibilities, I needed to evaluate whether Sagent should be part of Group 1’s continuing operations or be spun off. When I came back from Group 1’s headquarters, I was transformed. It was a whole new potential direction for the company. Pitney Bowes is best in class in postal addressing – one of our strengths is in address cleansing. The transformation of Group 1 fueled the acquisition of MapInfo in 2007. We are now integrating all of these technology assets into Pitney Bowes’ core business.

Targeted marketing and advertising (as discussed last year with Arthur and Sherif) is only one part of a bigger picture. Pitney Bowes LI vision is also focused on:

• Product and service integration
  • We have integrated geo-demographic profiling into our SMB (small- and medium-sized business) offerings to drive multi-channel campaigns. This allows smaller businesses to understand where their customers are located, to identify prospects that look like target customers and to drive multi-channel campaigns by building a new set of value propositions. This enables organizations to focus on growing their businesses. We say, “Every connection is a new opportunity.”
  • We are supporting retailers and their investments in new kiosk technologies by optimizing the distribution and location of kiosks based on geo-demographics.
  • We’ve integrated location into our multi-channel solutions to optimize the customer channel mix. What’s the best call to action optimization? What’s the best channes – email, SMS, brick and mortar? 

• Operational Efficiency Internally
  • Our postage meters are connected via phone lines to the Internet for the purposes of downloading software updates, new postage rates, postage funds from the customer's account and for ordering and receipt of Web-based services from the U.S. Postal Service. We integrated location technology into a least-cost routing system to reduce the telecom costs associated with these services. With the updated system, we can physically locate the point of origin of the phone call and route subsequent phone calls to a less expensive dial in. We were able to save more than $1 million per year in telecommunications costs by integrating location intelligence-based software in the services we provide to our U.S. meter population.
  • The document management services group, which focuses on high-volume, high-availability operations systems that are critical to cash flow, wanted to improve profitability and customer satisfaction. To gain a deeper understanding of the sales force, they wanted to be able to map out the location of spare parts, customers, service force optimization and customer SLAs. Their challenge was to improve total customer satisfaction and profitability, an undertaking that can result in competing goals. With the integration of location intelligence, they were able to optimize the deployment of spare parts, deploy people with particular skill sets more effectively and identify certain skill areas to address staffing and additional hires. As a result, the group went up eight points in total customer satisfaction.

LBx:Are there characteristics of LI that make people think proactively? Are there characteristics that can help more people and an organization move from being reactive to proactive?

Gracy:Driving internal alignment began with the Board of Directors and discussions around internal efficiency. Then we moved to various lines of business executives. We had a core team of four people internally that evangelized LI. We focused on outbound messaging that stressed how location intelligence could help increase growth and shareholder value. LI grew organically within the organization. As people realized the benefits to our customers, more Pitney Bowes employees began to examine what we could do internally.

For example, within the central Europe marketing and telemarketing group, we integrated LI into lead generation for the field sales force. When we have an anchor sales force appointment, we can use PBBI LI solutions to identify adjacency with other appointments in the field. As a result, appointments increased 50 percent, increasing sales productivity.

The analyst and internal communications cycle is really critical. We have analyst days every other year where we share insights about our corporate direction, including location intelligence related activities. This provides an opportunity to simultaneously communicate our LI initiatives to the market and also evangelize them within Pitney Bowes.

We are also very proud of our “Innovation Portal,” which is called IdeaNet. Any one of our employees can post ideas about how to increase internal efficiency and enhance customer service. That portal has also helped accelerate the integration of location intelligence solutions throughout the company.

The issue is how do you democratize information through the enterprise and make sure that everyone is familiar with the product portfolio so that everyone is thinking of ways to incorporate location intelligence to drive innovation, identify new opportunities and align communications. This is the process of uncorking the bottle so that all employees can contribute ideas and drive innovation. The telecom project, which resulted in significant cost savings, originated from discussions on IdeaNet.

LBx:What’s your recommendation to companies just newly embarking on LI projects?

Gracy:Internally, begin by evaluating departmental and business unit activity, and then look holistically at enterprise optimization. Identify examples that can be used as proof points for benefits. Start with a pilot focusing on a very specific business problem and then build up expertise and assets to solve the problem. When positive results have been achieved, that becomes the positive momentum builder. By highlighting successes internally, adoption begins to snowball. Adoption of LI then moves from functional department to business unit, and eventually, enterprise wide. It’s a systemic approach.

LBx:Would you say that Pitney Bowes now manages the organization from an LI perspective? Does marketing & sales, HR, operations, finance, rely on LI for insight and decision support?

Gracy:What’s really exciting is that we can create solutions utilizing LI for our customers. We’re starting to see the adoption of LI increase internally. There are now established go-to reference points. There are key people, outbound solutions and resources available throughout the organization. We have created a more systematic approach to integrating LI into our operations to enhance operations, improve efficiencies and increase our offerings to customers. The evolving mindset and cultural shift around LI has been a critical component to the successful adoption of LI internally.