Year: 2008

Bills an untapped marketing opportunity

Posted by | May 12, 2008 | |

It’s not all that widely recognised that customers pay greater attention to their bills than probably any other form of communication that they receive from businesses.

On face value that may sound like a negative result, but it also provides businesses with a tremendous sales and marketing opportunity. And the opportunity is one that many Australian businesses are yet to capitalise on.

Grant Stewart, managing partner of the strategic marketing agency Vectis, says that many businesses are realising the value of including targeted marketing messages on the transactional mail that they’re already sending to their customers.

“Most businesses have always viewed their transactional mail, such as bills and account statements, as quite distinct from the direct mail that they send out,” explains Grant. “But that shouldn’t be the case any more.

“This type of essential mail is an ideal medium for selling to existing customers, because we know that they actually spend time analysing the bills and accounts that they receive via the mail.

“We’re advising our clients to stop thinking of their transactional mail as just a cost and to start viewing it as an opportunity to generate revenue. When they actually see the return on investment that can be earned from a clever campaign, that’s when they start thinking of transactional mail as a serious marketing tool.”

Grant’s belief that customers pay close attention to their bills and account statements is supported by the findings of a British study from 2005 by The Henley Centre, called Beyond the Gate.

This study, which looked at how people process and prioritise their mail, found that most people dedicate an average of five minutes to reading their bills and account statements. From this, the researchers concluded that transactional mail actually provides a valuable opportunity for brand engagement – and selling.

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Syslore to deliver an address recognition system for Itella (FIN)

Posted by | May 12, 2008 | |

Itella Mail Communication and the Finnish software company Syslore Ltd. have signed a contract for the delivery of an address recognition and matching system for mail sorting and electronic message delivery services. By adopting the Syslore mCorrection Receiver Matching EngineTM (RME) fuzzy matching system, Itella will improve the address and receiver recognition quality in their hybrid and electronic message delivery service and increase the level of automation in their mail sorting process. The system will be deployed to all Itella address recognition processes by 2010 in Finland and abroad. The contract is worth over four million euros. “With this investment, we want to intensify and automate physical and electronic address recognition processes. Our goal is to ensure the profitability of the delivery business and to be able to provide quality delivery services for our business and consumer customers also in the future,” says Kari Kivikoski, Senior Vice President, Itella Mail Communication. http://www.syslore.com/

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Postcomm refutes Daily Telegraph article suggesting an end to Saturday deliveries (UK)

Posted by | May 10, 2008 | |

Postcomm has today totally refuted the suggestion in today’s “Daily Telegraph” that it is to recommend a reduction in postal deliveries from six days to five and is asking the newspaper to publish a retraction.

Postcomm’s stance is that the only threat to Saturday deliveries, for as long as customers need them, is from Royal Mail failing to be an efficient provider of the universal service.

The Saturday delivery is enshrined in law, in the Postal Service Act 2000, and so this, in any event, is not an issue over which Postcomm has any powers. Our commitment to secure a universal service valued by customers is just as strong as Royal Mail’s and we do not want to see any denigration of the service.

Although the universal service made a loss for the first time last year (2007/08), the size of that loss has been increased by GBP 30m by a change in cost allocation by Royal Mail that now charges all freehold property at market rents.

Royal Mail should focus on becoming more efficient in managing the national asset of the universal service.

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Royal Mail cuts may end Saturday post

Posted by | May 10, 2008 | |

The proposal to reduce deliveries to five days a week will also see fewer first class letters arrive the day after they are sent.

The recommendations, to be submitted in the next 10 days as part of a review into the future of the postal sector, are included in a radical plan by the regulator Postcomm to shore up finances at the Royal Mail.

It hopes to secure the future of the “universal service”, which means the company promises to deliver letters to each of the 28 million add-resses in Britain for the same price.

Moving from a six-days-a-week delivery would mark a further reduction of services by Royal Mail, which has already been allowed to end twice-daily deliveries in an effort to restore profitability.

The average delivery time has slipped and post boxes are no longer emptied on a Sunday. Any attempt to drop the Saturday delivery would be fiercely opposed, not least because it is enshrined in law under the Postal Services Act of 2000. Politicians, consumer groups, businesses and the unions say Postcomm’s proposals would lead to a further diminution of the service.

It is the first time that the Royal Mail has ever made a loss from this service.
Postcomm’s recommendations about cutting the six-day service are included in its submission to the review, the Telegraph understands.

The regulator also suggests that the Royal Mail’s delivery targets should be lowered.

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DHL Danzas achieves success with SNS

Posted by | May 10, 2008 | |

SNS a supply chain services provider announced that Danzas part of DHL Group, has gone live with the Infor WMS provided by SPAN Group. The go-live was at DHL DANZAS’ main distribution center, also known as DLC (Danzas Logistic Center) located in the JAFZA area in Dubai. The DC extends over 15,000 square meters with 18 docks located on 3 sides of the warehouse.

The racking system is mainly a Very Narrow Aisle (VNA), with one pallet position per location, in the main chamber, and standard selective in the other three chambers of the warehouse. This DC provides 3PL services for different stores and SKUs include electronic goods as well as FMCG. The Infor WMS implemented by SNS allows DHL Danzas to have full visibility of their stock at the lowest level.

With the RF functionality, the new system allows real-time update of the database and streamlines the warehouse operations from receiving to picking and shipping. The project also included a 7 touch points’ integration with their ERP system. This project was one of the most demanding and challenging in terms of WMS environment readiness, training and management : the WMS went live in less than 3 months, and the warehouse operation was only stopped for 1/2 day for the transition to the new WMS.

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First class war for Business Post's Guy Buswell

Posted by | May 10, 2008 | |

Tucked away in one of Guy Buswell’s depots are 12 pillar boxes. Standard Royal Mail design but painted blue. For Buswell is a private postman and the pillar boxes may one day be part of his expansion plans. For the moment, however, they confirm the conclusion of last week’s report from former Ofcom regulator Richard Hooper that the private consumer has seen no benefit from introducing competition to postal services.

Buswell is chief executive of Business Post, which collects letters from the likes of Vodafone and HSBC, sorts them and hands them to the Royal Mail for delivery. His UK Mail subsidiary handles more than 10 per cent of Britain’s post but, as yet, the public cannot give him letters for posting.

On the wall of his office, on an industrial estate outside Birmingham, above one of his 57 depots, is the very first envelope he delivered. It was from Powergen, posted on May 10 2004, and commemorates the end of the 370-year postal monopoly.

UK Mail now delivers more than 2bn letters a year. “Last week we carried 12m items in one day,” boasts Buswell, 46. It is arguably Britain’s biggest private mail service (the argument would come from TNT, the Dutch post office) and this week he will announce plans to change the quoted Business Post name to UK Mail Group.

Just 50 big customers account for 40 per cent of Britain’s post and Buswell has signed up a fair share, including Abbey, Prudential, Carphone Warehouse, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland. Yet sending letters is a shrinking business.

He blames Royal Mail, whose universal service last week posted its first loss in the year to March – a GBP 100m shortfall.

“We can collect mail from any customer that has 200 items per night. In the future there will be pillar boxes – or collection points,” he says. For now, however, he is working on I-mail, which will allow anyone to e-mail a letter to UK Mail for hand delivery next day.

Why not e-mail it directly to the recipient? Buswell points out that legal addresses are not electronic addresses. I-mail will be launched this summer and the consummate salesman explains: “It massively reduces the carbon footprint and reduces time. It will cost between 40p and 50p and be a next-day service.”

But its importance, he states, “is that it will be innovation in the mail industry by a competitor.”

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