Case Study - Nova Southeastern University

Introduction

NOVA Southeastern University is the largest not-for-profit university in Florida and is top-ranked by Forbes, Times Higher Education and U.S. News & World Report. Our service program is based out of NSU’s main Fort Lauderdale campus, supporting diverse undergraduate programs and more than 100 graduate and professional programs.

The Concern

Prior to 2007 Nova was an in-house operation, manually performing all Mail/Package delivery. With 954 faculty members, 4556 staff and 21,000 students, all receiving mail and packages, the amount of work to make sure every piece is delivered was staggering.

The engine that processes this much mail has a lot of moving parts and needs a dedicated staff to make it happen. Particularly in light of the many obstacles that presented themselves.

• There was no chain of custody or accountability and lost mail and packages were common.
• There was no tracking of mail routes/stops and faculty complaints mounted as outgoing mail was being misdelivered.
• Packages would be dropped off by the carriers, manually sorted by Nova staff and delivered across campus without any accountability/tracking.
• Delivery was not the only problem. A significant volume of packages – sometimes 5 times the normal daily amount – were always received several weeks prior to fall move-in date for incoming students and took up space in storage.
• There was also the problem with the three satellite mailrooms located inside residence halls on campus. The keys to these mailboxes were not always returned and transitioning mail can be difficult.
• Replacing PO Box keys where mail was previously delivered. Many students do not return keys to be passed on to future users.

The Solution

Once IST took the reins of all Mail Operations many manual processes were eliminated when we implemented our IST Suite Technology.

• The first defense against lost mail was our Bar Code Mail Stop technology across campus to ensure our mail route drivers hit all mail stops. This was in addition to our Mail Sort Package Track (MSPT) application to track all incoming and outgoing packages which reduced missing packages for both faculty and students. IST picks up and delivers all incoming and outgoing mail, including student, faculty and interdepartmental mail.
• All incoming packages/ parcels are received by IST Mail Services and processed utilizing IST’s proprietary Mail Sort Package Track software. All packages receive a quality control review before being loaded into vans for delivery to residence halls and end-users.
• As perishable packages are processed, the recipient is contacted by phone and email to notify them a perishable package has arrived and is being stored in a refrigerator. Delivery is scheduled, and a special IST Mail Services courier is utilized for immediate delivery to the resident student or end-user.
• Packages and letter mail are delivered by IST Mail Services at least twice a day to faculty and staff and throughout the day as needed to student residence halls. Delivery is attempted for all Express packages before noon. Resident student packages are available for pick up within four hours of delivery to Mail Services. 
• IST Mail Services supports six departmental mail routes, including one mail route/ courier dedicated to Express, Perishable, Special Handling, and special request services.
• IST Mail Services manages approximately 3,000 resident student mailboxes located in four different residence halls on campus.
• IST Mail Services also provides additional staff to manage high volume package intake and distribution for special move-in hours and weekend support up to two months after the initial resident move-in week.
• Packages for students with residence halls with electronic locker systems are tagged and handled, unlike other residence hall deliveries. Upon arrival, these packages are tagged using only one tracking label. They are then only transferred out in MSPT (to show movement of the package) and brought to the residence hall locker system. Packages are loaded into a locker using the locker system software interface, automatically sending the student an email containing a unique code to retrieve the package from the locker where it was placed. For packages too large to be placed in a locker, the student is emailed advising him to pick-up at the nearest residence hall mailroom.

The Partnership

IST has partnered with NOVA Southeastern University (NSU) for over 14 years with a team of dedicated, empowered IST associates fully cross-trained to serve the campus-wide needs of NSU students, faculty, and staff. We ensure our highly trained staff are given specialized technology and supported by managers who are not just knowledgeable but engaged at every level. This kind of support is fundamental to IST. 

Our mission is to consistently do better than we did before. We encourage our employees and managers to make sure we provide our customers with the most comprehensive and technologically advanced management processes in the industry. Our approach is to use innovative technology at IST that results in fantastic service at a low cost for our clients.