Introduction – Best Practices – Onboarding

Introduction & Best Practices

Dear DPD Customer, Partner, IT Integrator,

Thank you for showing interest in our highest volume solutions. These documentation pages will initiate you in becoming a DPDgroup compliant Self-Integrated customer.

At DPDgroup we allow customers with specific IT and printing expectations to take ownership of their shipment label printing, routing code assembly and pre-alert data transmission according to strict DPD standards. This section will serve as walkthrough of creating a successful setup and will contain references to other technical documentation. As a customer of DPDgroup you will find it comfortable to see that as of 2023 onwards all Business Units (BU) throughout the DPD network adopt the same technical IT and printing standards for integration. This allows you to easily shift your activities cross border in the same effort. The technical documentation is thus common and will be referred to extensively in the next chapters.

You will be guided through the steps of self integration by the DPD Customer IT department of the BU which hosts your primary account on a commercial level. In case of cross BU integration, this BU will take the lead in supporting your effort and validating your setup. In this document we will go through the steps of how to onboard.

This document will also provide test cases and samples per service to offer a general perception of the desired outcome. The GeoLabel, GeoRouting and GeoData documentation will go into broader detail, offering all technical understanding needed to successfully replicate these examples operationally as live shipments.

Responsibility is a key factor to achieve lasting success. By offering you the self-integrated path for high volumes, DPD entrusts you with a great liberty and privilege in cooperation. In return we ask for your guaranteed and unconditional effort to keep aligned with DPDgroup standards. Not only upon setup and initial validation, but throughout the entire partnership. Label and data specifications might change rarely – in case of changing DPD standards you will be notified well in advance – but updates in the routing database will occur ever more frequent as the DPD network is always expanding and offering new services.

Designing a Geolabel will give you the freedom to some extent to customise the displayed logo’s, references and codes. Adding barcodes or incorporating the DPD shipment codes and information into a broader company label is however not allowed. Fonts, spacing, sections and print quality will be discussed in the documentation. The label designs will be validated on a set of requirements. Only when all are met, will shipping be allowed.

Developing towards GeoData will provide you with all the namespaces to add of the necessary data to ensure a correct parcel delivery and traceability as well as correctly sent DPD pre-alert messages towards parcel consignees. In-time and complete data transmission is crucial in guaranteeing a fluent operational outcome as well as providing accurate tracking and reporting on performance towards you. Data quality is vital and also a high priority item within DPDgroup. Missing data might lead to extra charges.

Adopting GeoRouting meticulously will ensure parcel delivery lead times are guaranteed operationally. The GeoRouting database consists of a number of tables which are identical for usage throughout the network with a sole exception being the ‘Customerroute’ which is BU specific. The whole database is obtainable via SFTP. Daily update checks and immediate implementation of this database are mandatory to acquire the sorting which reflects the live operational DPD network state. Other tools like a local or web API will be available if you do not prefer to perform the calculations on your infrastructure.

Going together in this trajectory of creating a self-integrated setup will demand resources and effort on both sides, for you as a customer mainly as well as for the DPD Customer IT department. A dedicated development team, a project plan and regular communications are advisable to make the integration succeed. The actual implementation is in your hands, from DPD side you can expect all necessary support and validation regarding the technicalities of the data, routing and label.

Onboarding step by step

The onboarding process will be guided by the BU that owns your primary commercial account.

Slight variations in the sequence of steps may occur, but as a whole, the roadmap is identical. You can find the contacts for development questions as well as label approval per BU in the table listed below.

Steps to success:

1. Customer & DPD Account Manager: Contract agreement sign off
   • As a part of the contract agreement ‘Self integration’ is chosen.
2. Internal or External IT makes contact with DPD BU
   • Establishing an IT project team on customer side and connecting it to DPD BU CIT support.
   • Defining roles and responsibilities with 3rd parties.
3. Onboarding process explained + Documentation transfer
   • The DPD BU CIT delivers the last version of all required documents and data sets.
4. Development and feedback loop
   • Development begins at customer side.
   • All support and progress is centralised at DPD side.
5. Validating Data
6. Validating Label
7. Validating Routing
   • 5 – 6 – 7 are separate validations
   • Mandatory DPD approval before proceeding to testing. o Feedback is provided to overcome gaps.
8. Go Live test
   • Proceeding to DPD prescribed testcases without actual operational shipping.
   • Measuring results until compliance is attained and moving accordingly to step 4 or 9
9. Go Live
   • Gradual go live with volumes as intended in accordance with operational and commercial agreements.
10. Monitoring first activity
    • DPD monitors the first data flows and performance as a safeguard.
11. Agreement on quality and updates (data/label/routing)
    • As a final step and ongoing quality assurance, DPD goes through the requirements with the customer for lasting data and label quality and to update routings as required. The customer commits to this way of working.
    • The customer assigns a dedicated support contact to own the DPD integration.

Goal of the development process visualised

Important

During Development, the customer must perform the development tests against the correct environment of the BU. The stage environment must be used for development and testing purpose only, the production environment must only be used for production purposes.

Validation of Labels is needed even if the data inputted is correct. This is important to check the label layout, parcel number, service code, font size, printing quality, etc. The customer will be asked to send over actual printed labels for validation before go-live. This needs to be checked by the specific BU who is integrating the Customer and validated with actual physical scans and a physical label test.

Test parcels can only be created after permission of the DPD BU.

Data transmission for shipments needs to be received in time by the DPD BU. The standard rule is max. 10 days before the physical arrival of the shipment in a DPD depot. Data transmission must always occur before the parcel is presented physically to the DPD operational network.

Go Live is the last step in the process when the development tests are done and are confirmed. The BU and Customer must agree on success before go live.

Parcel Tracking and parcelshop location retrieval is not covered in this document nor in the referred to documentation from chapter (2). Please contact the DPD BU for possibilities in this area.

End of Day list printing is an optional development on your side. There are no DPD IT cross BU standards here.

Timing and development duration. Please take into account the entire process will take up a few weeks to months from kick off to go-live. When multiple BU’s are included more alignment will be needed. The go live date will mainly depend on customer resources and efforts.