U.S. Postal Service Recognized for Exceptional IT Leadership

10 Awards Received for Excellence in Information Technology

WASHINGTON, DC —The Postal Service was recognized for exceptional leadership in information technology by national industry publications in FY 2008, earning 10 excellence awards for the use of technology to enhance business. Among the honors, USPS made Computerworld’s “100 Best Places to Work in IT” list for the fifth year in a row.

“Our hardworking IT team does an outstanding job of supporting the ever-changing IT requirements of the Postal Service,” said Ross Philo, chief information officer and executive vice president. “These awards are testimony that IT is making exceptional contributions to the Postal Service by solving business problems and enabling new services.”

Working to make letter carrier delivery routes more efficient, the IT department implemented the Carrier Optimal Routing (COR) system and earned a Computerworld Best Practices in Business Intelligence Award. COR uses advanced models of mail delivery routes to provide more accurate route maps and lines of travel for letter carriers. The system has resulted in reduced transportation costs as well as improved safety through more compact, contiguous routes since its implementation earlier this year.

Other honors include:

Government Computer News Government Leadership Award
Computerworld Premier 100 Award
Symantec 2008 Federal Government Visionary Award

Technology Managers Forum Best Practices Award in the information security category
Tri-State CIO Forum Best Practices Award finalist
Government Information Security Leadership Award finalist

In addition, IT staffers were recognized this year as “rising stars” in the industry by Government Computer News and Federal Computer Week, showing the depth of talent within the IT organization.

“Awards like these confirm that the Postal Service has established a really strong reputation within the IT industry,” said George Wright, vice president, information technology operations. “Despite the IT department’s relatively small size compared to other organizations of similar scope and scale, we consistently deliver outstanding service and superior value throughout the organization.”

The Postal Service’s IT department manages the world’s largest intranet, connecting more than 37,000 locations to critical business systems every day, and one of the world’s largest e-mail systems, delivering more than 13 million e-mails a day.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.