Pitney Bowes signs Adobe to boost digital mail platform Volly
US mail technology company Pitney Bowes has struck up an important alliance with software giant Adobe to boost the capabilities of its forthcoming digital mail platform, Volly. The partnership should have a number of outcomes, including an improvement in the data analytics that will be available to mailers sending transactional mail digitally through the Volly Secured Delievery System.
It will also mean the Volly service can be accessed by consumers on the go, via mobile phone applications and tablet “apps” including for iPhones, iPads and Android systems.
And, the company said it will mean a “white box” version of the Volly platform can be implemented by postal operators and banks around the world, to use as their own self-branded digital mail platforms.
Chuck Cordray, the president of Volly, told Post&Parcel yesterday that the alliance with Adobe meant Pitney Bowes could focus on its areas of expertise in the business of the mail, bringing in established expertise in digital technology to maximise the potential of the Volly platform.
“Adobe represents best of breed expertise in digital, and speed to market as we focus on our core, which is mailer integration of content and on the user experience around how people want to interact with their mail,” he said.
Integrated
The partnership will see Adobe applications integrated with the Volly platform to bring in the capabilities of the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite into the digital mail service.
The additional analytics functions will mean mailers can provide messages through Volly that are highly personalised to their individual consumer recipients, through both the US Volly platform and its “white box” version to be used by external service providers and Posts.
The main US Volly service is currently shaping up for a consumer launch in the United States at the end of 2012, Cordray said. With the industry launch way back in January 2011, Volly’s consumer launch was put back so that enough mailers could be signed up to provide a meaningful experience for consumers looking to receive bills, statements and other important mail through the digital mailbox.
Currently, Volly has 40 agreements for large volume mailers and service bureaux to use the platform, meaning access to consumers for more than 5,000 companies and brands, he said.
“Together, these mailers send out over five billion bills, statements and account information annually for their customers,” said Cordray.
White box
The Volly president said his company had already discussed options with “several posts and several banks” regarding its white box platform, which should allow easy customisation of the service thanks to its Adobe CQ content management system.
Pitney Bowes’ partnership with Adobe follows on from some of its rivals’ moves into providing white box versions of digital mail platforms to external operators and postal services.
A recent UPU study suggesting around 70% of the world’s postal operators now recognising the need to engage with digital communications, but latest industry thinking has been encouraging posts to look for established technology rather than taking the time to develop in-house solutions, since the consumer move towards digital communications is now accelerating.
Last year saw US rival Zumbox signing up New Zealand Post to power a new digital mail platform in New Zealand.
Cordray said the strength of the Volly platform for the world’s postal services was in its experience in linking up the physical mail network and established mailers to a digital mail platform.
“We believe that due to Pitney Bowes’s knowledge of a mailer’s entire stream of content and the various ways to integrate seamlessly, and due to the flexiblity of the customisation through the Adobe platform, we offer a unique and compelling product in the market,” said the Volly president.
