A UPS technology platform that gives facility operators mobile, real-time data access that improves network efficiency and customer service, earned the company the 2018 Red Hat Innovator of the Year Award.

The technology, known as Center Inside Planning and Execution, is an important UPS innovation and part of a suite of data-driven solutions that comprise UPS’s Enhanced Dynamic Global Execution platform. When it’s fully deployed, EDGE will enhance network planning and equipment utilization, increase throughput, and improve flexibility and reliability, especially when managing weather or other network disruptions. The projects are also expected to help UPS reduce operating costs.

“UPS has been innovating for 110 years. It’s important now more than ever for us to continue pioneering new technologies that integrate our global smart logistics networks and help us generate new customer benefits,” said Nick Costides, UPS vice president of information technology. “We are deploying and enhancing more data-driven tools than at any time in our history – both for our customers and our facilities around the world.”

CIPE is an important example of this initiative. It delivers data on expected package volume, which enables facility managers to properly staff their centers.

“CIPE will reduce our costs by providing our facility leaders with better tools to manage their operations more efficiently,” said Jim Collins, UPS vice president, corporate industrial engineering. “Ultimately, innovations like these enable us to better serve our customers.”

Red Hat, a provider of open-source solutions, received more than 60 award nominations from customers around the world. The company selected five winners of its annual Red Hat Innovation Awards, and a public vote determined the winner of the Red Hat Innovator of the Year award.

“The UPS CIPE platform uses cloud-based technology to provide facility supervisors with real-time information on many processes,” said Joe Lawless, UPS vice president of information technology. “Increased usage of cloud-based solutions is central to the ongoing UPS IT transformation that will carry us into the future.”