Posten Bring: Setting the logistics sector up for the future using Microsoft Azure

“When we decided to move to the cloud, it was clear to us that we weren’t just doing it because everybody else was doing it. We had a clear goal to drive change, modernize our systems, and become more stable and scalable. And we stuck to it the entire time.”

Arne Erik Berntzen, Chief Information Officer at Norwegian mail and logistics group Posten Bring, is describing his company’s recent cloud migration and the innovation this has unlocked.

“Posten Bring is one of the oldest and most established logistics organizations in the Nordics region,” says Berntzen. “For as long as we’ve existed, our purpose has been simple: delivering goods to millions of people on time and effectively—making everyday life simpler and the world smaller.”

It’s a mission that vitally relies on efficient operations and a solid digital backbone to succeed—especially for Posten Bring and its cross-country audience. A mission that recently led the company to a landmark decision: moving to the cloud.

“For more than 370 years, Posten Bring has been pioneering innovation and modern solutions by means of technology,” he says. “But what we recently did with the cloud far exceeds a lot of our past achievements."

An outdated system calls for change

Founded in 1647, Posten Bring is a mail and logistics organization serving Norway to Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. It currently employs more than 12,500 people to operate across terminals at 30 locations.

“We are quite a large organization with an equally large customer base who relies on our services on a daily basis,” says Berntzen. “That puts us under significant pressure to run our operations as smoothly as possible, as well as deliver excellent customer experience.”

But this isn’t always easy. Faced, like many others, with the need to adapt to the fast rise of e-commerce and evolving logistics challenges, Posten spent years looking for ways to modernize its systems and become more efficient.

A breakthrough came in 2020 when the company decided to replace its existing core mainframe system with something more suitable for the modern logistics provider. Faulty, on-premises, and heavily maintenance-reliant, the system was causing huge issues for the organization—often leading it to failures and delays.

“We once had an incident during a peak season in which the system went down for 10 minutes,” he explains. “Unfortunately, even a few minutes’ downtime can have huge impacts on our customers and customer services—and in that case, even get picked up by the national media."

“So, at some point, we decided it was time to change. We needed to modernize, and we needed to do it fast. That’s where the idea of moving to the cloud came.” 

Posten’s new cloud system

As they set out to arrange their migration, Berntzen and his team knew well where the main issue lay: the mainframe system.

“The mainframe system was the very heart of our operations,” he explains. “We built it almost 30 years ago, and for decades, everything and everyone were hugely dependent on it.”

As time went by, however, its technical issues and costs started to outweigh its benefits. “It was well-designed, but it was not helping us to plan for the future,” he continues.

“We needed something that would give us more flexibility and agility in developing things, but also more capacity and scalability when making changes. On top of that, we wanted something that was available 24/7, every day throughout the year. Something that we wouldn’t have to take down for maintenance each week like we used to with the previous system”.

The team had two choices—to invest in reparatory technology and solve the existing issues or to go for something completely new and build a new system from the ground up. “We decided to do something bold that showed our commitment to the future,” he says. "So, we started to build the system from scratch."

At the time, Microsoft had just announced plans to open fresh, new datacenters in Norway—a move that Posten saw as crucial when choosing to adopt not just any cloud but Microsoft Azure. “We knew those datacenters could become the foundation of our plans for the system,” he says.

A new range of capabilities for the modern provider

Now entirely running on Azure, as well as Azure Kubernetes Services, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Posten’s new system is a breath of fresh air compared to its predecessor.

“We now have a central hub production facility system that handles our main operations and data,” says Jihad El Dor, Terminal Manager at Posten’s Oslo Logistics Center. “We also have a new live-monitoring capability that’s already playing a major role, especially for us at the Oslo terminal."

“We handle about 55% of the total parcel volume of the Posten Bring Network, so being able to monitor what happens in real time is really important. With the new system, we can obtain precise data regarding occurrence times, specific affected customers, and the causes of anything coming up.”

Berntzen adds: “More than ten years back, we had already started to consolidate our system for some of the companies in our group—bringing everyone under the same operational umbrella."

“That was an enormous advantage for us because the data was consolidated into one source of truth before we opted for the cloud.”

That puts data more than ever at the core of Posten’s operations, helping it to have a clearer vision of what’s happening within its system while also planning for the future. “A great example is our track and trace system,” Berntzen explains. “As part of it, the parcels are sorted at one of our 30 terminals around the Nordics, which then produce and scan a label and query it into the cloud to find out what it needs to do with it. “

“The entire system runs on its own with near real-time integration and minimal latency of about 20 milliseconds.”

Beyond track and trace, Posten is also using the cloud to improve the information and data it provides to its workforce in a bid to drive even more efficiencies. “We have 21,000 or so devices with which we communicate with our people,” he adds. “So, it’s easier now for them to scan the parcels and run them against the system of shipment.”

The same applies for drivers tasked with loading their lorries and carrying parcels across regions and terminals. “We’ve created a system that allows customers buying online to get an accurate, up-to-date prediction of when they should expect their purchase to arrive,” he says. “They can get it directly in their online store shopping carts."

Unlocking new possibilities with data

Just over four years since starting its digital transformation, Posten Bring is now enjoying huge success with it. “We recently concluded the best Christmas peak period ever in the history of the group,” says Berntzen. “We had an increase in the number of parcels, as well as almost no issues—all thanks to our cloud-based solution.”

More particularly, it was the scalability features that made the difference. “It’s so much easier now to scale our infrastructure up and down when needed,” he continues. “Even if we do have issues, which can happen, it’s far simpler to manage them now than before—thanks also to the new production support team we have in place, who is available 24/7.”

But the greatest benefit of it all, he says, is the availability of data that being on the cloud has unlocked. “We are now at a point where we’re turning towards data-driven services like artificial intelligence,” he continues. “For example, we recently created a monitoring system that allows us to monitor what’s happening across the network in the best way possible."

“That means we have a real-time visibility over our sorting facilities, our production sites, and all integrated systems.”

Looking ahead 

Posten’s future is now intrinsically tied to data and the huge opportunities it offers. In practical terms, this means strengthening operations even further, plus looking into the AI and the realm of automated technology.

But that’s not all, as Berntzen explains, there will soon be space for sustainability-focused initiatives too. “We’re currently working on reducing emissions at our production facilities and those emitted by our lorries,” he says. “But that’s only the start of what we aim to do with our data to become a more sustainable business.”

Wherever the new system will take it, Posten Bring knows it can count on Microsoft to help it get there. “Microsoft has been giving us so much,” he concludes. “When we started, they were there to advise and help us plan and implement the entire migration."

“Now, they continue to support us in taking every new step. It’s not just a collaboration that we’ve established: it’s a true partnership that we have no doubt will last us a long time.”