From the Trenches of AI — Vol. 13
Today we’re switching gears a bit. Most of what I’ve shared in this series has been about the experience of developing and innovating with AI — the lessons, the surprises, the hard-won judgment calls. This time, I want to step back and talk about one of the EDC® platforms that AI is being built on top of, and why that foundation matters just as much as the AI itself.
6,000,000+ moves processed
26,000,000,000+ pounds moved
4,244,484 automated, rule-based transactions
6,941,394 claim items processed
90,000,000+ alerts and notifications delivered
15,276,226+ documents processed
Those aren’t projections. That’s what almost 20 years of a live, continuously improved platform actually produces.
Innovation gets talked about as something you announce — a new feature, a new interface, a press release. Real innovation, in a program this critical, looks different: it’s over fifteen years of continuous improvement on a system, without ever putting the mission at risk.
That’s the EDC® military software solution, and it’s been running since Day 1 of DPS — the system supporting the Department of War’s household goods program, moving service members and their household goods across the world.
One solution, not a patchwork of tools
The EDC® military solution is a single, integrated platform — not a collection of point tools stitched together after the fact.
EasyDPS® is the two-way interface to DPS itself: accepting shipment awards automatically, 24/7, syncing data in both directions, filing rates, managing blackouts, settling claims, enabling users to continue working when DPS is unavailable so the work can continue.
GOgistiX® is the real-time data exchange network underneath it, connecting booking moving companies, domestic and international agents, virtual survey providers, billing processors, and claims settlement companies in one continuously synced environment — built to exchange data with whatever software systems those partners already run internally, not just EDC®’s own tools.
Native mobile applications extend that same system to the people doing the physical work of the move — crews in the field and service members tracking their shipment — with automations built in for move management and customer service at every step in between.
It’s one connected system end to end, used today by 99% of DoD-approved SCACs and TSPs, handling 99.9% of DPS traffic once a move is awarded — not as a pilot, but as production history.
Built down to the crew, and out to the shipper
That connection starts on-site. EDC Mobile™ gives origin and destination agents a native app, built to work even without an internet connection, with every military-required form pre-loaded — digital inventories, e-forms, shipment acceptance, surveys, warehouse management — all captured in the field and synced automatically into the same system the moment a connection is available. Over 230,000 digital inventories have been completed this way, which means fewer illegible paper forms, fewer disputes down the line, and a record that’s accurate from the first scan.
That same data flows through to the shipper side of the platform. TrakGX®, the shipper-facing application, is built to deliver automatic status updates, documents, and shipment information as the crew and TSP update the record — rather than a call to the moving company or an emailed spreadsheet. Configurable, event-driven notifications, direct communication with the moving company and move coordinator, configurable surveys, and the ability to file a claim against inventory already in the system — all available as part of the platform crews and TSPs already run on.
How in-transit visibility actually gets achieved
In-transit visibility isn’t a bolt-on feature — it’s a byproduct of where the data comes from. ITV points and status milestones are configurable by the moving company within the EDC® military solution, and they update as the shipment moves through the workflow: award, pickup, transit, delivery, claims. Because GOgistiX® is also integrated with the moving company’s own operations systems — the dispatch and warehouse tools where the physical move is actually being tracked — the status data reflects what’s really happening on the ground. Those milestones can push automatically into DPS, and event-driven alerts fire off the same milestones, so notifications go out to move stakeholders the moment a status actually changes.
That same connected data set also feeds a claims history database built over more than fifteen years of processed claims — helping stakeholders flag fraud patterns and process legitimate claims faster.
Where MERCED™ fits — and where it doesn’t replace anything
Sitting on top of this same platform is MERCED™, our proprietary AI engine — extending what the system can do without replacing the people running it.
Today, among many other capabilities, MERCED™:
- Reads and translates documents like weight tickets automatically — capturing weights, dimensions, seal numbers, and container details without a human re-entering them
- Builds moves directly from documents and emails
- Summarizes data and documents at a scale no team could do manually
- Functions as a subject-matter expert trained on the rules that actually govern this program — from DP3 claims settlement requirements to the operational detail of how a move is supposed to run — so a team member gets a reliable answer grounded in program rules instead of having to track down someone who remembers the regulation
Think of it as compressing the distance between “a question comes up” and “the correct answer is in hand” — the part of the job that used to mean a phone call or a search through documentation now happens in seconds, freeing people to focus on the judgment calls a system shouldn’t be making anyway.
And this is just the beginning. MERCED™ is being built to keep taking on more of the work that slows a move down — the same way EasyDPS® and GOgistiX® were built, refined, and expanded over the last fifteen years into the backbone this program runs on today. More to come on this soon.
This is what innovation looks like
Not a roadmap slide. One integrated platform, operating today. Innovation that respects a live, mission-critical program means improving it in place, continuously, without ever asking the industry to start over.
After almost two decades inside the DPS program, I’ll say the quiet part out loud: the hardest part of building trustworthy technology for military families isn’t writing the code. It’s earning the kind of institutional knowledge that tells you which edge case will break a claim, or which milestone actually matters to a TSP managing a move in real time. That’s not something you stand up quickly. It’s something you accumulate — and something we keep building on.
We’ve been doing this since Day 1 of DPS. This is what innovation looks like when it never stops.
“From the Trenches of AI” is an ongoing EDC® LinkedIn series exploring artificial intelligence through the lens of an industry that moves people, not just data.
