Why a refactoring?
IPC has for more than twenty years provided a Web based International Postal Customer Service System in support of cross border network services and, for use by Postal Customer Service teams. The original version of this system was named Customer Service System (CSS). CSS brought process automation based upon UPU regulations augmented by network collective agreements to international postal investigations, complaints and claims. It digitized UPU forms and enabled faster resolution of postal international customer inquiries.
After approximately ten years of IPC operating CSS it was replaced by a completely new IPC system which was named Global Customer Service System1 (GCSS). GCSS was an evolution of CSS. GCSS provided a technology upgrade important to maintaining and further enhancing this service. GCSS was launched in 2013.
One major GCSS enhancement came in 2017 via the opportunity for GCSS partner posts to integrate their customer service systems or customer relationships management (CRM) systems with GCSS, reducing handling time, improving inquiry visibility and quality and offering accelerated resolution to customer complaints. Integration came via the external exposure of GCSS Application Protocol Interface (APIs). The success of GCSS APIs has led to a GCSS partner driven collective requirement to enhance GCSS APIs, updating the technology and expanding access to a wider set of GCSS processes and master data.
About the Refactoring
In 2024 IPC decided that GCSS shall be redeveloped with the latest technology in a project named “GCSS Refactoring”. This decision while initiated by the demand to enhance GCSS API, also took into consideration that to sustain GCSS a technology upgrade was imminently due and, that many of the requirements for GCSS feature and process enhancements were increasingly difficult to realise with technology dating from more than ten years ago.
GCSS Refactoring is an evolution of the existing GCSS. The migration from the existing GCSS to the new refactored GCSS shall impact all GCSS users, with the existing GCSS withdrawn from service when the refactored GCSS goes ‘live’. IPC shall copy all existing GCSS messages including workflows, notifications, broadcasts, etc. to the refactored GCSS, enabling users to continue working with the minimum inconvenience to international postal customers with ongoing complaints and, agent users.
Refactoring Schedule
The provisional schedule of GCSS Refactoring activities is the following:
May – June, 2025 – Development
July 2025 – Enhanced API User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
September 2025 – Enhanced API Implementation
March 2026 – Web User Interface User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
April 2026 – Migration to the refactored GCSS
May – June, 2026 – Refactored GCSS Hypercare