Postal leaders from across the planet told attendees of the UPU’s World Postal Business Forum yesterday at Post-Expo 2011 that the postal future has technology written all over it.
This year’s annual three-day conference, being held in Stuttgart, Germany, challenged postal leaders to offer their vision of the postal world in 2020, and several of them talked about their adaptation or transformation strategies.
“Things are heating up,” said Thomas Baldry, senior vice-president of Deutsche Post Global Mail, who opened the CEO Forum attended by nearly 400 people. He warned the audience to “constantly expect the unexpected” and confirmed the German postal operator’s intention to continue to invest heavily in technology. He talked about the new digital letter Deutsche Post launched a year ago, admitted to some teething problems but said the Post was in it for the long run. He also talked about the parcel business opportunities that come with the expansion of e-commerce and said Deutsche Post was busy “turning bytes into packets”.
UPU Director General Edouard Dayan talked about exploring the Post’s future role in modern social communication, a key theme of this year’s three-day conference. “Far from being a threat to the postal sector’s development, the digital society is an opportunity to provide better services, introduce new ones, and respond to or even anticipate demand,” Dayan said.
Trust an asset
As Posts diversify their strategies and services, he urged them to develop postal services in a sustainable way. Above all, “trust is the number one asset of postal operators, but trust must be a two-way street,” he said. “Beyond the trust customers and users have in Posts, let us also build our own confidence in the postal sector’s capacity as a key player in the communication world of today and tomorrow.”
Looking to the future, Harry Koorstra, CEO of the Netherlands’ PostNL, said his organization underwent a business transformation recently by splitting its mail and express operations. He said it was always difficult to predict the future, given the many “disruptive elements” that can wreak havoc in any operator’s best laid strategy.
Other operators, like Saudi Post, cannot imagine the future without making a major technological leap. Saudi Post has already given all citizens an e-mail address and developed a virtual mall where small entrepreneurs and craftsmen in the most remote areas can sell their goods, delivered by the Post. With 50 per cent of Saudis already connected to the Internet, the Post’s president and CEO, Mohammed Benten, sees a real opportunity for the Post to become a major deliverer of government services. “Seventeen million people are served by government departments in Saudi Arabia. This could be a huge revenue generator if the Post could provide these services,” he underlined.
The UPU’s World Postal Business Forum continues until Thursday. More than 3,000 people and exhibitors participate in Post-Expo and the conferences and workshops held alongside the postal technology exhibition.
Source: http://www.upu.int, September 28,, 2011
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