Canada Post launches next generation of epost service

Canada Post has officially launched the next generation of its digital mail service, epost, it said today. epost was originally launched back in the year 2000 and has since become the largest bill consolidation service in Canada with around 7.7m residents registered.

But Canada Post is now transforming it into a full digital mailbox service, which will offer more all-round functionality including the sending and receiving of other important documents securely and digitally.

With the aim of creating a single place – with a single log-in – for consumers to pay all their bills and manage their lifestyles, Canada Post sees epost as a cornerstone for its digital future.

Launching the new platform in the twin cites of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, a hotbed of technology innovation, Canada Post said “epost 2.0” offers better tools for consumers to manage their bills and an upgraded security system in which an authentication process links the user’s digital identity to their physical address.

The latest enhancements will be followed by a series of epost innovations coming in 2013.

Kerry Munro, the Group President of the Digital Delivery Network at Canada Post, said today that the company believed epost could play a “key role” in the country’s digital economy.

“We understand what Canadians want: fast, easy, safe and secure consolidation of their bills, and other essential documents, that they can manage in one place and pay through their online banking,” said Munro.

“Canada Post has been delivering to Canadians’ physical doorstep for more than a century and now we are well positioned to enhance delivery to Canadians’ digital mailbox.”

Loss-making Canada Post said last month that the decline in its physical mail volumes is accelerating as more and more people switch to Internat communications in Canada.

But despite fears of cannibalising the company’s own physical mail volumes further with improvements to the epost service, Canada Post president Deepak Chopra said his firm must respond to demand for digital transactional mail.

Authentication

Security and trust is an important part of the digital mailbox when compared to existing email services available to Canadians, and Canada Post has been keen to flaunt the authentication of its enhanced epost platform.

The Corporation said today that with privacy and identity issues increasingly contentious online, epost will help government and businesses provide e-service “safely and securely, while protecting Canadians’ personal information.

Through authentication, it will also mean Canadians can share more sensitive information with government and business, it said.

Munro said: “With authentication, epost extends beyond bills and can deliver more sensitive, evidentiary documents that require user and address validation while providing a more secure and efficient e-delivery solution for consumers to communicate with business and government.”