DPDgroup, a carrier boosted
by technology and digital technology

Listen to to DPDgoup's CIO is to hear the story of a tremendous success story that combines transport, technology, strategy, international and project business. This was the privilege enjoyed by participants at VIRAGE Days. This event dedicated to piloting was all about sharing. So we extend this spirit with highlights from Hugues de Maussion, Chief Information Officer and member of DPDgroup's ComEx.

How did this French player become the world's 4th largest parcel carrier? How this logistics provider extended its competitive advantages from transport to software? How this double billionaire in sales and parcels handled made data its key asset? How does IT governance bring agility and coherence to every project? What are the next challenges for a company entrusted with the delivery of 2 billion parcels to the four corners of the globe?

The transport sector revolutionized by e-commerce

DPDgroup operates in the parcel transport sector, which has changed radically with the rise of e-commerce. New consumer habits, COVID, the spread of digital technology - these are just some of the factors that have completely changed the situation. As a tangible consequence, market dynamics have shifted from a B2B to a B2C business.

And DPDgroup has come out on top. With a sustained rate of double-digit growth, this Groupe La Poste subsidiary has risen to become the world's fourth largest operator, alongside FedEx, UPS and DHL. Thanks to a policy of external growth, it is now Europe's leading delivery network.

DPDgroup an SME with sales of 15 billion euros

If you look at the turnover, the capital structure (subsidiary of the La Poste group and Caisse des Dépôts), the locations... PME is not what spontaneously comes to mind.

And yet, for Mr de Maussion, it's the SME spirit that partly explains DPDgroup's success. " We run a multinational company, present in all time zones, with a head office of less than 200 people. Each entity is autonomous in its decisions. They are accountable to the group only for their results. The result is responsiveness and the ability to adapt very quickly: COVID was the perfect example of this.

DPDgroup cultivates the paradox of a decentralized model while at the same time being a global network. The network is built on a simple strategy. Establish a presence in a country through acquisition or creation, then set up cross-border links with neighboring countries.

This location gives us the capacity to route parcels from South America to Europe. IT is the link between all the group's components.

Digital technology supports growth

DPDgroup is convinced (and convincing) that IT is core business. And if some are wondering about the aftershocks of the digital earthquake on their business... DPDgroup accepts that it is at the heart of the digital revolution, and works with the GAFAs on a daily basis.

With a decentralized model, an ambition of 20 billion euros within five years through external growth, traceability of parcels from one end of the planet to the other... It's a tricky equation to solve, especially for a transversal function like IT.

The decentralized model still prevails in IT. Each entity manager is responsible for everything, and this applies to digital.

Central IT's mission with regard to the entities therefore focuses on :

• a "legislative" function, dictating all interoperability standards, compliance and safety requirements
• defining expectations in cross-functional areas such as international trade
• the availability of infrastructure deployed worldwide, such as the data backbone for inter-subsidiary exchanges
• development of group applications

It should be noted that the trend is towards a significant increase in Group-led developments. This is due to the growing demands of international customers for more homogeneous applications. While the Group remains highly decentralized, the IT side of the business is tending to be pooled.

Ultimately, this trend confirms the dominant role of IT. It's no coincidence that the CIO sits on the ComEx, and his voice counts just as much in the group's strategic decisions, whether it's a question of investment choices or mergers/acquisitions.

It's interesting to note that "new entrant" competitors have a "technological" angle of attack. Their model is that of a start-up. They develop a technology financed by fund-raising, take market share with an aggressive pricing policy, and aim for resale. "We claim to be good at technology, but it's above all a problem of business model. They're flush with cash and have no approach to profitability, whereas we have to be profitable every month."

Do you need one last indicator to convince you of IT's central role?
While Mr de Maussion is no fan of using ratios to manage his business, he did share one reality that appeals to everyone in the Group:

"When we correlate sales, profitability and IT budgets, it's the subsidiaries that invest the most in IT that perform the best!"

And what about IT projects?

DPDgroup's "Predict: know what time your parcel will be delivered" offer has had an impact on the market. Above all, it's an IT project that combines geolocation, route optimization, customer communication, delivery driver feedback and predictive models.

Examples like this one DPDgroup has "a whole portfolio of projects": temperature-controlled parcel delivery, chatbot, data science to refine forecasts...

As IT is a strategic asset, this means a lot of internal work... and therefore a lot of IT projects. And that's the challenge for the CIO: to reconcile the abundance of ideas needed to remain competitive with the need to avoid dispersion.

The real issue is choosing what to work on and what our priorities are. We can't scatter our brains.
And now we come to the guardian of convergence: Project Monitor.
Project Monitor gives us visibility, segmentation and sharing of our project portfolio.

In Projet Monitor, you'll find everything that makes CIO tick. This activity takes place in the various DPDgroup development centers: France, Poland and Hungary. In all these entities, the PMO unit monitors the application:

• candidate projects and their contribution to the portfolio
• projects in progress, and for each one a focus on progress with key milestones and time spent (valued in financial terms)
• and, for the sake of completeness, "product" activities with their continuous improvement cycle

The aim is to have all the necessary elements, and only those elements, to make the right decisions for projects. It's the challenge of the PMO unit to walk this fine line between sufficient visibility without falling into detail and "permanent data entry".

"I would like to pay tribute to the commitment of VIRAGE Group , which has always been able to support us pragmatically, without getting bogged down in sprawling solutions.

Value-driven project governance

The overriding logic is the search for value. And this pursuit of value involves all DPDgroup managers in the choice of projects. The presence of the CIO on the ComEx ensures a direct link between strategy and project, and joint decision-making. Result:

"Paradoxically, at each of our validation meetings, there are few projects that require arbitration. What's more, we sometimes cancel meetings because the essential issues have been dealt with transversally with management".

To achieve this fluidity, the IOC applies clear project governance principles:

• Projects must be short.
• Projects must demonstrate their value through MVPs - minimum valuable products - before continuing with development.
• Projects are constantly called into question: if they don't work out, they're stopped, even if most of them do.
• Projects must be modular and interoperable. We shun large, monolithic systems.
• Projects are not based on specifications, but on a backlog logic with sprint sequencing.

There's a kind of gamble involved in the way we operate. We favor agility over processes. We don't draw up very complex IT master plans. Instead, we rely on macro-mapping. On the other hand, our architecture is based on a long-term vision, so that the circulation of Data - our "white gold" - is always at the heart of our developments.

In terms of management, this means monitoring investment capacity and resource allocation. Each month, based on information provided by Project Monitor, the CIO manages its business on a "permanent budget" basis. And while resources are allocated by project and product, CAPEX allocations are not necessarily segmented by project.

"With ComEx, I'm in a dialogue of value and investment. By decorrelating project and budget, I can quickly align myself with the new orientations of our shareholders. If the Group's investment choices change, I can easily reconfigure my project portfolio.

This translates into a dynamic of budget construction by money and management by people. Which brings us to the CIO's real challenge...

Our IT challenge: attractiveness, because it's all about HR

When we ask Hugues de Maussion what his main difficulty is, the answer is straightforward: Resources - it's all HR!

And to meet this challenge, DPDgroup IT is playing the attractiveness card. This attractiveness takes different forms:

• ways of working that integrate the most advanced approaches: agility, dev-ops, CICD, automatic testing, etc.
• a little process and confidence in intelligence, so that "the tunnels that dig themselves eventually meet",
• cutting-edge technologies, and the use of open-source software,
• modern architectures, particularly for challenges large volumes of data,
• freeing initiative and creativity.

This is not without its difficulties. Not least that of the convergence mentioned above. The PMO function, headed by Laure Omnès, plays a key role in this ongoing balancing act. She has a key role to play in guiding the liner, gathering key information, while guaranteeing the agility of the teams.

We streamline our project tracking. Specifically, we don't have a very detailed schedule . We focus on key milestones such as MVP or go live. In addition, we value all the time spent on projects and products.

Laure Omnès - DPDgroup PMO

What are DPDgroup's next challenges?

DPDgroup has a clear ambition to grow its business. This growth also has to deal with an environment that is making our business more complex:

• a tense geopolitical situation which, for an international player, is not without consequences,
• higher energy costs,
• a scarcity of drivers,
• an economic climate that is impacting our customers,
• restrictive traffic policies, especially for trucks in city centers.

These are challenges that are already being met. For example, DPDgroup is pursuing an aggressive plan to make all its trucks "carbon free". "We're well ahead of the game in this area. We're also addressing a whole range of market expectations, notably with our food and medical verticals.

DPDgroup is also positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities, whether by acquiring established players or new "pure tech" players.

" Subjects change so quickly. Market expectations, consumer expectations, new players appearing every day. We see this as an opportunity to maintain our growth momentum."

Listening to Hugues de Maussion, we are convinced that technology and Data will be at the heart of DPDgroup's development!