Deutsche Post DHL today launched its “revolutionary” online letter service, entering whatit called “a new era in mail communication”.
The move is a major part of its strategy to compensate for the digital substitution oftraditional physical mail, suffered by all postal operators for the last decade.
The ‘E-Postbrief’ allows private individuals, companies and public authorities to communicatesecurely with each other on the internet, with DP DHL claiming it would be as binding, confidentialand reliable as a letter, and just as quick as an e-mail.
“We’re bringing the confidentiality of letters to the internet,” said Jürgen Gerdes, mail andparcels chief of Deutsche Post.
“The E-Postbrief will make our most successful product, the letter, even better. It is still aletter, but will be even quicker.”
From today, users can reserve their personal E-Postbrief address free of charge at epost.de,although sending an online letter will cost exactly the same as a traditional letter – 55 eurocents – whether their letter is delivered electronically to another E-Postbrief account or isprinted out by Deutsche Post and delivered by the mail carrier.
Deutsche Post said companies and public authorities could significantly improve their customerservice with the ‘E-Postbrief’ and save up to 60% of the cost of postal processing.
“The interest shown by business customers in the new product is accordingly high,” the companysaid.
Deutsche Post has two other important partners, SAP and Allianz, who have decided to collaborateon the “EPostbrief”. SAP is planning to integrate the E-Postbrief into its HR management softwareso that companies can send payslips to their employees electronically and securely, or as a hybridE-Postbrief. The Insurance group Allianz also intends to integrate the E-Postbrief into itscommunication system for its19 million customers.
Ralf Schneider, Head of IT and CIO of Allianz Deutschland, said: “In the digital age, customercommunication is changing rapidly. Customers are increasingly coming to expect immediateanswers.
“Electronic interaction with the E-Postbrief for the first time offers us the opportunity ofsecure, binding, written customer contact via the Internet.”
Deutsche Post DHL CEO Frank Appel concluded: “This is a revolution. It will make our customers’lives easier and strengthen us to remain the post for Germany.”
