FedEx + Ziba

In 1993, all FedEx needed was a printer. A very particular printer, for internal use only, but it had to work within tight constraints around functionality and cost. We won the project, designed a great piece of hardware, and kicked off a relationship that’s lasted more than 25 years.

At last count, FedEx has come to Ziba with more than 50 different challenges: additional hardware design, but also in-depth studies of small business shipping needs, communication strategies for new internal processes, and a complete revamp of their entire enterprise software system.

And remember, this is FedEx, so all the while they’re processing millions of packages a day, with no downtime and no days off. “It’s like replacing a tire on a car that’s driving 90 miles an hour,” explained one of our project leads, and she was not wrong. Funny to think it all might’ve never happened, had a competing studio for that 1993 printer project not made a crucial error: they mailed in their proposal using DHL.