**London**: Pitney Bowes has revolutionised data processing across its 16 global distribution centres by integrating Fivetran and Snowflake, enabling near real-time analytics and significant operational improvements in response to increased parcel volumes and pandemic challenges.
Pitney Bowes, a global technology company with over 11,000 employees, has undergone a significant transformation in its data management processes through the integration of Fivetran and Snowflake. This initiative, which commenced as a response to increasing operational challenges, has successfully improved real-time data visibility and analytics across the company’s 16 global distribution centres, which manage more than 800 million packages daily.
Vishal Shah, Data Architect Manager at Pitney Bowes, highlighted this transformation, stating, “When we introduced Fivetran to our facilities’ data processing, it revolutionized the flow and we were able to achieve near real-time data from all 16 sites at the same time. I can now understand all the site operational metrics in one single pane of glass and track an individual package to find out where it is currently.”
Prior to this modernization, Pitney Bowes faced numerous data-related challenges. The company struggled with siloed data, scalability issues, and inefficient technology spending, which forced employees to resort to outdated methods such as manually compiling data into Excel spreadsheets for analysis. These constraints led to significant operational delays, with data aggregation processes taking days — often beyond crucial decision-making windows.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues as the rise in online shopping resulted in a tenfold increase in parcel volume. The existing legacy infrastructure was insufficient to handle the demands of tracking and analysing such vast quantities of data. As a consequence, delivery service level agreements (SLAs) were often missed, leading to reputational risks for the company.
Recognising the urgent requirement for a robust solution, the Enterprise Information Management (EIM) team, under Shah’s leadership, turned to Fivetran to automate their data pipelines while centralising their operations on Snowflake. By replacing custom batch scripts and extract, transform, load processes, Fivetran facilitated massive reductions in batch load times, from as long as 31 hours to under two hours in some instances. This shift enabled Pitney Bowes to efficiently manage data from its 700,000 IoT devices across 16 facilities.
Furthermore, Shah noted improvements in integrating data from SAP systems, which had historically posed challenges. With Fivetran Local Data Processing, the team could sync high-volume SAP data to Snowflake in under seven hours, a performance increase of 85 percent. This advancement allowed for multiple daily synchronisations without taxing the performance of the SAP systems.
The benefits of this updated data architecture extend beyond operational efficiencies; it directly contributed to strategic improvements across the business. The integration has allowed for the development of predictive analytics dashboards, providing executives with comprehensive visibility into parcel volume, labour capacity, and operational efficiency. These dashboards facilitate proactive decision-making and resource allocation, significantly improving delivery estimate accuracy to 93 percent.
Additionally, the enhanced data capabilities enabled the launch of a new revenue-generating program called “Guaranteed Delivery” by allowing the company to provide assured delivery dates based on predictive analytics. This initiative not only improves customer satisfaction but also enables Pitney Bowes to effectively address potential churn behaviours within their customer base.
In summary, through the implementation of Fivetran and Snowflake, Pitney Bowes has effectively modernised its data ecosystem, enhancing real-time visibility and operational analytics. This transformation has positioned the company to better serve its clientele and streamline its internal processes, thereby mitigating past inefficiencies and fostering continued innovation in a rapidly evolving market.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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