Customers Urge USPS To Go Digital - August 13, 2010
[Kate Muth, DM News.]The US Postal Service needs to play in the digital world, major postal customers told the organization's executives August 11 at the USPS' Innovation Symposium.
Attendees recommended the USPS offer electronic services similar to those of Deutsche Post, which is building a trusted platform for businesses and consumers to conduct electronic business. Other customers suggested the USPS offer a PayPal-type service, building off its reputation as a trusted brand to offer secure online bill presentation and payments. Others said the USPS should create secure e-mail addresses linked to physical addresses, which would open the door to a host of hybrid mail services.
“I heard some clear messages today. One is ‘don't be shy about getting into the digital world,'” John Potter, postmaster general, told the group after hearing input from breakout sessions. “Maybe we have been too cautious in this area, given what we think the law says. But you sent the message repeatedly today that we have to be part of the solution going forward.”
The USPS held the event in conjunction with the regular quarterly meeting of the postmaster general's Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC). Susan Plonkey, acting president of mailing and shipping services for the USPS, said the Postal Service came up with the idea for the symposium after Potter held a series of brainstorming sessions with CEOs of major companies.
Potter said he was pleased to hear that customers want the USPS to be aggressive in retail. Customers suggested the Postal Service provide other governmental services at retail outlets; create communications hubs at retail centers; or franchise out the front end of retail centers to allow other business to operate there.
“We may have fallen into the trap of thinking of them [retail centers] as a cost center, and we need to think about them as a revenue center,” he said. “So, we will attack that mind-set.”
Israel Postal Bank To Issue Visa Debit Cards - August 13, 2010
[Post and Parcel.]Israel has a new payment card issuer. After five months of negotiations, the Israel Postal Company has been accepted as a non-full member in Visa Europe, and has been authorized by Visa Europe to issue Visa cards. The Israel Postal Company has thus become the first non-bank entity in Israel to issue Visa cards.
Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon said, “The issue of Visa cards by the Postal Bank will reduce costs for consumers, and will continue the trend of expanding the financial services offered by the Israel Postal Company.”
The permit from Visa covers all kinds of payment cards. However, the Postal Bank will initially issue debit cards only, and will not undertake any credit risk. This is because the Bank Supervision Department at the Bank of Israel will not see a problem in the Postal Bank, which it does not supervise, expanding its activity in this way.
At the same time, Visa Europe has opened a representative office in Israel.
Azerbaijan Plans Countrywide Introduction Of Broadband Internet Until 2013 - August 12, 2010
[ABC.az.]The State Program for Development of Communications & Information Technologies 2010-12 (Electronic Azerbaijan) endorsed yesterday by the relevant order of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev says of drastic change in quality of Internet network and telecommunication services in the country.
Under the Program, the Ministry of Communications & Information Technologies will take measures on introduction of wideband Internet services will be taken in Azerbaijan in 2010-12.
At that, the Program stipulates plans on introduction of universal postal services in the country, upgrade of communication network in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, improvement of services on the basis of modern information technologies.
Under the order, the MCIT will also undertake co-ordination of enforcement of the state program measures and the Cabinet Ministers will prepare within two months and submit to the President the proposals for the promulgation of the acts of governmental agencies and organs of local self-government through electronic information systems and resolve issues arising from the order.
UPS Makes it More Convenient to Return Goods - August 12, 2010
[Press Release.]UPS announced it is launching UPS Returns Flexible Access, a new service with a unique label that allows consumers to drop returns at any U.S. Postal Service (USPS) location or personal mailbox in addition to the thousands of UPS locations nationwide.
UPS Returns Flexible Access utilizes the Postal Service's Parcel Return Service, combined with UPS's own drop-off locations and delivery network, to provide retailers' customers with increased convenience when returning items. Customers of participating retailers receive special package labels that allow them to enter returns packages in more than 150 million postal access points - including personal mailboxes - for their postal carrier to pick up.
Consumers also can drop the package off at their local U.S. Post Office, in postal collection boxes or at traditional UPS drop-off locations including The UPS Store, UPS drop boxes, UPS customer centers, third-party retailers (Office Depot, Staples, and Authorized Shipping Outlets) or hand it to a UPS driver. The combination of UPS and postal access channels creates the most extensive returns network available to consumers today.
After a returns package is transported to a Postal Service location for dispatch to UPS, a UPS driver picks it up and transports the package back to the retailer via the UPS ground network. This offers retailers an inbound view of returns packages, facilitating improved customer service and cost savings due to better inbound operations planning.
"This game-changing consumer-to-business returns service improves UPS's returns portfolio, which is already the most extensive in the industry," said Linda Shepherd West, new product development director at UPS. "Working with the U.S. Postal Service to process returns through more than 150 million access points provides retailers the added flexibility they need to enhance their customer's overall experience."
Australia Post Partners With Officemax To Offer Online Office Store - August 11, 2010
[Press Release.]Australia Post has partnered with OfficeMax to launch an online office products store.
The partnership will see Australia Post offer retail products online, a further demonstration of the organisation's expansion into online services as part of the newly launched Future Ready renewal program.
From 2 August, OfficeMax's 10,000 products will be available on the Australia Post website at www.auspost.com/stationery , where they can be purchased and delivered straight to the customer's door.
"Australia Post is delighted that our extensive delivery network will be used in partnership with OfficeMax to deliver affordable office and technology products to workplaces across the country," says Australia Post Merchandise Services Manager, Rowan Howarth.
"Every day we deliver 20 million items to Australian addresses and our partnership with OfficeMax will enable us to deliver a range of affordable office products around Australia".
The online store will be available for once-off purchases, but is expected to be of particular value to businesses who seek the convenience of online retailing for their everyday office needs.
"Australia Post is excited to offer a secure online shop for our customers, which will save them time and make stocking their office a lot easier," says Mr Howarth.
The products available through the online store range from desk stationery through to technology hardware, consumables, cleaning items and even furniture.
"OfficeMax is thrilled to offer Australia Post customers all the products they need for their offices through a contemporary online store," says OfficeMax Managing Director, David Armstrong.
"It's an excellent desk-to-door service, allowing busy people to focus on their work."
European Commission Has Established The European Regulators Group For Postal Services (ERGP) - August 11, 2010
[Europa.]The European Commission has established today the European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP). Strengthened cooperation among independent national regulatory authorities for the postal sector is becoming imperative in view of fully open postal markets. In this context, ERGP will serve as a body for reflection, discussion and advice to the Commission in the postal services field. It will facilitate consultation, coordination and cooperation between the independent national regulatory authorities in the Member States, and between those authorities and the Commission. ERGP is made up of the heads of the 27 national postal regulators and will be assisted by a secretariat providing the necessary administrative support to its work. With the objective of developing best regulatory principles, ERGP will become a key element of the single postal market and a driving force in ensuring that European citizens have access to high quality, customer oriented postal services. The inauguration meeting, which is expected to take place in the beginning of 2011, will see the adoption of the annual Work Programme of the EGRP and the election of its chair and vice-chair.
Royal Mail Blazes A Trail To The Future In Cloud Computing Alliance With Capgemini - August 10, 2010
[Post and Parcel.]Royal Mail Group (RMG) has signed a six-year IT contract with Capgemini UK plc (”Capgemini”), a subsidiary of Capgemini Group, in a move which aims to transform its business and consumer online services, help to reduce its annual website IT costs and support expansion and diversification into a wide range of new web-based business opportunities without the delays and expense of traditional IT.
The contract is for cloud computing, a technology breakthrough which enables IT-on-demand to be piped into an organisation as a ’smart utility’ on a money-saving pay-as-you-go basis. The new technology can be quickly and easily reconfigured to support RMG in launching new business ventures and bringing new services to market as quickly as possible. Areas seen as strong candidates for expansion and diversification at RMG include services for personal and small or medium business customers, and high-quality, innovative parcel delivery services to meet the needs of the UK’s boom in online shopping. The new technology will also empower RMG to keep pace with the emerging technologies and media being adopted by today’s consumers.
The key benefits of Capgemini’s solution for RMG are:
• enhanced flexibility and scalability, enabling specific services to expand or contract rapidly as levels of demand change
• the ability to integrate its products and services into third-party websites, for example, linking travel and leisure websites seamlessly to its foreign currency services
• the power to streamline and personalise many of its services, and capture and update customer profiles based on historic transactions
• the opportunity for smaller IT companies to link to the RMG ecosystem, encouraging innovation and competitiveness, based on open systems standards
New UPU Global Monitoring System Up And Running - August 10, 2010
[Press Release.]Twenty-one Posts started using the Universal Postal Union's new Global Monitoring System (GMS) this week to evaluate the quality of their letter-post service using state-of-the-art RFID technology. The GMS is a truly global system using affordable RFID technology that is accessible to every Post,from industrialized countries and developing ones.
From now until December 2009, in a first phase of the project, 530 independent panellists from 38 countries will send 24,000 test letters containing RFID tags through 45 postal facilities worldwide.
The data collected as the test letters pass through special gates will be transmitted to the UPU and used to help postal operators identify service failures and improve operational efficiency.
Posts participating in this first phase of the Global Monitoring System come from the following countries: Aruba, Chile, Greece, India, Korea (Rep), Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Norway, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
The UPU has been developing the Global Monitoring System over the past three years and has managed to secure affordable RFID technology for use by all member countries. Using an open standard, the RFID tags each cost an average of 0.30 US dollars. Other tags can be as expensive as 20 US dollars each.
Spain-based AIDA Centre is supplying the RFID technology, while Germany's Quotas is managing the panellists located worldwide. The Universal Postal Union collects the data through an information management system developed by its Postal Technology Centre in Berne.
Posts will use the Global Monitoring System to measure their service quality against established domestic standards. Improvements to a country’s domestic quality of ervice are expected to have positive repercussions on international mail as well.
"Improving quality worldwide is a top priority,” says UPU Director General Edouard Dayan. “No postal operator today can afford not to have a performance-measuring system in place to monitor the quality of its operations and service in order to improve efficiency, remain competitive and retain customers. And what’s good about the Global Monitoring System is that it is for all postal operators, not just those coming from industrialized countries."
The RFID technology being used for the GMS could eventually have other applications, such as tracking parcels and managing assets such as postal equipment.
The Global Monitoring System provides postal operators a sophisticated tool to help them bring real improvements to their operations and processes. Additional results obtained through the UPU's continuous testing programme, which measures the quality of international letter post service from end to end, will enable the UPU and its member countries to further improve quality.
More than 30 other countries are expected to join the GMS in the second phase of the project from 2010.
5000 Chilean Postal Workers On Indefinite Strike - August 9, 2010
[Uniglobal.]From midnight on August 6th, postal workers in Chile initiated an indefinite strike after the failure of collective bargaining with the company.
This was confirmed by Guillermo Flores, President of the National Union of the Chilean Postal Company (SINTECH), who also declared that a 92% of the 5 thousand workers throughout the country supported this mobilization.
Flores stated that SINTECH, together with the other three unions (two postal workers’ unions and union N0 1), joined to achieve unity of action, attempted to reach an agreement with the company during Thursday afternoon, but the latter “did not flexibilise its position”
Provisions have been made for a parade to be carried out on at noon on from the Alameda to Chile’s Post Office headquarters located in the Plaza de Armas, in the heart of Santiago downtown.
UPS Expands JNE Partnership In Indonesia - August 9, 2010
[Business Week.]United Parcel Service Inc. said Friday it expanded a partnership with an Indonesian company that will market, pick up and deliver UPS packages throughout the country.
UPS said it is expanding an alliance with PT Tiki Jalur Nugraha Eka Kurir, or JNE, an Indonesian company that currently handles pick up and delivery of UPS international express packages. It said JNE has more than 500 centers around the country. UPS has done business in Indonesia since 1988 and first partnered with JNE in 2000.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, with about 240 million people. The country is an archipelago made up of thousands of islands.
Customers Urge USPS To Go Digital - August 13, 2010
Israel Postal Bank To Issue Visa Debit Cards - August 13, 2010
Azerbaijan Plans Countrywide Introduction Of Broadband Internet Until 2013 - August 12, 2010
Australia Post Partners With Officemax To Offer Online Office Store - August 11, 2010
European Commission Has Established The European Regulators Group For Postal Services (ERGP) - August 11, 2010
Royal Mail Blazes A Trail To The Future In Cloud Computing Alliance With Capgemini - August 10, 2010
New UPU Global Monitoring System Up And Running - August 10, 2010
5000 Chilean Postal Workers On Indefinite Strike - August 9, 2010
UPS Expands JNE Partnership In Indonesia - August 9, 2010
