Author: Archive

Postcomm chief slams union greed (UK)

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

Postcomm Chairman Nigel Stapleton has hit back at union claims that the regulator is incompetent, arguing that the Communications Workers Union is “undeservedly” reaping all the cost savings Royal Mail has made.

Stapleton counters: “The CWU has been extremely competent in making sure that all the savings Royal Mail has made – through single daily delivery – has gone to its members and not Royal Mail’s customers.

“Second delivery was 4 per cent of Royal Mail’s volume and 20 per cent of its costs. Everyone thought that the savings would be passed on to the customer but in fact they went on higher wages, a five day week instead of six and higher pensions – the customer hasn’t got anything.”

The move follows CWU general secretary Billy Hayes’ public broadside last week that Postcomm was ‘draconian’ and ‘incompetent’ and was to blame for Royal Mail’s demise.

He also claimed Postcomm was stifling Royal Mail and creating a financial crisis for the UK’s biggest mail carrier.

But Stapleton argues that both the CWU and Royal Mail have their heads stuck in the sand, claiming that neither has reacted swiftly enough to the rise of digital marketing.

Stapleton also blames Royal Mail’s lack of new product development.
even test marketed anything since last August.

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Royal Mail set to back axed Postwatch business group (UK)

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is understood to providing financial backing so that the Postwatch group which handles business customer complaints will not be axed when the watchdog folds later this year.

The move follows concerns that business customers would be left high and dry in the new beefed up National Consumer Council, headed by Lord Whitty.

The new-look NCC, which will see Postwatch, energywatch, and CCWater subsumed into the consumer super-body, is due to launch on October 1. It was first mooted nearly two years ago.

At the time, the DTI tried to assure the House of Commons that the merger was not a cost-cutting exercise.

But there has been no provision for the big mailing companies which used to sit on Postwatch’s Trade Association Forum (TAF), chaired by direct marketing industry stalwart Judith Donovan, who is also chair of Postwatch North.

Ironically, the TAF has been credited with winning many battles against Royal Mail.
During the consultation on pricing in proportion, Donovan claimed Postcomm had created “a dog’s dinner” by revealing it supported the scheme even before the consultation period was complete. The group eventually won a number of concessions.

Postwatch also took Royal Mail to court – and won – over GBP 40m worth of unpaid compensation owed to big brand owners. Royal Mail won an appeal but it only covered payments to customers who were in arrears.

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China Post Expands Scope and Size of Teradata Active Data Warehouse

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

Teradata Corporation, the global leader in enterprise data warehousing, announced today that the China Post Express Mail Service (EMS) Bureau, the nation’s largest provider of express mail and courier services, has expanded its Teradata system to provide real time information management capabilities. This represents a major upward shift in performance to the level of an Active Data Warehouse (ADW). With this technology expansion and upgrade, China Post now has launched its third-generation track-and-trace system for consumer mail and packages.

This is believed to be the first information system in China to achieve real-time data loading and query capacity with ‘active’ or ADW technology, which moves the business beyond strategic analytics to optimize operational processes for improved cross-enterprise visibility and customer service. The new system at EMS now features real time monitoring and sophisticated operational notifications as well as detailed financial analysis and reporting.

The expansion accommodates continuous growth at EMS as data volume and complexity increase. The new track-and-trace system now manages over eight million transactions per day with the number of daily queries increasing to about 1,300,000. At peak moments, the number can reach 140,000 queries per hour. Currently, express mail collection and delivery information is uploaded to the Internet within five minutes of the transaction. With a portable wireless terminal, the transaction can be uploaded in as few as three seconds, which greatly enhances query timeliness and better satisfies rising customer use.

Before China Post selected Teradata to build its third-generation track-and-trace system, it had already deployed two previous platforms, but neither, used separately or in tandem, could support real-time track-and-trace capabilities at rising demand levels.

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Massimo Sarmi confirmed CEO for the third mandate (Italy)

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

Massimo Sarmi has been reappointed as CEO and Giovanni Ialongo, as the new Chairman of Poste Italiane. This is the third consecutive mandate for Massimo Sarmi, managing the Company since May 2002.

Through a profound program of renewal, Sarmi has performed budgetary outcomes in constant growth, to close 2007 with 17.2 billion euros of revenues, placing the Group among the leaders for profitability within the postal operators in Europe.

Giovanni Ialongo was appointed as the new Chairman for Poste Italiane. As former Chairman of Postelegrafonici Institute Ipost, he is currently its Commissioner. Among the positions he holds are: member of the High Council for Communications, President of Pensions SISPI Italy and member of the Italian Society of Services for the Integrative Pensions (owned by INPS and IPOST). He was born in Pico (FR) in 1944. He is married with one child.

Members of the Board of Directors were also appointed Roberto Colombo, Nunzio Guglielmino and Mauro Michielon.

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Citipost Sells International Arm To Pitney Bowes

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

The Citipost group has sold it’s International business to Pitney Bowes International Mail Services. Citipost described the sale as ‘perfect timing’ and that it would allow Citipost to focus investment into our end-to-end delivery services in strategic business centres worldwide.

The Citipost group, which includes Citipost AMP Ltd, Citipost UK Ltd, Citipost DSA Ltd and Citipost Direct Distribution Ltd, will continue to operate it’s Hand Delivery services in the UK, Far East, Europe and North America.

“We have found there to be great synergy between both businesses and this is a very positive step for our staff, clients and shareholders.” said Citipost.

It said that internally, the changes would see an expansion of it’s service range and improved buying power but otherwise, it would be business as usual.

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DHL India wins Frost & Sullivan Award

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

DHL India has been awarded the `Best International Logistics Service Provider’ and the `Best Brand Awareness in the Indian Logistics Industry’ for the year 2007 by Frost & Sullivan. This award is in recognition of its outstanding performance in customer experience and satisfaction for the year 2007.

Frost & Sullivan has been conducting studies on the logistics industry in India among various industry verticals to understand customer expectations with regard to their logistics service providers; also to benchmark current performance of the industry against these expectations. This year, a total of eight verticals were considered namely, Retail, Consumer Durables, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Automotive, Automotive Components, Pharmaceuticals and Information Technology. Opinions from top industry participants from each vertical were taken into consideration.

Respondents were asked to rate each of their logistics service providers on various parameters such as general parameters, transportation, warehousing, 3PL and freight forwarding. Apart from these parameters, direct questions pertaining to brand awareness and best international service provider were asked. Best Brand Awareness and Best International Service Provider scores were based on top-of-the-mind responses for a service provider.

In both these categories, DHL topped with the highest score. The company scored on key parameters like ability to deliver on time, damage control of materials at warehouse and transit, consignment tracking facility and transparency in processes.

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Logica to deliver BI at Royal Mail (UK)

Posted by | May 28, 2008 | |

Logica has announced that it has won a 5-year contract with Post Office Limited, part of the Royal Mail Group, to install and support two centralised business intelligence systems. The systems are expected to go live in 2009.

The Post Office has a project underway to modernise its systems and services in an effort to be more responsive to market conditions and changing business needs, and it hopes that this deal will help support this project.

Logica will oversee the implementation of two new management products, Master Data Management (MDM) and Dynamic Intelligence Warehouse (DIW). These will replace two current life-expired systems.

According to Logica, MDM will contain all Post Office reference data, including office addresses and details of products sold by the Post Office, such as stamps and travel insurance.

The company says that DIW is a responsive data warehouse, which will store updated information about the numbers and types of products sold daily at post office branches and other outlets.

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