Credit: Dreamstime
Australia Post has selected Google Cloud for data insights and analytics as the organisation grows its digital business into new services.
The 200-year-old service will use the technology giant's BigQuery offering to power its enterprise data analytics platform, designed to provide real-time information on postal deliveries.
In addition, the platform-as-a-service will also help Australia Post process and analyse its data stack from its rapidly-growing new businesses in retail, travel and finance.
Announced during Google Next in San Francisco, Australia Post CIO John Cox said insights from the business intelligence applications, such as Tableau, would often be only available at the end of the day.
However, after transferring to Google Cloud, this has been reduced by a “factor of 10”, he said.
“This means operation managers can now see what’s happening in sorting facilities in real time, helping to identify flow blockages almost instantly,” he added. “Previously, these types of insights would only be available at the end of the day, but now they’re delivered within 15 seconds—that’s 300 times faster.”
Last year, Australia Post delivered more than 3.3 billion items to 11.9 million delivery points across the country and to 190 countries worldwide. It now plans to use BigQuery for further development of its operations, Cox added.
“The need to transform and embrace data has been huge for us over the last decade, so partnering with Google Cloud was an easy choice for us,” he said. “With near real-time data analytics, we can free up valuable resources, act quicker and provide better service to the millions of Australians that rely on us every day.
"We are planning on using machine learning to identify ways to save customers time and give them more certainty about their delivery choices, and we look forward to seeing that unfold."
Australia Post is among a number of high-profile Australian enterprises moving to Google Cloud, a list which also includes ANZ Bank and more recently the retail giant Woolworth.
Eleanor Dickinson attended Next '19 as a guest of Google Cloud.
