La Poste launches e-registered letters
French postal operator La Poste has finally introduced its promised electronic registered letter service.
The post briefly offered such a service in August two years ago but quickly withdrew it saying the platform wasn’t strong enough. It said it needed to be “technically more ready.” The new service went live late last month.
The e-registered letter service lets businesses and individuals log on to the post’s web site and send electronic documents that are printed, enveloped and delivered by La Poste as if it were regular registered mail.
La Poste says electronic registered letters can be sent from home or office with the same legal weight as conventional registered mail.
Senders are supposed to be able to send letters or images to the post in multiple formats including in PDF and Word. The service provides the sender with tracking capabilities, electronic proof of registration, proof of content and an electronic postmark. La Poste promises to store evidence of the electronic records for three years.
French IT services provider Atos Origin developed the service for the post. It designed the web site user interface and is managing the electronic data flow between La Poste and its users. Atos is operating the service via a secure redundant platform. The core system is built around business components written in Java.
La Poste said senders of registered letters in France were mostly businesses while recipients were heavily individuals. A La Poste representative said that of the 218 million registered letters sent annually in France, 84% are sent by businesses. The post estimates that 50% of them are addressed to individuals. La Poste claims the service can save business time and money. It says they can save up to 50% of their usual costs. The e-registered service is expensive compared to regular registered mail. It costs 6.24 euros ($7.58) to send a single eletter compared to 4.30 euros ($5.22) for a piece of conventional registered mail.
La Poste officials attributed the higher costs to its printing, enveloping and delivering the letters.
The post is offering business three tiers of annual subscriptions based on the volume sent.
Payment can be made through a bank or credit card. The post has reportedly signed up a few hundred customers for the service and is said to be in discussions with other prospects.
In the next phase, La Poste plans to extend the e-registered service and provide an end-to-end offering.
The service joins other online offerings at La Poste such as dial-up and broadband Internet access, e-mail, e-mail marketing and cyberkiosks.
