Escher wins retail software deal with SwaziPost

Retail point-of-sale software specialist Escher Group has won a contract to provide postal automation technology for SwaziPost. US company Escher said it will be providing the national postal operator in Swaziland with its Riposte counter system.

The system brings together different applications on computers across a network to communicate with each other, manages data and can operate transactions like mail and financial services.

Modernising the postal retail network in Swaziland would mean SwaziPost being able to offer new products and services through post offices, while also reducing its operating costs, according to the software supplier.

Amon Dlamini, acting managing director of Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, said the new technology would help his company develop and enhance its service portfolio for “ever changing” customer needs.

“I am very confident that this new relationship with Escher Group will ensure that the counter automation project is successfully delivered on time to SwaziPost,” he said.

Liam Church, the Escher CEO, said the SwaziPost contact was a significant development for his company in Africa. He said: “SwaziPost is a progressive postal organisation and Escher is looking forward to assisting the Post in its modernisation strategy.”

Africa office

Boston-based Escher Group has previously supplied its system to a string of African postal operators, including Angola Post, Botswana Post, Cape Verde Post, Mauritius Post, NamPost, the South Africa Post Office and ZimPost.

Escher said winning the SwaziPost deal underpinned its decision to open a new Africa office, outside Pretoria in South Africa, to drive business in the region.

Church said: “With the establishment of a regional office in southern Africa earlier in the year, and additional business with existing African customers, this new contract confirms that we are one of the leading players in the African postal market.”