The Italian private postal service company Defendini uses 200 BlackBerry devices (BlackBerry Curve 8300s and 8310s) to help its mail carriers confirm and track deliveries -- and within the next year, the company plans to add another 200 BlackBerry devices to the deployment.

In addition to BlackBerry smartphones, the company's mail carriers are provided with Baracoda RoadRunners data matrix barcode readers to scan postal mail and packages (as well as a code indicating the type of delivery) in order to confirm delivery time and location.

"They must read the data matrix code at the moment of delivery... at the final destination," explains company manager Giuseppe Dezzani

The delivery confirmation data is then sent to the company's back-end SQL database using a custom-built Blackberry application, which also allows the mail carrier to note any problems with delivery, such as a wrong address or a change of address.

Dezzani developed the application in collaboration with Italian IT company Newmann S.R.L. -- the development process, he says, was very straightforward. "The [only] problem was the synchronization with official time -- because we need the certification of the delivery time," he says.

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