Tag: Belgian Post

NetApp Delivers for Belgian Post Office

Posted by | Jun 11, 2008 | |

The Belgian Post Office recently collaborated with NetApp for its data backup and archival. To manage this data, the post office is switching to a virtual infrastructure developed by NetApp in combination with conventional physical tape. In doing this, the post office is keeping pace with the current trend of virtualization in the storage environment, minimizing risk, and maximizing its return on investment in IT spend.

Because of the increasing quantity of data and activity on the post office’s network, implementing a more flexible system became a critical business need. After researching its options, the Belgian Post Office decided to partner with NetApp to create an archival and backup system that took advantage of the flexibility of disk-to-disk speed and flexibility and integrated with its existing tape infrastructure. The resulting system allows for near-constant availability of backed up data, more robust disaster recovery, and the ability to grow the system in the future with less overall cost.

“The Belgian Post Office had a classic need that growing businesses often face — and that the NetApp® VTL was specifically designed to fulfill,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing at NetApp. “We’re extremely pleased to share this example of how partnering with NetApp to reduce backup times and increase data availability can also have a greater effect on reducing future costs and achieving broader business goals.”

The NetApp NearStore® Virtual Tape Library is a disk-to-disk backup appliance that appears like a tape library to a backup software application but provides the superior speed and reliability of disk technologies. Developed specifically to address the requirements of backup administrators, NearStore VTL solutions increase the performance and reliability of backups, simplify backup management, and reduce D2D storage costs by up to 67% through the use of high-performance disk compression.

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Merger between Posten and Post Danmark

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

The Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy & Communications, The Danish Ministry of Transport and CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”) have signed a letter of intent regarding a merger between Posten AB (“Posten”) and Post Danmark A/S (“Post Danmark”). The companies’ rationale is to meet the markets increasing challenges through an increased competitiveness of a merged company. This merger will also secure the possibility to maintain a first class mail and parcel business in both countries continuing to reach all enterprise customers and households.
The agreement entails a merger between both companies into a combined company which will be jointly owned by the Swedish state, the Danish state, CVC and the employees. The merged company will have annual revenue of approximately SEK 45 billion and include over 50,000 employees.

Fritz H. Schur., currently Chairman of Post Danmark, will be appointed Chairman. Erik Olsson, currently the CEO of Posten, will assume the position as CEO of the merged company. The parent company will be Swedish and the headquarters will be located in Stockholm. The Swedish state together with the employees of Posten will own 60 percent of the merged company and the Danish state together with the employees of Post Danmark and CVC will own 40 percent. As part of the agreement, Posten will distribute an extraordinary dividend of SEK 1,400 million to the Swedish state. In all other respects, the influence of the owners is balanced in such a way that the Swedish state will have equal voting rights as the Danish state and CVC together.

The merged company will be organised along specialised business divisions, in a similar way as Posten has been organised since January 1, 2007. The traditional postal business in each respective country will be operated as national entities adhering to national regulations and using the same brands as today (“Posten” and “Post Danmark”). The logistics businesses will be joined under one division and under an own brand. The information logistics and graphical business will be joined under the Strålfors brand in the merged company. Beyond the four main businesses, the company will comprise group functions and one unit for shared services. Post Danmark’s 25% ownership in De Post – La Poste (Belgium) will also be part of the merged company.

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Belgian Post improves profits in 2007

Posted by | Feb 1, 2008 | |

Belgian Post has announced a significant improvement in its profits for 2007 thanks to higher revenues, better mail quality and successful modernisation of its operations.
According to provisional figures, the company’s turnover increased by 1.9pct to EUR 2.2 billion, which represents a 3pct organic increase taking the sale of French subsidiary Asterion in September 2007 into account. The structural drop in volumes in 2007 was limited to 0.1pct, while successes included an increased market share in direct mail and international mail. On the other hand, La Poste was forced to terminate its PubliPack pilot scheme for unaddressed mail in the second half of the year due to inadequate margins.
Belgian Post said that although its operating profit (Ebitda) dropped by 17pct from EUR 229 million last year, this was largely due to non-recurring costs. The underlying operating profit rose by 10pct, and the net profit showed a similar trend. The fully audited consolidated results will be submitted to the Board and shareholders for approval in mid-April.
CEO Johnny Thijs stressed that the group had succeeded in implementing a considerable number of change and modernisation projects in 2007. “La Poste is keeping to the schedule set for its preparation for full liberalisation of the postal market in 2011,” he commented. Among the main achievements, Belgian Post improved mail delivery quality to 92.4pct next-day delivery, and continued the post office network restructuring with the closure of 250 full post offices and opening of 267 PostPoint agencies.
In 2008, Belgian Post will focus on several major projects, including the launch of a new parcels and express service, further post office network restructuring and a continued mail reorganisation.

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The Belgian Post Office chooses the Esker FlyDoc technology for its on demand Click & Post Mail Service

Posted by | Nov 27, 2007 | |

The Belgian post office, La Poste – De Post, leader in postal services and in the document processing chain in Belgium, has chosen to OEM the technology and infrastructure of Fly Doc by Esker, the world leader in business document automation, in order to develop its “Click & Post” mail sending service. The partnership is based on the “Software as a Service” model (SaaS), which is part of the Esker international expansion strategy for the mail on demand market: a market estimated at over 800 million mail items per year in France alone.

In order to facilitate and simplify the life of Belgian users, the Belgian post office will launch its new “Click & Post” service this year to enable Belgian companies to send their mail, on demand, directly from their computer or their company applications (i.e. marketing mailings, invoices, registered mail, invitations). Instead of wasting time handling paper and envelopes, the users will be able to send mail as easily as an e-mail without leaving their desk.

Esker is proposing a pay-as-you-go service to the Belgian post office as a full application that includes a virtual printer and a web interface in the “Click & Post” design for Belgian companies, an Internet hosting infrastructure, including fifty servers to receive and process the requests from the customers of the Belgian post office 24/7, and On demand post production facilities set up at eXbo, a subsidiary of the Belgian post office.

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