The world’s leading postal operators plan to cooperate more closely with their digital servicesand have agreed on a strategic partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Center for Digital Business.These were the key results from last week’s International Post Corporation (IPC) annualconference held in Rome under the slogan ‘Digital Business: Opportunities to Create Value’. Morethan 60 delegates, including CEOs, executives and senior managers, met to discuss the future ofdigital business for the postal industry.
With the decline of letter mail volumes posts are placing greater emphasis on the integration ofphysical and electronic systems, including the development of digital postal services, the postalassociation said. By leveraging their strong national brand recognition and trusted position, postsare uniquely positioned to carry out the role of intermediaries in commerce, communication andpayments, and boast extensive retail networks which provide nationwide reach to consumers.
The IPC said it would work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center forDigital Business to carry out research projects and the publication of a white paper on the role ofpostal operators in the provision of digital business platforms in the coming year. ProfessorMarshall Van Alstyne, of the MIT Center for Digital Business, gave a comprehensive presentationabout the development of platforms versus products and the creation of network effects that willallow posts to grow in the digital sphere.
The other two expert speakers also highlighted the opportunities of digital business. JimHagemann Snabe, Co-CEO of SAP, spoke about creating value and enabling productivity through thedigital world, mobile technology becoming accessible to all, and the digitisation of the supplychain. Stephen McGibbon, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft EMEA, spoke about companies’responses to technology-driven changes in consumer behaviour.
The conference included a panel discussion, featuring CEOs Massimo Sarmi (Poste Italiane), JukkaAlho (Itella) and Frank Appel (Deutsche Post DHL) as well as the three guest speakers, whichcovered market leaders’ perspectives on changing consumer behaviour, advancements in technology andthe role of posts. This was followed by an open discussion on integrating network capability anddigital opportunities to maximise value through creative collaboration.
One conclusion of the discussions was that posts should not develop standalone products butrather focus on designing integrated platforms on which multiple products can exist. To that end,one of the main issues facing posts in developing further in digital services is creating scale ofuptake that will make these business lines viable, the IPC commented.
In examining how these platforms could evolve, conference delegates addressed the issue ofinteroperability and the extent to which individual postal operators should work together todevelop common solutions even though a single common interoperable platform across all posts wouldnot be necessary. This type of cooperation will enable posts to find the best possible solution foreach market and create the stronger network effects needed to increase overall market power.
Commenting on the conference, IPC Chairman of the Board, Dag Mejdell, said: “The speakershighlighted that posts are trusted partners, and now we need to work together in smart ways todevelop solutions that fit both business and consumer needs.”
Massimo Sarmi, CEO of host company, Poste Italiane, added: “Digital communication is a naturalcomplement to traditional physical communication.” Safety, reliability and transparency are thethree key values on which to base the development of digital communication services for citizens,small and medium-sized enterprises and public administration, he said.
Sarmi described the IPC conference in Rome as “a milestone” in relations between postaloperators and said that thanks to new technologies postal operators now had the opportunity todevelop new services on their technological platforms. However, he stressed that it would be vitalfor posts to share common technological standards to ensure interoperability and called for closercooperation between the IPC and the UPU to facilitate this process of integration.
