ID World in Milan 16th - 18th November

This is the link to the Conference Agenda for the ID World International Congress in Milan which has just been released http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5011269/IDW10_ConfAgenda.pdf

The Postal Innovation theme lauched in Abu Dhabi continues to be developed in Milan and their is a strong postal agenda in the "New Frontiers in Secure Delivery" session.

Following on from the recent Yemini bomb attack which challeged the international Express Parcel industry - there are really relevant sessions on "border control", "critical infrastructures" and "inspection and tracking" within the "Citizen ID Forum" and the "Transportation Security Forum"

If you need more information on the event please contact conference@idworldonline.com

An event forum has been created on Linkedin called "ID World" and I would be happy to pre-network with potential and actual attendees.

Interview on BBC Cambridgeshire

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5011269/Richard-Andie-Harper-interview-2010-11-02%20101615.mp3

Today I was interviewed on by Andie Harper of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire about the impact of the Yemini explosive devices on the international Air Express industry. Try the audio link above to listen to the interview

Andie uses all those years of experience as a teacher to sort out all those badly behaved organisations in the county and help you with your consumer problems. Listen every weekday from 9am to 12.30pm.

email: andy.harper@bbc.co.uk

Parcel Tracking issues from Yemeni Bomb Scare

The discovery of two "viable" improvised explosive devices at Dubai and East Midlands airport will have significant implications for the air freight industry. The security screening procedures and technologies in Yemen clearly failed but the "track and trace" systems managed to locate and isolate the packages.

Any national postal operator or express carrier should be re-examining the functionality of their international "track and trace" systems to ensure that:

- "Proof of Posting" not only positively verifies the identity of the sender but also captures details of all the shipments that they send. The identity of the poster should be linked to the identity of the shipment.

- All shipments should be tracked at the exact point where the shipment is security cleared and the identity of the security screener should be linked to the tracking event.

- Shipments should be "Security cleared" on departure before loading onto an aircraft and also on arrival before being cleared for entry into a domestic delivery network.

- "open standard" item identifiers like "ISO License Plates" should be used that work across complicated international supply chains.

Delivery Management is a world expert in tracking technologies and would be happy to independently evaluate existing "track and trace" systems.

If you need any help or support please contact richard.wishart@del-mgt.com

Discovering the new DNA

Attended a really interesting Webinar last week organised by the Dash 7 alliance. The subject was the proposed Dash7 Network Access (DNA) standard.

In the same way that EPC Global managed to galvanise industry activity to produce a low cost tag and software infrastructure for the ISO 18000-6 air interface standard - the Dash 7 alliance is attempting to do the same for the ISO 18000-7 air interface standard.

DNA will focus on equivalent standards like Low Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) and EPC Information Services (EPCIS) but for active RFID tags. This should be a really important move - particularly if similair and complementary standards can be used for both active and passive infrastructures. Combined "active+passive" readers is definitely the future.

The nature of "active tags" is that they have a battery and normally some memory and can therefore be directly addressed. This could really get the Internet of Things moving !!

Post Expo 2010 in Copenhagen

Just back home from four very exhausting days in Copenhagen. I chaired the "Developments in RFID" technology workgroup. We had a room full room of enthusiatic delegates and some really good speakers.

Bo Helmer Larsen from Lyngsoe talked about bringing management visibility into into sorting centres. Mikko Nikkanen from UPM Raflatac explained the commercial opportunities opened up by the latest RFID tag designs. Joaquim Serrahima from AIDA Centre provided a supplier report on the very successful Global Monitoring System and their work with Correos in Spain and Catina Aghayan from the Middle East RFID Association explained her role in the Arab Triangle RFID project and how a strong user coordination is vital in RFID projects.

I took an executive decision to add an extra 15-20 minutes to the session so that we could have a really interactive Question and Answer session.

At an event like Post Expo I always take the opportunity to judge the state of the industry. The big expensive "hospitality" stands were still in evidence but I usually steer clear as you are unlikely to find much of real interest. At the other end of the scale there are the small standholders who probably have good ideas and products but nobody is visiting their stands. ( I feel really sorry for them) In the middle are the interesting technology stands (from my point of view) and they were definitely attracting the middle tier posts who need technology innovation to survive and prosper. You had to queue up to speak to the experts at these stands

It is a very difficult time for the Postal industry. Royal Mail and USPS were very noticable by their absence - maybe one or two individuals but they were keeping a very low profile. The postal delegations were all there but paired down to a small number of key decision makers - hardly any industrial tourists.

I picked up some really significant trends and will be blogging about these over the next few weeks. I will also be setting up a niche webinar programme to take forward some of these themes.

Temperature Loggers on passive RFID tags

Last week at RFID Europe my good friend Giovanni Grieco from CAENRFID http://www.caenrfid.it/ showed me his new temperature logger which is based on passive ISO 18000 6c technology. This is a really clever concept where you programme the tag prior to use and set the temperature parameters. The tag is then placed in the shipment and despatched through a coldchain network. The temperature can be read as the tag passes through an RFID gate or you can simply press a button on the tag and you get a red or green light to show whether the preset temperature has been exceeded or not.

I was chairing the RFID session at Post Expo in Copenhagen yesterday where we had a really enthusiatic audience of about 40. I had one of the CAEN tags and used it to illustrate some points during the Q&A

The postal world now has an extensive passive RFID reader network deployed. If we can persude the network operators to make some small changes we could create a temperature aware network - and be able to attract a different type cof business.

I would love to hear of any use case results from companies using Giovanni's new tags

A new addressing paradigm for the connected world

Last week's "Click" programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v2yr5 presented a very interesting case for unaddressed letters and parcels for users of social media. (Sometimes BBC iPlayer URLs are restricted to UK users only)

John Taylor from Parcel Genie, Jonathan Grubin from SendSocial and Dan Taylor from ByBox were interviewed on the article. In the same way that PayPal is used as an intermediary for payment information the use of a "trusted intermediary" for address information is possible meaning that you could use an email address on your parcel to route it to the right address in the UK.

This is particularly interesting because I am off to Post Expo in Copenhagen this week and will be attending the innaugural session of Charles Prescott's Global Address Data Association

http://www.globaladdress.org/

Google's new URL shortner produces QR codes

Google has now released its own URL shortner http://goo.gl and the really cool bit is that it automatically generates a QR (qick response) barcode. If you read the barcode above with a QR app on your smartphone using the camera it will take you directly to my website.

The link contained in the barcode is http://goo.gl/BzaQ.qr so even the top level domain is qr instead of .com or .co.uk

It sounds really simple but this could be a huge development in the market and you will start seeing QR codes being used by SMEs. In Huntingdon where I am very active in the SME community the use of QR codes has really taken off.

RFID market for rollcages and totes doubles

I am attending the IDTechEx RFID Europe 2010 in Cambridge. Yesterday I helped Peter Harrop present the RFID masterclass on passive, active and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) - it was really good fun.

This morning Raghu Das the CEO of IDTechEx is in the middle of presenting his overall RFID market analysis.

The really interesting point for me is the part of his analysis where he shows that the number of RFID tags used for "Container, Rollcage, ULD and Tote" applications has grown from 39 million to 76 million items. The value of this business sector in terms of the RFID industry has risen from $35m to $47m

The postal industry needs to get itself organised in terms of "usage rules" and "industry standards" to take advantage of this now mature technology. I will be speaking about this next week at Post Expo in Copenhagen

Asia Task Force - Opportunities

I attended the UK Trade and Investment "Doing Business in Asia Event". The new Business Secretary Vince Cable gave an excellent "Keynote" address. He highlighted the importance of the Asian market and how Asian growth is changing international trade dynamics. He saw UK expertise and particularly trade with Asia as a key driver for UK economic growth.

In the postal sector countries like China and Korea have been significant postal technology innovators but for some reason Postal Technology events have failed to obtain any traction in the region. There are a number of really excellent Postal Consultancies in the UK but they also find it very difficult to engage with the large Asian markets.

UKTI had arranged for UK Ambassadors and Consul-Generals from Asian markets to hold 1:1 meetings with UK companies interested in doing business in the region. I used these excellent meetings to try and understand the consultancy markets in these countries. The dilema seems to be that "they want UK expertise" but they dont have very well-developed markets for consultancy. The different markets that I discussed seemed to represent slightly different cultural challenges from a consultancy perspective.

My "take-away" from this excellent event is to use the UKTI "in-market" expertise to try and open some doors for me. Triangle are organising a PosTech event in New Delhi in December http://www.triangle.eu.com/conferences/PosTech/default.htm and I suggested to our UK Government representatives in India that we could use this as a trade mission opportunity for UK Postal Consultancy companies and UK Technology companies.

I plan to hold a small webinar on this subject. Let me know if you are interested and would like to take part.

New Linkedin Group Functionality

As you probably know I am a very strong advocate and active user of Linkedin. Today I noticed that some of my Groups have been converted to the new functionality. It is quite a big change and in particular introduces some neat functionality for both group members and group owners.

Using this link you can find out what the main changes are http://learn.linkedin.com/groups/

Just found out that I am a DOMAIN engineer

I went out to the Gulf last week to support an RFID Technology company that I have worked with in the past. They put me in touch with a large technology company in the region who were looking for a "Domain" expert in Postal Business. The term "Domain Expert" intrigued me - I had never been described as a "Domain Expert" but when I thought about it - that is exactly what I am.

Over the years I have held Commercial, Operation and Technical roles at Director level in the Postal Industry and have extensive experience of successfully delivering complex information systems. It has always been difficult to pin a "label" on exactly what I do. Although my business experience covers a number of industries lets take "postal" as an example.

On the business side of the Postal sector we talk about things like "Last Mile Solutions", "Hybrid Products", "Designated Postal Operators", "Terminal Dues" and "Liberalisation" which are terms that are fully understood within the industry but Gobbledegook to an IT analyst trying to design a new application.

The IT sector talks about things like "CMMi Level 5", "BPMN Business Process Modelling Notation", "Client Server", "Next Generation Networks" which is Gobbledegook to a Business Manager.

I understand both these domains intimately and can speak both "langauges" and translate between the business and the IT solution provider.

However translation in itself is not enough. A "postal" operator is looking to improve its business processes and become more competititive than the other operators in the industry. There is therefore often a need to re-engineer and improve the information processes before automating them !!

This is my world. I think in terms of "logical data structures", "entity life histories", "Data Flow Diagrams", "third normal form analysis" and "psuedo code". This help me make sense of the business in information terms and allows me to understand improvement opportunities. You might be familiar with old style tools in this field like SSADM and IEW. I would never talk to Business or Technology Solutions people in this language because it would not be understood and would only confuse. However it is an excellent business langauge to use between a business analyst working for the Business and a business analyst working for the IT solution provider.

So actually I am a "Domain Engineer" and not just a "Domain Expert". If you are looking for information solutions and your IT solution providers dont get it - why not give me a call and I will help you understand and then translate. This is the best way to avoid the type of application system disasters that are only too common these days

So I might redesign my business cards this weekend and call myself a "Domain Engineer" I would really like to hear from you and understand whether this makes sense to you ? Please let me have your views richard.wishart@del-mgt.com

The Postal Innovation Concept

The "Postal Innovation" concept is about physical, virtual and financial postal services in a trusted environment. Posts that have adopted this model have acheived good financial results despite the recession. The so called threat of "physical substitution" is in fact a myth. On a recent visit to Abu Dhabi Richard Wishart gave a TV interview on this topic.

http://www.idworldabudhabi.com/index.php?id=richardwishart_vid10ad

Integration at the "core" and not at the "edge"

The traditional method of uniquely identifying parcels and letters has been to use an "in-house" numbering system. Even when an international standard exists (such as EMS) delivery countries invariably overlabel and correlate to their own system. For returned or undelivered international items you end up with a plethora of barcode numbers for the same parcel. The theory is that the "daisy chained" identifiers will provide a tracking history - but the reality is that the chain is often broken. These parcels are usually referred to as "Christmas Trees" because of the amount of useless barcode decoration.

A practical solution to this problem is to use an ISO Licence Plate identifier within the Barcode or RFID tag being used to identify the letter or parcel. Such a Licence Plate by definition is globally unique. The system is regulated by a system of "issuing agencies" authorised to to create and use identifiers under the overall control of ISO which is the overall global standards agency.
With a truely unique identifier there is no longer any need to correlate or over-label at the edge. Some European Postal Administrations already use such a license plate for their domestic parcel systems and the RFID tags used by the UPU Global Monitoring System are also uniquely identified by this system.

This should not be seen just as an operational/technical issue as ISO License Plate Identifiers are now being mandated in other industries. The Defence industry has an identification mandate called UID which is being used by the DoD and is being adopted by other NATO countries. UID is based on exactly the same ISO License Plate standard as the Postal Industry. The NATO supply chain represents one of the largest opportunities for the Express Parcel industry. So there are some really significant commercial imperatives for adopting an open ISO licence plate approach.

Every piece of "parcel and mail" sortation equipment in our industry uses some form of item identification technology. Why not adopt an "open standard" and use the information to optimise our networks and inform our customers.

The business idea is really simple but I do appreciate that industry CEOs might need some help to understands the concept and the issues. If you would like to find out some more information on this subject - I have put a discussion group on Linkedin and also plan to run some Webinars.

Cellcodes for Direct Mail response

At the recent UK Mail and Express Delivery Show on London the Direct Mail Industry were asking for a "Mail Out" and "URL Back" solution.

Two weeks ago I met with Mirko Kisser the CEO of Celloon GmbH and he was looking for a way to enter the UK Market. I agreed to present the concept at the MEDS event - which seemed to hit the spot.

I included the QR code (above) in my presentation at the MEDS event where I was speaking about further commercial opportunities for barcodes and RFID.

The presentation was fully interactive. Using a smartphone with a QR reading app you could take a picture of the QR code and be redirected to a Landing Page on my Website that had been specially prepared for the event. Celloon provide a "homepage" symbol on the code and the redirection to the Web landing page is via a Campaign Management application.

I intend holding a Webinar on this subject in the next couple of weeks - if you are interested in participating please contact me on richard.wishart@del-mgt.com. We will be examining the Campaign data received during the Conference.

For this to work you need a smart phone with a reasonable camera and the ability to use apps.
You download and install an app to your mobile that permits you to capture and read the QR codes (for example from http://www.i-nigma.mobi/ ). You activate the app and capture a QR code whenever you see one.

Why not experiment by taking a photo of the QR code in this blog.

A technology upgrade for the new year

Delivery Management is starting the New Year with a technology overhaul. Our new website http://www.del-mgt.co.uk/ has been redesigned by Chris Thomas of Milton Contact. I am very impressed by the graphics. The new site shows clearly the main industry focus of Delivery Management. Postal, Express Logistics, eCommerce, Aviation and Defence