Challenge
Each Cleveland anchor institution operated its own mail services hub with disparate systems, staff, and facilities. This caused equipment, labor and supplier redundancies, lack of standardized USPS, HIPPA, and ACA compliance practices, and inconsistent mail preparation, delivery, and tracking processes. A decentralized service delivery model also meant added overhead costs and inefficient use of real estate. Institutions were slow to adopt technologies, relying instead on hand-sorting and other manual processes. The absence of skilled labor opened the door to processing and delivery delays and errors. Finally, there was no tracking system or formalized chain of custody procedures to ensure mail accountably and security.
Solution
Case Western University, Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals consolidated operations to form a single centralized mail hub, managed by Exela. The facility offers the following services:
- Inter-office courier services
- Outbound/inbound mail gathering
- Sorting and distribution to appropriate carriers
- Outbound/inbound package induction
- Outbound metering and postage induction
- Postage management and reporting
- Research on undeliverable mail/packages
- Basic mail screening
The facility is located on the campus of Case Western University, in Cleveland, and encourages the employment of local residents to help stimulate economic growth in the surrounding areas. Exela offers comprehensive skills development resources and training to facilitate expertise and technology competencies.
The facility is scalable to accommodate large volumes of inbound and outbound mail. Currently, Exela processes and meters over 5.1M pieces of USPS outbound mail annually; and receives, sorts and delivers over 5.2M pieces of inbound USPS mail/packages annually. By transferring operations to Exela, the hub benefits from an infusion of technology that is readily available to employees. Technology implemented includes:
- Mail Sortation Automation Technology (2D Bar-Coding)
- Mail Metering Equipment / Reporting (Novimetrix)
- Package Tracking Hardware and Software (Podtracker)
- Online Reporting / Data Entry / Database Management
Benefits
- Eliminated redundant resources, including two facilities
- 75% of employees come from Cleveland, with a high concentration from surrounding neighborhoods
- Potential for an estimated 20% in cost reductions for existing mail services at anchor institutions
- Re-purposed and/or eliminated redundant resources
- Centralized mail operations and consolidated workflows for more effective utilization of technology and implementation of best practices
- Implemented better security and quality controls to avoid the co-mingling of confidential information
- Achieved process efficiencies while maintaining 100% accuracy
- Preserved jobs currently performing Mail Hub functions at other providers
- Created the opportunity for a higher-skilled labor force through extensive professional development resources
