Itella adds 3,000 mailers to Netposti digital mail service
Finland’s Itella has said it is expecting to nearly double the number of mailers using its digital mail service, Netposti, after it signed a partnership deal with a message forwarding company. Netposti has already been growing rapidly in the last few years, after relatively slow progress for several years after its launch in 2001.
This summer, Itella reported that in 12 months the service added 100,000 users, taking its total to about 400,000.
Now Itella has inked an agreement with Apix Messaging Oy, which is based outside Helsinki and specialises in business invoicing and other business messaging services for small and medium-sized companies.
Itella said yesterday that it believes the alliance will bring 3,000 more companies into Netposti’s senders network, bringing its total to as many as 8,000 mailers.
Finland’s national postal operator said its sender network represents many different sectors, including housing companies, water and road co-operatives and more than 600 public administration agencies.
Tommi Björklund, Netposti director, said: “Netposti is growing faster than any other operator in the market. By selecting all senders, the customer can obtain more content in Netposti.”
More senders
Netposti allows people to receive and archive their bills, pay slips, laboratory results and other official documents digitally, with deliveries made one or two days faster than printed equivalents.
Itella said it runs regular customer satisfaction surveys to help develop the service, with Björklund stating that one of the most frequent requests is that Netposti should have more senders.
Apix Messaging Oy’s customers will now have a direct digital communications channel to Netposti’s 400,000 users, who represent just over 7% of the Finnish population.
Veli-Matti Sahlberg, chief executive of Apix Messaging, said: “We can now provide our more than 3,000 customers with the opportunity to send consumers bills and pay slips in Netposti in digital format. From now on, we will also provide our customers with the opportunity to send other messages.”
Itella saw the “volumes” of its electronic mail service growing by 43% in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year, while its physical addressed mail volumes fell in the same period by 3%.
