Palletline – Kevin Buchanan interview
Palletline – Kevin Buchanan interview
Read MoreTag: UK
Winning market share through innovation
Winning market share through innovation
Read MoreTwenty's Dataforce unit appointed to Royal Mail data panel (UK)
Twenty PLC said its Dataforce unit has been named as the first company to be appointed to Royal Mail’s newly created data panel.
The marketing services provider added that Dataforce will provide advice on customer retention and loyalty, customer journey mapping and large database work.
Royal Mail’s data panel will eventually be made up of five specialist data suppliers and is aimed at developing new data products and services to increase the effectiveness of mail for its customers. The service went live on Jan 28 2008.
Read MoreAmtrak launches e-billing as part of continuing IT systems upgrade
Amtrak has launched an e-billing service which is available to account holding customers. The system gives customers the ability to access their accounts online, which enables them to also view invoices, statements and credit notes. The e-billing system can also be used to query any billing details.
“E-billing gives our customers greater visibility and control of their accounts and helps them resolve any potential queries more efficiently,” explains Alan Jones, Managing Director.
“It also significantly cuts our use of paper, which is one of the aims of our environmental policy.”
Amtrak is investing in IT systems and equipment to improve the service it offers to customers. The investment programme includes the roll-out by the end of February of 1,000 new Dolphin 7900 scanners supplied to drivers and depots, to ensure full visibility through the Amtrak network.
The company is also creating the new position of IT Director to reflect the importance of IT in both its internal and customer-facing processes.
“These improvements, from e-billing to real-time PODs, ensure our customers have access to information about their shipments and all aspects of their business with us, at any time,” says Mr Jones. “It improves their efficiency and ours, as well as benefiting the environment.”
Read MoreLatest ‘Future of Mail’ paper: “Mail Trends Update” by Fouad Nader (Adrenale Corp.) and Michael Lintell (Pitney Bowes)
In recent years there has been an increase in the number of press articles and statements from posts predicting that mail volumes would decline. New technologies and process innovations have been introduced, preoccupying researchers and managers in the postal and mailing industries with the impact of accelerating electronic substitution and changing customer behaviors. What are the actual trends that emerge from examining in detail the best information available from key countries? What historical perspectives, trends and emerging patterns may be useful in understanding how mail volumes may evolve in the future? The purpose of this paper is to provide further insight into the key trends identified and discussed in the previous Mail Trends Analyses by comprehensively examining the evolution of mail and analyzing postal volumes along key variables that influence mail demand. This paper builds on the considerable research that followed the original mail trends analysis and was documented in the Background Papers published at www.postinsight.pb.com for the project: “Electronic Substitution for Mail: Models and Results, Myth and Reality.” The paper also takes advantage of recent work in the study of the “Future of Mail”, also on postinsight.pb.com.
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