Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail migrates entire procurement system online to e-sourcing (UK)

Posted by | Apr 3, 2008 | |

Royal Mail migrates entire procurement system online to e-sourcing making the process completely paperless

“The Royal Mail (RM) procurement team source around GBP 2.1 billion a year in goods and services. In an effort to cut costs, increase efficiency and deliver a higher level of service to British citizens, Royal Mail embarked on a three year transformation programme in July 2006, unify all procurement processes and stakeholders on the SAP E-Sourcing platform.

Previously sourcing was managed via paper files which was hugely inefficient and did not allow strategic visibility of vendors and contracts. With the new SAP E-sourcing platform, Royal Mail has eliminated all manual steps involved in the Source to Contract Process, increased visibility and compliance, enabled vendors to self-register via ‘Vendor Expression of Interest’ and saved the company GBP 300m.”

“SAP E-Sourcing in Royal Mail was rolled out in a phased manner starting in January 2007 with a month on month roll-out process to integrate all the elements of the procurement chain. When Release 1 Contract Management went live there was a cleansing and migration of approx 900+ contracts from the original procurement management system (PMS) to E-Sourcing. An innovative motivation tactic was deployed where different sourcing teams within RM like clothing, utilities, automation etc. competed against each other to be the fastest to cleanse and transfer their data.

Release 2 in June enabled ITT and eAuction functionality. This was a significant move to integrate all stakeholders under a common process leading to a high level of visibility and accountability. In addition to this, Release 2.1 allowed the vendors interested in participating in asourcing events to register electronically and this greatly improved the management & selection process for large scale deals.

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Prime minister says appeal to Royal Mail, not us

Posted by | Apr 2, 2008 | |

The Prime Minister has sought to shift responsibility for the threat of closure facing post offices.

Gordon Brown insists the decisions about which branches to close are being made by the Post Office, not the Government. He said that if people had a strong case over the planned closure of their local branch they could appeal, with cases going to Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton if necessary.

Devon will find out in late May which post offices will be closed as part of a government overhaul of the network.

More than one in six branches in the area could go, among the 2,500 to be shut across the country.

Mr Brown said four million fewer people a week were using post offices than two years ago, and the network was losing GBP 3.5m a week.

“To keep 11,500 post offices going, the changes are being made now,” he said. “These decisions are not being made by us – the Government – but by the Post Office.

“They have come to us, and got more money from us, to enable them to carry out a programme that will cost us GBP 1.7bn over the next few years.

“Thousands of post offices remain in existence as a result of the help that we are giving.”

During a parliamentary debate over the closures many Labour MPs and Ministers were accused of hypocrisy for opposing closure of individual branches but backing the overall programme.

Mr Brown said complaints against specific closures should be aimed at Post Office bosses, not government Ministers.

He said: “It’s the Post Office that’s prepared to reconsider the individual closure decisions under the appeal network, and the appeal can go finally to Allan Leighton.”

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Royal Mail warned over industrial action

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is facing the prospect of a second summer of discontent after postal workers rejected its plans to reform its pension fund.

The Communication Workers Union today called for fresh talks on pensions reform after a ballot of 140,000 members voted heavily against Royal Mail’s plans to curb the fund’s GBP 5 bn deficit.

Last year Royal Mail was hit by a series of damaging strikes over pay, modernisation proposals and pensions.

Royal Mail insists its pension’s reform formed part of the settlement; the union maintains that the issue was “de-coupled” from the other issues.

Royal Mail’s reforms, which came into effect this week, mean that the pension scheme was closed to new employees from March 31 though they will be able to join a new scheme next year. The normal retirement age has been increased from 60 to 65 though it will still be possible to take a pension at 60. From the beginning of April, benefits will accrue on a career average, rather than on a final salary basis, but previous earnings will come under the final salary scheme.

Royal Mail said it could not give a figure for the savings from the changes but added that it was contributing GBP 850m a year to the pension fund. It said that equated to 30 pct of pensionable earning and the reforms would bring that total figure down to 21 pct.

The union said 92 pct of the vote has been against the Royal Mail proposals.

Royal Mail managers voted to reject the pension reforms two weeks ago and the CWU said it would be discussing with their union, Unite, a joint approach to industrial action if it became necessary.

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Postcomm publishes final proposals on Royal Mail's compensation schemes

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has announced it is minded to accept Royal Mail’s proposed changes to its retail compensation arrangements for lost, damaged and delayed mail.

The regulator has conducted a public consultation and worked closely with Royal Mail and Postwatch to address concerns about the complexity of Royal Mail’s current compensation schemes for retail customers and some inconsistency in how they are applied.

The key changes to the retail compensation arrangements for loss, damage and delay are:

– if the item was posted with Royal Mail, there will be compensation for loss, damage and delay where an item has no intrinsic value or where a claimant cannot provide proof of posting;
– loss and damage to items with an intrinsic value, with proof of posting with Royal Mail and proof of value, will entitle customers to a postage refund plus compensation for actual loss;
– the GBP 5 and GBP 10 payments for delay and substantial delay will be removed, except for Special Delivery Next Day;
– compensation for delayed retail mail will become payable one day earlier than at present;
– redirected mail will be eligible for compensation for delay; and
– users of the Articles for the Blind service will be able to claim compensation for loss, damage and delay.

Postcomm will decide whether to remove the bulk compensation scheme from regulation when it makes a final decision on Royal Mail’s application for suspension of the scheme and the so-called “C-factor” in 2007-08 due to industrial action arising from its transformation plan.

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Postcomm consults on licence for Peoplepost Limited

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

Postcomm today began a 30-day consultation on the proposed grant of a postal operator’s licence to Peoplepost Limited.

Under the licensing framework that took effect from 1 January 2006, and was amended in January 2008, the licence would:

– allow Peoplepost Limited to provide all types of postal service;
– be issued for a rolling ten year period; and
– require the company to comply with codes of practice on mail integrity (safety and security of the mail) and common operational procedures (designed to ensure the multi-operator market works well in practice).

The closing date for responses is 1 May 2008.

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