Zumbox to spread digital postal mail through global partners
Digital postal mail specialists Zumbox are seeking to spread use of its technology via a new global partner programme and API system. The California-based company has developed technology allowing postal operators or commercial mailers to transfer physical transactional mail to a secure digital system. It means recipients can access and manage electronic versions of bills, statements and other important documents through a spam-free digital mailbox.
The technology, which can also work with other forms of mail like advertising, can be operated by Zumbox itself, or accessed as a white-label version that can be adopted by a post using its own branding.
Now the company hopes to expand its distribution by signing up partner providers around the world to increase the number of posts and mailers licensing its technology with local installation services.
Zumbox said starting up a global partner programme would mean it will be able to meet the “growing need” for deploying its digital postal mail technology “rapidly in any country”.
John Payne, Zumbox CEO, said: “In the past, Zumbox has provided professional and integration services directly for licensees and large, high volume mailers, but as we scale our business, global partners are a key part of our strategy.
“This program provides a vehicle for us to properly support and enable those partners while allowing us to refer services business to the most highly trained and qualified service providers,” added Payne.
API
As well as launching its global partner programme today, Zumbox has also made available a new API offering that will allow large independent mailers to make use of its digital mail platform with “minimum” integration costs.
An API – application programming interface – is a set of rules and protocols for computer software that allows other IT systems to connect with it.
The new Zumbox High Volume Digital Postal Mail API is designed for very large mailers to connect their mailing systems to switch transactional mail to digital, using their own technicians.
Zumbox said there were no upfront costs or set-up fees for its API program, with fees based on the amount of paper a mailer replaces with digital, “ensuring that any cost comes from real savings”.
“Every time there is an increase in postage costs from the US Postal Service, additional pressure is put on large mailers to manage that cost and we get phone calls,” said Payne. “This program will let mailers feeling pressure to control costs rapidly achieve increased paper suppression and reduced costs, with financial benefits felt immediately in 2011.”
Zumbox is already available for mailers using mail platforms from DST Output, KUBRA and 3i Infotech, while New Zealand Post recently signed up to use the technology to provide its own digital postal mail services.
