Postea and NCR bring post offices to “Facebook generation”

Post offices of the future will be directly linked to social networking websites, connecting Facebook users to their online lives while they make use of retail services, according to technology specialist Postea. The company has formed a partnership with fellow US firm NCR Corporation to jointly market a “next generation” point of sale system for post offices around the world, which links in with the latest online platforms.

The companies said bringing together Postea’s Reflex Retail system and NCR’s Advanced Post technology will allow post offices to replace point-of-sale retail systems typically developed before the Internet existed.

It will be able to engage customers and make use of social media to boost revenue per customer, while also bringing documentation like the provision of receipts into the modern era.

Post office customers will be able to receive receipts through email, social media such as Facebook or via text messages on the new system.

Postea said its system would turn every customer session in a post office or alternative access point like a partner-run postal counter or kiosk into an extension of the postal service into the customer’s online world.

Michael J Murphy, the chief executive at Virginia-based Postea, said postal customers were increasingly “immersed” in a world of tablets, smartphones and social networking.

“Through our partnership with NCR we allow the postal authority to ‘like’ the Facebook generation.

“NCR’s Advanced Post technology combined with Postea’s Reflex technology delivers the most compelling solution available. NCR’s worldwide reach allows delivery and localisation to any jurisdiction,” Murphy said.

US market

Georgia-based NCR has been providing point-of-sale systems to the US Postal Service since 1997, while Postea has also worked closely with the USPS on postal retail technology in recent years, including a 2007 contract to automate USPS Contract Postal Units – retail outlets located outside the USPS-owned network.

Postea’s Innovations Group Inc. (IGI) is acting as the first customer for the Reflex Retail system under the NCR partnership. IGI supplies retail technology to USPS, Singapore Post and others.

Omar Dajani, the IGI chief executive, said: “This solution is the only technology available that allows IGI to deliver a post-PC era solution while continuing to support legacy technologies.

“This allows our customers to catch up with the Facebook generation without incurring prohibitive capital costs.”