Tag: Royal Mail

Call to save Royal Mail by levy on rivals

Posted by | May 23, 2008 | |

The UK Government was urged last night to prepare to impose a levy on Royal Mail’s competitors to keep universal letter deliveries going — or risk the collapse of the service.

The warning came after Business Secretary John Hutton renewed the government’s commitment to a universal service — a nationwide delivery service at a single tariff — but insisted he must not pre-empt a study into Royal Mail’s future.

His comments followed publication of a report from a team in his department warning that opening up postal markets to competition has only benefited large companies, not small businesses or consumers.

The team warned Royal Mail’s financial stability is at risk and the present arrangement under which it is required to provide a universal service, while its competitors are not, is untenable. It is going on to consider whether there should be a levy on Royal Mail’s competitors to pay for the universal service obligation or whether the solution should be more radical and involve breaking up Royal Mail itself, with a separate body providing a simple delivery service at the expense of all the competing mail companies.

The issue was raised by Orkney and Shetland Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, who urged that work on planning a levy to support the universal service should start now “because if we wait for further conclusions it might be too late”.

The Post Office is expected next week to announce the closure of dozens of branches in the north-east and Tayside. It has confirmed decisions to close 16 branches in the Northern and Western Isles on top of 38 in the Highlands and 40 in Argyll and Bute, Falkirk, Stirling and Greater Glasgow.

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Royal Mail strike up a customer dialogue

Posted by | May 23, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is continuing to support the direct marketing industry with the launch of “Dialogue Mail”, a customer relationship management solution combining traditional direct mail with digital media.

In partnership with dialogue marketing company, Vialuna, Royal Mail now offers a product that claims to offer “an integrated solution that will enable brands to have more in-depth and engaging conversations with prospects or existing customers.”

Recent Royal Mail research revealed that over half (55%) of consumers prefer to be contacted by a combination of DM and online and that integrating digital advertising with direct mail campaigns can increase customer spend by almost 25% and Dialogue Mail leverages these findings.

The Dialogue Mail journey begins with an intrigue-based mailshot designed to pique recipients’ interest and direct them online. Vialuna’s technology creates personalised URLs, meaning the campaign is individually tailored to each customer. The interactive microsites can be designed to allow customers to share their preferences, request specific products or information and direct the overall customer journey.

The system claims to capture all interaction, allowing the brand to learn more about individual’s behaviour and shape future communications to make them more relevant. Vialuna’s Dialog Engine’ tracks campaign responses and delivers lead alerts directly to sales teams in real-time.

Martin Pang, Managing Director of Vialuna UK, explained the power of Dialogue Manager “We have been operating in the US for eight years and are quickly expanding across Europe. In all that time, we have achieved double-figure response rates for our clients. The reason is that Dialogue Mail is mutually beneficial marketing. The customer gets the benefit of a personal experience whilst the brand captures customer insight leading to deeper, more relevant and meaningful relationship.”

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Royal Mail on target to save GBP 300m with SAP (UK)

Posted by | May 22, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is on course to save GBP 300m over three years through efficiencies created by its SAP-based procurement transformation programme.

Central to the project is SAP supplier relationship management (SRM) software and its E-Procurement module.

Royal Mail director of performance and transformation, Daniel Cameron, explained that the SAP software has helped the organisation source items much more efficiently and get better deals.

Cameron’s group put together the business case for the project around two years ago with the aim of making the Royal Mail’s procurement department one of the top three in Western Europe.

Now 18 months into the project, Cameron is confident these ambitious savings targets can still be achieved.

Around half of the savings are expected to come through a reduction on operational expenditure with the rest coming from lower capital expenditure.

The rollout of the e-procurement technology has seen the introduction of small chunks, each of which has been well received, according to Cameron.

Royal Mail already runs its business applications on an SAP backbone and so the decision to use technology from the German business software giant for the procurement project was an obvious one.

The e-procurement platform was developed by SRM specialist Frictionless Commerce, which SAP acquired just over two years ago.

Royal Mail also uses the SAP financial application and plans to upgrade to SAP’s SRM 7.0 and add a supplier collaboration module in the near future.

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Business Post Plans Faster Letter Delivery

Posted by | May 22, 2008 | |

Business Post, the parcels and postal delivery group, is to launch a letters service in the summer that will guarantee next-day delivery anywhere in the UK.

Customers will send letters over the internet to UK Mail, a Business Post subsidiary, which will print them in color at depots close to the destinations. The company will then put the letters in envelopes and hand them over to Royal Mail for delivery over “the final mile”.

The iMail service could reduce the carbon footprint of a letter by up to 80 per cent, Business Post said. It will also appeal to big corporate users that are keen to reduce emissions produced by their businesses.

“It will also allow us to offer our service to consumers and small businesses whose mailing requirements are too small for our existing services”, said Guy Buswell, chief executive.

UK Mail has doubled its share of the British postal market for the second year running. It collects and sorts about 11 per cent of mail before passing it on to Royal Mail for delivery to homes and businesses around the country.

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Royal Mail marketing head to leave after restructure (UK)

Posted by | May 22, 2008 | |

Royal Mail Marketing Director Alex Batchelor is leaving at the end of next month following a restructure of the marketing team.

His departure comes about a month before group strategy director Alex Smith takes over as Strategy and Commercial Director. Batchelor, who had been in the role for three years, would have reported into Smith in his new role.

It is thought that Smith will take over responsibilty for marketing, including overseeing its agencies, Abbot Mead Vickers.BBDO and OMD. Royal Mail completed a review of its advertising last month, retaining AMV.

Batchelor was poached by Royal Mail from Orange, where he was Vice President of Global Brand at Orange. He joined the mobile operator in 2001 from brand consultancy Interbrand. He has also worked at Unilever and Saatchi & Saatchi.

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