French La Poste has announced plans to develop a range of innovative ‘home services’ for thegeneral public, including protection of homes and individuals, ‘tele-health’, house maintenance and
energy consumption management.As part of the new initiative, La Poste has issued a tender to select one or more partners witha recognised expertise in the field of services and infrastructure in this area. In the firststage, it launched a ‘Call for Candidates’ targeted at individual companies or consortia in Franceor abroad. The applying companies will be able to offer different forms of partnerships by 21December 2012 at the latest.
The French postal operator hopes to boost the new market profiting from its brand and role as athird trusted party, its post office network and its expertise in the field of digital exchange andexperience gained in local services.
The company has already deployed a range of local services to private homes called ‘PostmenServices+’. In addition, it offers tele-care and tele-assistance marketed by its postal bank (LaBanque Postale). La Poste is already a major player in this sector, whether it is about securedigital B2B exchange with its subsidiary Docapost, which is specialised in document services andbusiness process optimisation with €500 million turnover, or B2C exchange with its online mailservice Digiposte.
Through this approach, La Poste aims to create the new services within a viable economic model.When all tender stages are concluded, the commercial launch of the services is due in the firsthalf of 2014.
