– Frank Ewald, Head of Corporate Security, Deutsche Post DHL
Sharing security information in a timely manner with the right people is challenging for every large enterprise, especially for Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), the world’s leading postal and logistics services group.
Its massive security network of 1,000 managers, 12,000 locations and 485,000 employees in more than 220 countries is essential to ensure the safety of the goods and the supply chain of DPDHL customers. Strategic direction and support are provided by the Corporate Security Department which operates the Global Security Situation Center (GSSC), while security implementation and operations are managed at regional/country levels.
Risk events such as political instability, social unrest, natural disasters and others can threaten DPDHL operations, its employees and its corporate assets anywhere at any time.
While corporate-wide analysis and evaluation of the global security situation is undertaken at the GSSC, efficiency was compromised by not just the scale of the monitoring task but also a proliferation of inputs from numerous databases, Excel files, email and telephone reports, and more. With such high complexity, it was possible for critical issues to be missed.
To attain higher levels of efficiency and accuracy of information, Corporate Security sought out to bring multiple, disparate information sources together on a single, easily accessible platform. This strategy would ensure intelligence information is up-to-date, consistent and accurate, while enabling rapid and relevant data dissemination with early-warning intelligence to the right people.
Corporate Security personnel collaborated closely with Everstream Analytics, during the original development of the solution. Since inception, this unique supply chain risk management solution was commercialized and is widely used by DPDHL customers to secure their own supply chain operations.
Using the platform, a security manager can at-a-glance evaluate the potentially disruptive events for the day, drawn from near real-time intelligence feeds, and advise his operations counterparts on rerouting measures and where specific precautions are necessary. From a more strategic perspective, security professionals can also assess locations and lanes based on objective datasets and make recommendations on the best available solutions, such as where to set up warehouses or if changes in the origin and destination of specific routes are needed. The platform is highly customizable, enabling each manager to see the precise security intelligence relevant to his or her role and geographic scope. Each user can also share on-the ground localized intelligence to alert the rest of the network of ripple effects from that incident.
With an integrated platform solution, DPDHL now achieves a clear, instant situation overview in minutes instead of hours, and this facilitates rapid, effective decision making as well as preparation and roll-out of action plans. For example, within moments of the devastating 2014 earthquake affecting northern Chile, Everstream provided geospatial intelligence on structural damage, road and airport closures, power outages and outbreaks of criminal activity and was able to create visibility of the event’s proximity to DPDHL locations and assets.
Security managers across the group report that this solution provides access to at-a-glance security information five times faster than the previous solution.
The group also benefits from reducing the risk exposure of its corporate assets and of its own employees. DHL Aviation security managers used Everstream during the 2015 Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris to monitor the security of its crew members, the risks to DPDHL assets, the event’s impact on the nearby airport’s operations and ultimately, customer goods in transit.
Compared with previous methods, using Everstream Analytics is far less resource-intensive and enables straightforward dissemination of security intelligence and knowledge sharing. During the Frankfurt “Blockupy” movement, GSSC was able to alert relevant operations about the risk of protests and disruption to road transport 10 days in advance of the event. Everyone can access the same intelligence and gain the same understanding – efficiencies and commonality that together reduce network complexity and the overall cost of ensuring group-wide security.
DPDHL customers today also use Everstream to gain visibility of their end-to-end supply chain and to secure their own logistics operations.
| Corporate Security’s Objectives – Bring multiple, disparate information sources together on a single, easily accessible platform – Get on-the-ground information from DPDHL’s security managers and enable more efficient security incident communication – Ensure all security intelligence is up-to-date, consistent and accurate -Improve the provision of strategic and operational support to all business divisions and subsidiariesEverstream Solution – Achieves a single-platform view of the entire worldwide footprint of DPDHL operations (offices, warehouses, cross-docks, air hubs, port facilities, and more) – Enables efficient intelligence gathering from the company’s vast human network – On a global scale, provides situation management, security knowledge sharing and alerting, and impact assessment with sufficient granularity to deliver useful insights to all divisions Corporate Security’s Benefits |
