Applying advanced analytics for the sanctity and delivery of mail | DatabricksPlatformThe Databricks Lakehouse PlatformDelta LakeData GovernanceData EngineeringData StreamingData WarehousingData SharingMachine LearningData SciencePricingMarketplaceOpen source techSecurity and Trust CenterWEBINAR May 18 / 8 AM PT
Goodbye, Data Warehouse. Hello, Lakehouse.
Attend to understand how a data lakehouse fits within your modern data stack.
Register nowSolutionsSolutions by IndustryFinancial ServicesHealthcare and Life SciencesManufacturingCommunications, Media & EntertainmentPublic SectorRetailSee all IndustriesSolutions by Use CaseSolution AcceleratorsProfessional ServicesDigital Native BusinessesData Platform MigrationNew survey of biopharma executives reveals real-world success with real-world evidence.
See survey resultsLearnDocumentationTraining & CertificationDemosResourcesOnline CommunityUniversity AllianceEventsData + AI SummitBlogLabsBeaconsJoin Generation AI in San Francisco
June 26–29
 
Learn about LLMs like Dolly and open source Data and AI technologies such as Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, MLflow and Delta SharingExplore sessionsCustomersPartnersCloud PartnersAWSAzureGoogle CloudPartner ConnectTechnology and Data PartnersTechnology Partner ProgramData Partner ProgramBuilt on Databricks Partner ProgramConsulting & SI PartnersC&SI Partner ProgramPartner SolutionsConnect with validated partner solutions in just a few clicks.Learn moreCompanyCareers at DatabricksOur TeamBoard of DirectorsCompany BlogNewsroomDatabricks VenturesAwards and RecognitionContact UsSee why Gartner named Databricks a Leader for the second consecutive yearGet the reportTry DatabricksWatch DemosContact UsLoginJUNE 26-29REGISTER NOWCUSTOMER STORYDelivering integrity and efficiency for the U.S. Postal ServiceUSPS OIG supports efficient postal service to millions with Databricks Lakehouse40%Reduction in total cost of ownership (compared to SAS)WeeksTo deliver projects instead of months  INDUSTRY: Federal Government PLATFORM USE CASE: Lakehouse,Machine Learning,Data Warehousing  CLOUD: Azure“With our move to the cloud and lakehouse architecture, we are well positioned to respond to new data challenges swiftly, enabling us to fulfill the agency’s mission of ensuring efficiency, accountability and integrity in the U.S. Postal Service.”
– Ben Joseph, CDO, USPS OIGThe United States Postal Service (USPS) delivers more than 400 million pieces of mail each day. Established to sustain public trust in the mail system, the USPS OIG is critical to ensuring the integrity and accountability of the Postal Service, including its personnel, programs, assets and revenue. The USPS OIG embarked on a data modernization journey to better handle the challenges of today and prepare for those of tomorrow. Using the Lakehouse Architecture, the USPS OIG was able to centralize data analysis in the cloud for easier access and cleared data engineering bottlenecks for large-scale analytics and AI. With the means to use data to facilitate the identification of not only challenges but also new opportunities for innovation, the USPS OIG is better positioned to investigate, audit and research postal operations and programs to protect against fraud, waste and abuse, ensuring the efficiency and integrity of the USPS.Inability to scale analytics with the data perpetuates stagnationAs one of the most trusted government agencies in the country, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) depends on a network of people and technology to collect, transport, process and deliver nearly 130 billion pieces of mail to over 163 million delivery points per year. The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) was established as an independent oversight agency to help maintain confidence in the postal system and improve the bottom line through audits and investigations. For instance, a key focus of the agency is to detect and prevent postal crimes such as mail dumping, which is when postal employees intentionally discard or delay mail rather than deliver it to its intended recipients. By monitoring various USPS data points, the OIG can identify indicators of employees or routes that are involved with dumped mail.Prior to its use of a data lakehouse architecture, the OIG’s on-premises infrastructure was highly complex to manage and costly to scale. This became increasingly problematic as data volumes increased at such a rate that the office faced challenges extracting insights and developing timely solutions. The agency struggled to handle the influx of customer and delivery-related data, provide a centralized view for all teams, and support reliable and performant data pipelines for downstream analytics and machine learning — a requirement that became heavily evident during the 2020 election season, which saw a historic spike in voting by mail due to COVID-19.With a data team of more than 100 people who needed to work together or respond to anomalous activities in a timely manner, the OIG looked to the cloud and a new data architecture that would offer all its data teams easy access to any data and unlock new analytical and machine learning capabilities to further its efforts to improve mail delivery efficiency and accountability.Lakehouse solves efficiency challenges and opens new doorsA combination of internal and external factors challenged the OIG to simplify the management of all its data at scale while also facilitating analytics and machine learning. “We wanted to leverage industry standards for data management and analytics in-house, which prompted our transition to the cloud,” explained Ben Joseph, CDO at USPS OIG. “As we explored our data infrastructure options, we found that a data lakehouse platform is the only environment that offers a common place to do ETL, analytics and machine learning under the same umbrella.”With a data lakehouse platform, the OIG has removed the barriers that once blocked its ability to deliver reliable and timely data for analytics and machine learning. With an open lakehouse architecture, all the data the agency pulls from USPS is much clearer and easier to use across teams. It has also unlocked a level of operational efficiency and performance at an unprecedented scale. Data engineers can simplify ETL pipeline development and improve data reliability, data analysts can use SQL to collaboratively query and share insights with the built-in visualizations and dashboards, and data scientists can use AutoML to jump-start new machine learning projects by automating tasks and accelerating workflows.For example, one solution called Informed Delivery provides eligible residential customers with a digital preview of their household’s incoming mail. This allows households to see and track their inbound mail more easily. Behind the scenes, OIG stores images of mail alongside traditional data on things like sender, receiver, package contents, weight and value. By combining this data, it can mitigate fraudulent activity in the shape of mail theft or dumping, while improving the customer experience.As a branch of the federal government and a long-established institution without a reputation for being modern in its approach to workflows, the Postal Service expects to see an incredibly positive effect on customer satisfaction and the agency’s reputation through its adoption of the lakehouse.Delivering insights that matter, with confidenceMigrating to a cloud based data lakehouse architecture not only paid dividends from an innovation standpoint, but it also made an impact on costs. Compared to its previous architecture, the agency experienced a 40% reduction in total cost of ownership. These savings were primarily due to the elimination of legacy data infrastructure, unnecessary storage and licensing costs, and productivity improvements.Simultaneously, the OIG’s ability to harness its data for analytics and machine learning use cases was reduced from months to days, because of the data engineering efficiencies introduced by the lakehouse. In fact, it has been able to scale its data ingestion from 1 production pipeline in its legacy system to over 90 production pipelines in the data lakehouse. This has helped the agency deliver more value to its various auditors and investigators in uncovering anomalous activity, while also giving the data team the satisfaction of being able to create customer-facing solutions in ways that were impossible with the previous system.Joseph explained, “Our society has experienced a lot of change on many levels in the last couple of years, and all we want to do as an organization is to be able to respond to those changes and support the various stakeholders who love our products but need more of them. The data lakehouse platform has enabled us to do that on a level we never dreamed of.”Now that the OIG can operate in a more forward-thinking and agile fashion, the team is taking on several additional use cases. With the lakehouse as its data foundation, the OIG is well positioned to continue leveraging data, analytics and AI to deliver value efficiently and with confidence.Ready to get started?Try Databricks for freeLearn more about our productTalk to an expertProductPlatform OverviewPricingOpen Source TechTry DatabricksDemoProductPlatform OverviewPricingOpen Source TechTry DatabricksDemoLearn & SupportDocumentationGlossaryTraining & CertificationHelp CenterLegalOnline CommunityLearn & SupportDocumentationGlossaryTraining & CertificationHelp CenterLegalOnline CommunitySolutionsBy IndustriesProfessional ServicesSolutionsBy IndustriesProfessional ServicesCompanyAbout UsCareers at DatabricksDiversity and InclusionCompany BlogContact UsCompanyAbout UsCareers at DatabricksDiversity and InclusionCompany BlogContact UsSee Careers
at DatabricksWorldwideEnglish (United States)Deutsch (Germany)Français (France)Italiano (Italy)日本語 (Japan)한국어 (South Korea)Português (Brazil)Databricks Inc.
160 Spear Street, 13th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
1-866-330-0121© Databricks 2023. All rights reserved. Apache, Apache Spark, Spark and the Spark logo are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation.Privacy Notice|Terms of Use|Your Privacy Choices|Your California Privacy Rights