Tag: North America

Western Union And GSMA To Create New Global Mobile Money Transfer Service

Posted by | Oct 18, 2007 | |

The GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade association representing over 700 GSM mobile phone operators, and The Western Union Company, a global money-transfer services, today announced an agreement to facilitate the development of cross-border mobile money transfer services.
Western Union and the GSMA are developing a commercial and technical framework that mobile operators can use to deploy services that enable consumers to send and receive low-denomination, high frequency money transfers using their mobile phones. The first commercial services that make use of the framework are anticipated to be rolled out beginning in the second quarter of 2008.
The framework forms a key element of both Western Union’s mobile strategy and the GSMA’s Mobile Money Transfer program which aims to use the reach and ease of mobile money transfer services to expand the mobile financial services market and stimulate social and economic development. Mobile money transfer services will make it simple, quick and affordable for more people to send small amounts of money through a conventional and regulated system. Both Western Union and the GSMA believe there is an opportunity to create and grow a large new market for low denomination transfers.
The Western Union mobile service will connect operators to Western Union’s existing global money transfer system, which processed approximately 17 percent of the world’s remittance volume in 2006. Once connected to the Western Union service, operators will be able to use their own ‘mobile wallet’ software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union’s cross-border remittance network. The Mobile Money Transfer service will enable consumers to transfer money to or from mobile wallets and will offer a global network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.
Thirty-five GSMA operators with more than 800 million customers in more than 100 countries are participating in the GSMA Mobile Money Transfer program. Led by Sunil Mittal, the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, the Mobile Money Transfer program is overseen by a steering committee made up of representatives from Bharti, MTN, Orange, Orascom, Smart, Telenor and VimpelCom.
Western Union and its affiliates provide money transfer services across 200 countries through a network of more than 312,000 Agent locations.

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Canada Post Introduces Online Direct Marketing Service

Posted by | Oct 18, 2007 | |

As Canadian small and medium-sized businesses strive to attract customers and adapt to the increasingly technology-based marketplace, Canada Post introduces Direct Marketing Online (www.directmarketingonline.ca). The latest addition to the company’s growing suite of solutions for business, Direct Marketing Online breaks new ground in the Canadian marketing and e-commerce industries by giving SMEs efficient and affordable online access to marketing tools once reserved for big-budget enterprises.

For the over one million businesses with fewer than 500 employees in Canada, attracting customers and standing out from the competition are essential elements for success. For smaller businesses, this is particularly important in the start-up stage, when resources and budgets are limited. An additional challenge for these organizations involves adapting to technological advancements in the marketplace, which can offer important opportunities to increase performance and output, albeit it a cost. However, recent studies indicate that SMEs are increasingly adopting Web-centric attitudes, particularly when it comes to self-serve online applications.

What’s more, Canada Post is introducing Direct Marketing Online at a time when Canadian small businesses are reporting improved performance and confidence over previous years, making it the perfect opportunity for owners to invest in marketing and technology. According to the most recent Canadian Federation of Independent Business Quarterly Business Barometer, released in September 2007, close to 44 pct of Canadian small business owners surveyed reported that their firms were doing “much better” or “somewhat better” than one year ago.

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DHL USA wins award for secure quality campaign

Posted by | Oct 17, 2007 | |

DHL announced today that it has received a PR Platinum award from PR News, the highest honour given by the public relations industry magazine. DHL won in the Employee Relations category for the successful launch and execution of its “I’m On It” campaign. The campaign articulates DHL’s brand promise of delivering a superior customer experience into employee terms by innovating internal communications to drive positive business results.

DHL’s internal brand campaign provides a platform that explains employees’ roles in a customer-driven culture by focusing on taking ownership of issues in order to achieve the highest levels of service.

“The ‘I’m On It’ campaign is more than just a slogan, it has galvanized the Company towards the common goals and focus of responsiveness and taking ownership,” said Karen M. Jones, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications for DHL. “Internal surveys reflected the campaign’s success in helping engage our workforce, bridging gaps where needed, and driving individual actions to focus the company on service and responsiveness.”

The campaign has been infused into all communications activities including materials focused on employee heroes, executive communiqués, town hall meetings, web casts, all-employee launch events, executive voice mails, posters, scripts, field communications, employee recognition/awards and ongoing communications.

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Timing is everything in FedEx expansion

Posted by | Oct 17, 2007 | |

FedEx Ground is undergoing an overall expansion — and its new facility in Orion Township is part of that growth.

Timing is everything for FedEx when it comes to opening up new facilities, says Allison Sobczak, corporate communications for FedEx Ground. While Metro Detroiters have yet to greet trick-or-treaters at their doors, FedEx is in full swing of their busiest season — the winter holidays.

The new 190,000-square-foot, USD 30 million facility replaces two Metro Detroit FedEx facilities in Pontiac and Sterling Heights, which have been closed. Their operations are transferred to the new facility in Orion Township.

FedEx Ground chose Orion Township because of its access to major highways, the local labor pool and its business-friendly reputation. “Most importantly, we look for proclivity to our customer base and from what I understand a lot of the growth in the area has been north of the city.”

FedEx Ground has facilities in Livonia and Ann Arbor to handle the rest of the greater Detroit area.

The Orion Township facility will utilize much more automation in processing packages than the facilities it replaces. It is one of 300 other expanded local facilities in the nation.

Sobczak says reduced transit time is part of FedEx Ground’s overall expansion plan. “In 2003 in more than half of our shipping lanes, about 65,000, we have been able to decrease transit times.”

With the opening of the Orion Township facility, transit times from Detroit to Florida have decreased from four days to three, says Sobczak “Overall these facilities speed up our network, they improve package processing with the improved automation and minimize package handling.”

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Velocity Express Announces Fourth Quarter and Year End Results

Posted by | Oct 16, 2007 | |

Velocity Express Corporation announced operating results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2007.
Highlights:
• Positive adjusted EBITDA in quarter ended June 30, 2007
• Gross margin improved while average driver settlement increased through route engineering
• USD 18 million in annualized new revenue started in September quarter of fiscal 2008, more than offsetting USD 15 million in lost revenue from terminated unfavorable contracts assumed with the CD&L acquisition
• Three new franchise agreements signed in September quarter of fiscal 2008
Finally, Velocity has launched a new franchise strategy to expand its technology-driven service capability into additional areas that enhance and increase service coverage. To date, Velocity has signed franchisees in Fargo, ND; Columbus, OH; St. Louis, MO and Kansas City, MO and expects to sign two more cities before the end of October. The Company expects these first 6 franchisees to provide more than USD 5 million of service for Velocity customers on an annual basis, from which Velocity will record the franchise fee income. Furthermore, Velocity expects to expand its franchise program into three or four additional geographies each quarter, equivalent to USD 15-20 million annual value of service for Velocity customers by June 2008. Beyond the benefit to customers, franchising also allows Velocity to use capital more efficiently by eliminating the expenditures needed to open new markets while earning franchise fees that assure “day one” profitability comparable to a mature direct operation.

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