Deutsche Post today unveiled the first customers for its paid-for secure ‘internet letter’service that will launch this summer and take on free e-mails and partly compensate for the digital
substitution of traditional physical mail.The service, likely to be launched in July, will offer businesses, authorities, organisationsand consumers secure, confidential and reliable electronic delivery of sensitive documents such ascommercial or legal correspondence, contracts and invoices. Such a service cannot be guaranteed byfree e-mail, according to the company. A hybrid delivery option is also available.
The German postal operator aims to compensate in part for the loss of physical mail volumes toelectronic substitution, Deutsche Post mail and parcels chief Jürgen Gerdes told CEP-Research atthe presentation on the sidelines of the CeBIT IT trade fair in Hanover. “We will have to see howmuch we can limit the effect with this product,” he said.
“We believe this is a real innovation,” Gerdes told the press conference. The main benefit forsenders will be the opportunity to reduce process costs, as well as to speed up and intensifycustomer communications, he stressed. Deutsche Post was seen as the most trustworthy organisationpositioned to offer such a secure electronic letter service due to its historically provencompetence, integrity and service quality, he added.
Gerdes declined to disclose what volumes Deutsche Post aims to transport with the ‘internetletter’ or its revenue targets. The price will first be disclosed shortly before the market entryalong with the product branding. Gerdes confirmed the company has applied to the German postalregulator to charge €0.46 for delivery of a hybrid letter that it receives electronically and thenprints for physical delivery.
The first customers for the ‘internet letter’ include German automobile association ADAC, LOTTOHessen, DekaBank, two insurance companies BIG Direktkrankenversicherung and ZurichVersicherung as well as the Kommunale Rechenzentrum Minden-Ravensberg/Lippe (krz) which handlescorrespondence for numerous local councils in Germany’s most populous state, North RhineWestphalia. These customers jointly have millions of customers, including ADAC with 17 millionmembers alone. Talks are under way with other large companies and organisations.
Technically, Deutsche Post will use electronic identification to register all users of the new ‘internet letter’. Once registered, the users will receive a PIN code and TAN numbers to access asecure portal where they will receive and send letters. The letters will be encrypted when they aresent and before they are received by Deutsche Post for onward transmission. Deutsche Post ITadministrators will not be able to open the mails, Gerdes stressed.
Deutsche Post will also offer hybrid delivery so that senders can send mail to customers,members or other persons who do not have an electronic mailbox, as well as a range of added-valueservices. The product is initially only for customers in Germany but could be offeredinternationally at a later stage, Gerdes said.
