Success Story - DPD Schweiz AG

Greater efficiency for fewer emissions

With Qlik, DPD Switzerland uncovers optimisation potential for the CO2 balance and customer service

„Qlik is our central solution for identifying which adjustments we need to make in order to achieve goals such as the 75 percent reduction in CO2 emissions we are aiming for by 2030.“

Rhianne Copson, Business Intelligence Controller, DPD (Switzerland) AG

The customer

DPD Switzerland is one of the leading private express and parcel service providers in Switzerland and, with 1,200 employees and drivers, handles over 24 million parcels for companies and private individuals every year. The company, based in Buchs ZH, is represented in Switzerland and in neighbouring countries at 14 locations and with 440 DPD Pickup parcel shops. DPD Switzerland is part of Geopost.

DPD Schweiz AG - Success Story Informatec

Solution at a glance

Industry: Transport & Logistics
Departments: management, controlling, finance, HR, marketing, sales
Region: Buchs, Switzerland
Data sources: CRM system BSI, marketing tool, pricing platform „Open Pricer“, time recording system, in-house developed package tracking solution
Utilized technologies: Qlik Sense
ROI & Time-to-value: Central BI solution for all analysis needs. Transparency regarding the achievement of life cycle assessment targets

Initial situation

DPD goes green

In Switzerland, DPD is one of the leading private express and parcel service providers and, with its 1,200 employees, delivers around 24 million parcels a year. DPD Switzerland, like GEOPOST as a whole, assumes responsibility for the environment: Renewable energies from water or solar power are used in all of the depots operated by DPD. In addition, since 2012, DPD Switzerland has been delivering every parcel in a CO2 -neutral manner. To this end, DPD measures CO2 emissions and works actively to reduce them. To offset the unavoidable transport emissions, DPD finances projects for renewable energies and clean energy production.

As part of the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), DPD Switzerland has set 2040 as the net zero target for CO2 emissions. The first milestone on the way to net zero is nationwide availability of green transport in ten Swiss cities by 2025. In a second step, the resulting CO2 emissions are to be reduced by 75 percent by 2030. “One of the measures to achieve these green goals is to increase the efficiency of our transport network,” says Rhianne Copson, Controller Business Intelligence, DPD (Switzerland) AG.

DPD Schweiz AG - Success Story Informatec - CO2

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Solution

Transparency and visualisation

In order to be able to identify potential for these increases in efficiency and process optimisations, DPD Switzerland wanted to use a business intelligence solution. “We already had basic metrics like revenue, number of packages per day and weight,” Rhianne Copson continues. “But on the one hand we lacked deeper insights – both with regard to the possibilities for improving our ecological balance sheet and with regard to the qualitative aspects of our services, because of course we not only want to become ‘greener’, but also achieve the highest possible level of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, until now we haven’t had many ways to represent data visually, which allows for a better understanding of the information behind the data.”

The solution should be able to process data from any source system in order to be able to map the widest possible range of applications with a central BI software in terms of the sustainability of investments. This includes the CRM system BSI, a marketing tool, the pricing platform “Open Pricer” and a time recording system. Another important source of data is a solution developed in-house, which maps the logistical process and EDP package tracking based on regular scanning of the packages using stationary or mobile scanners.

Qlik and Informatec win the race

As part of a market analysis, Qlik Sense impressed with its high level of flexibility, both in terms of the source systems that can be connected and in terms of the analysis options. The various visualisation options and the intuitive usability were also decisive criteria.

For the implementation of the software, the structure of the data model and the realisation of the first applications, DPD brought in experienced support from Informatec: The Swiss IT service provider and Qlik Elite solution provider scored points not only with technology know-how, but also with expertise in the field of transport and logistics.

Our industry expertise in transport and logistics

Areas of application and benefits

Green Stream for life cycle analysis

There are now 20 different cross-departmental and department-specific streams with around 50 applications available. The “Green Stream” includes various Qlik applications that are used to examine the life cycle assessment closely as part of the “Green Strategy” analyses.

For example, the amount of CO2 produced during transport, the number of e-vans used and the percentage of vehicles that are already green are evaluated. The number of parcels delivered in a climate-neutral manner and the amount of CO2 emitted per parcel are also measured. Furthermore, DPD Switzerland uses Qlik to analyse information about the amount and type of energy consumed in the depots.

The information is currently presented in six green reports on the topics of building data, green vans, the last and first mile in parcel delivery and pick-up.

On the one hand, DPD Switzerland can use these analyses to measure the degree of target achievement for the desired reduction in emissions. On the other hand, additional “green measures” can be derived in order to get even closer to the goals set.

More knowledge for depot management, controlling and sales

DPD Switzerland also uses Qlik in other areas of the company to uncover optimisation potential: Sales uses Qlik for customer analyses, for example. Key figures such as sales, parcel volume and Net Promoter Score (NPS) are determined as a yardstick for customer satisfaction. These key figures are automatically converted into reports using the Qlik add-on NPrinting, which the sales staff use as a basis for customer discussions.

Discover more about Qlik Nprinting

The team leaders at the various depots have information on the number of parcels delivered, on-time delivery, the expected parcel volume and the resulting number of employees required for delivery. The depot managers call up the costs incurred at their depot, for example. Controlling can find out about productivity and costs both across depots and at the level of individual depots.

The data is updated monthly to hourly: “We have tasks where we need updated numbers every hour so we can react immediately,” explains Rhianne Copson. “This applies, for example, to evaluations of the scan data, from which we can call up how the delivery works, whether the parcels were delivered on time or why there are delays.”

120 Qlik users and an internal BI team

Qlik is used by a total of around 120 employees from the areas of controlling, finance, HR, marketing, sales and management.

The importance of Qlik as a central analysis solution for DPD Switzerland is also shown by the development of internal BI skills: In the beginning, one BI specialist was responsible for the entire BI landscape with support from Informatec, but now an entire team of employees from all departments is responsible for generating added value from data, including four super users who are busy building applications every day and 30 professionals.

“We meet once a month with all those responsible for Qlik to discuss which new apps are available and what we have learned,” adds Rhianne Copson. “It’s really fun to work with Qlik.”

Transparency and visualisation

According to Rhianne Copson, the added value of Qlik is particularly evident in the newly gained transparency: “Without Qlik, we would not be able to look so deeply and in such detail into the data - and to do so in an uncomplicated manner and based on up-to-date, uniform data for all information needs. This means we know, for example, exactly where we stand in terms of achieving our ecological balance sheet targets, and we can see what adjustments we could still make.”

Another big advantage is the diverse visualisation options of Qlik. “Numbers can only be effective if you understand them,” confirms Rhianne Copson. “That is why it is important to us to present data as simply and understandably as possible. Qlik offers many options for visualising data graphically, making it easy to understand.”

Qlik Sense

Freiheit für die Intuitionen

Qlik Sense ist eine revolutionäre Applikation, mit der jeder Self-Service-Datenvisualisierung, personalisierte Reports und dynamische Dashboards erstellen kann.

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FUTURE

More integrations and cloud in the future

In future, the Qlik application landscape will be further expanded. Among other things, the integration of the planning and controlling software Jedox with Qlik is planned. It is conceivable for DPD Switzerland to change the subscription model to Qlik SaaS in the future - Qlik is currently running on premise.