Cel Technology in Mail Business Re-engineering (TIMBRE) is a process integration and re-engineering project aiming to achieve 30 to 40% improvement in the productivity of the European Postal Service. The first - Requirements and Definition - phase of TIMBRE is being undertaken by a Consortium comprising the Postal Services of Denmark, Ireland and the U.K. together with AEG Electrocom, Elsag Bailey and Pitney Bowes, and led by IPC Technology. This phase has been separated from the main project so that the Consortium can ensure that the full project definition reflects the needs of all European Posts, and so as to provide other Posts with the opportunity to participate in the project paper.The Postal Service is one of the world's largest and most international service industries. European volumes exceed 80 billion items, resulting in a turnover of ECU 30 bn p.a. providing employment to more than 1.4 million persons and serving a customer base which includes virtually all businesses and private consumers. The industry has survived and grown despite many prophesies of its being overtaken by technological advances such as telegraph and facsimile. Even so, the Post is today more under threat than ever before and there is already evidence of a decline in volumes in certain sectors of the market, particularly in the area of business to business mail. Threats arise from many sources, including:- increased competition, particularly in the context of market liberalisation - substitution of mail by electronic alternatives, including facsimile, E-mail, EDI, on-line banking services, videotex, telephone and interactive television- revenue loss through fraud and mismatch between payment and service used.At the same time, technological developments create the opportunity for major improvements in the efficiency with which the Posts operate. These developments are of most significance in the fields of mechanisation, OCR, item identification and tracking, printing technology and multi-media communications.If the Posts are to meet the new challenges presented by increasing market liberalisation and electronic alternatives to traditional mail, they must respond by offering new and improved services, greater efficiency of operation and higher reliability. This can no longer be achieved, as it was in the past, by tinkering with existing procedures, nor by piecemeal adoption of new technology. It is essential that effective use is made of Information Technology in order to gain control over the postal process on a fully end-to-end customer to customer - basis. What is needed is for the Posts to re-engineer the whole postal process, using Information Technology advances to (re)gain control over the physical handling process.The intended solution is to conduct a thorough review of the whole postal process, from customer payment for and submission of mail through to delivery to the addressee. This review will identify the opportunities for major Process Integration and improvement resulting from the application of Information Technology. Based on this review, the intent is to go on to define proposed standards, for application within the Postal Service, for the exchange of and access to information which will be required to implement these improvements in practice. This definition work will be accompanied by operational pilot trials both to verify the projected costs and benefits and to validate the practicality of the proposed standards.Ultimately, it is believed that TIMBRE has the potential to yield savings of 20% or more - ECU 6 billions p.a. - in costs, together with extra re venues of several hundred million ECU p.a. as a result of reduced levels of fraud and underpayment.The full benefits will take 10 years or more to realise, but the project has been designed in such a way that exploitable initial results should be demonstrable on a pilot scale within two years and on a wider European scale within 3 to 5 years. Tale up of the results should be assured by the very nature of the project Consortium, which brings together the real user organisations - the Posts themselves - with their key technology suppliers. Moreover, dissemination of the results to non-partner Post organisations will occur through the medium of IPC, the project coordinator, which is jointly owned by 21 Posts, including those of all 15 EU Member States. Dziedzina nauki social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivitysocial scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment Program(-y) FP4-ESPRIT 4 - Specific research and technological development programme in the field of information technologies, 1994-1998 Temat(-y) 7.1 - Business Best Practice Pilots Zaproszenie do składania wniosków Data not available System finansowania CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Koordynator IPC Technology Sc Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Rue De La Fusee 100 1130 Bruxelles Belgia Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych Uczestnicy (6) Sortuj alfabetycznie Sortuj według wkładu UE Rozwiń wszystko Zwiń wszystko Aeg Electrocom Gmbh Niemcy Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Bücklestrasse 1-5 78459 Konstanz Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych An Post Irlandia Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Gpo, O'connell Street Dublin 1 Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych Elsag Bailey-finmeccanica SpA Włochy Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Via Puccini 2 16154 Genova Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych Pintey Bowes Espana Sa Hiszpania Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Anton Fortuny 14-16 08950 Esplugues De Liobregat Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych Post Denmark Dania Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Tietgensgade 37 1566 Copenhagen V Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych The Post Office Zjednoczone Królestwo Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Old Street 148 EC1V9HQ London Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych
