BACKGROUND OF THE CASE 1

HERMES: DELIVERING CHANGE

Hermes is a leading parcel delivery specialist in the UK, serving over 80% of high street
retailers as well as catalogs and online stores. It operates mainly in Italy, Russia, the United
Kingdom, Germany, and Austria. They all rely on the organization to send over 245 million
parcels a year. Hermes also works with individual customers who send and receive packages
through its nationwide network of 4,500 Parcel Shops. Delivery specialists are in high demand
due to the rapid growth of online shopping. Hermes competes in a highly competitive market.
Clients can switch providers in the blink of an eye, thanks to a variety of options. To remain a
market leader in the UK in this rapidly changing environment, Hermes needed to improve its
agility and customer satisfaction. A priority was to provide a high-quality service while
maintaining a high value in the minds of customers. Due to a slow legacy system and a
willingness to innovate, Hermes required a unified ecosystem. There are 1.8 million different
postcode addresses in the United Kingdom. Hermès has assigned 10,000 couriers to a few of
these postcodes. Hermes needed a way to respond to day-to-day courier network management
from the field while also providing Field Management with visibility into the network structure.
Previously, courier rounds were created and updated manually by a central user using a desktop
system, a time-consuming process involving hard-copy maps that could not be manipulated but it
was quickly became out of date. Furthermore, because the system did not support whole unit
postcode geography, accurate territory make-up was difficult. Hermes also needed a
management information tool to optimize rounds and network plans, as well as to assess what if?
scenarios. Hermes' goal is that they need a completely new approach to their technology. As the
business became more complex, the historical platform slowed. The role of dynamic online
mapping was to work with Hermes to design, build, view, organize, and manage the rounds of
couriers. This new planning system enables 200 field managers to make local and tactical
adjustments to their operational areas. It also allows central management to assess the impact
and effectiveness of the changes before quickly approving them. Dynamic Online Planning plays
a vital role in Hermes' goals. It has a huge impact on attaining their objectives includes the
operational savings where the expenses and delivery costs were cut. And their service
performance has been improved efficiently. Courier turnover decreased as network members'
workloads became more evenly distributed. It provided a comprehensive view of the network,
enabling peak planning and continuous network review. Field managers can use an iPad to
access the system and make and see changes to their plans. Hermès recognizes the need to make
continuous and significant changes to their network as it grows because the new planning system
is dynamic. The platform was the keystone of the organization's ongoing mobile and web
development strategy. It enabled clients and parcel receivers to interact with Hermes more
effectively, and Hermes discovered that providing better services was now easier than ever. As a
result, clients were able to integrate faster, and the flexibility provided more support as their
needs grew and changed. The system allows Hermes to visualize, identify, and model existing
and potential problems, as well as model solutions to them. Access to the United Kingdom is
possible through the system.
REFERENCES IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

Graham Platt, M.I. Analyst. (n.d.). Hermes. Geoplan.Com. Retrieved October 21, 2021,

from https://www.geoplan.com/industries/case-studies/hermes

Jean Rosenthal, Brad Gentry, Todd Cort, Jennifer Oldham Rogan, and Jaan Elias, (2014,

November 17). Alcoa & the auto industry. Yale SOM Case 14–018. Retrieved October

21, 2021, from https://som.yale.edu/case/2014/alcoa-the-auto-industry?

fbclid=IwAR2E4zdI6GDydRtMJSH9EHnNSxl-vrOYd-

YbI8DqD8v6VZZeWDmWJAbiVEE

Allocate Group. (2021, March 2). Hermes delivers faster expense claim payments.

Allocatesotware.Com. Retrieved October 21, 2021, from

https://www.allocatesoftware.com/government-commercial/case-studies/hermes-delivers-

faster-expense-claim-payments/

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). (n.d.). Hermes II case

management. Cgi.Com. https://www.cgi.com/uk/en-gb/case-study/hermes-ii-case-

management
 MAI N PROBLEM

The main problem of this case study is their courier delivery system wherein Hermes
provides door-to-door services wherein There are 1.8 million different postcode
addresses in the United Kingdom. Hermès has assigned 10,000 couriers to a few of these
postcodes. Hermès allocate delivery rounds quickly if one courier was overloaded and
another in an adjacent area could take up the extra work. Hermes realized this was time-
consuming and that the delivery maps produced became outdated by the time the couriers
started their deliveries. Hermes also needed a management information tool to optimize
rounds and network plans, as well as to assess what if? scenarios.