ICTs, new services and transformation of the Post ICTs, new services and transformation of the Post the of transformation and services new ICTs, UNIVERSAL POSTAL UPU UNION ISBN 978-92-95025-19-6 International© 2010 Telecommunication Union – Universal Postal Union ICTs, new services and transformation of the Post Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the International Telecom- munication Union (ITU) or its membership or of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) or its membership. The designations employed and the presenta- tion of material, including maps, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of ITU or UPU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or concerning the delimitations of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or of certain products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by ITU or UPU in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. © 2010 – ITU and UPU Foreword With more than 660,000 post offices throughout the world, India, Bhutan Post and Bhutan Telecom launched a project in the postal network is the biggest physical network in the Bhutan, the objective of which was to bring the benefits of world. Post offices are everywhere, from the capitals of big- ICTs to the populations of rural and remote areas of Bhutan. ger industrialized countries to small rural towns of least- In the framework of this project, 38 post offices became ICT developed countries. In outlying areas, they are often the only centres, six of them based on satellite connectivity provided public service available and in many cases, they constitute a by India. This project helped change the life of thousands of vital channel to communicate and exchange goods between people by bringing them access to services such as email, communities. Billions of people visit post offices every year internet access, fax or e-government services. The project for a reason or another. They send and receive mail, parcels also enabled Bhutan Post to transform itself, delivering better or money orders. They can also get access to more sophisti- quality to the citizens and developing new services. cated services such as account-based financial services or new IT-based services. This book presents case studies from seven postal enterprises and their experience in adopting ICTs. Case studies featured New technologies are changing the postal world. They are in this publication have been selected after extensive con- not threats, but should be seen as catalysts that will help sultation. The countries in which these projects were imple- the postal enterprises reinvent themselves. When one buys a mented are at various stages of economic development and product from an e-commerce site, the order is placed on the include an industrialized country, five developing countries internet. But in the end, the goods are not delivered electroni- and a least developed country. The projects which were cally. A logistical partner, very often the Post, is the physical implemented also vary considerably in terms of the level of link between the seller and the buyer. Postal operators are technology used and services offered. adapting themselves to take advantage of the new possibili- ties. New technologies are re-shaping and transforming the We wish to extend special thanks to the postal operators that postal sector. ICTs are an opportunity for Posts to improve cooperated with us whole heartedly and provided the mate- their existing services or to evolve a whole new range of serv- rial. The studies themselves were prepared by independent ices. New technologies change the governance and the work experts, thus ensuring a degree of detachment. culture of the organisations and promote innovation. The objective of this book is to put forward some best practices We have a great pleasure in making this publication widely in that regard. available and trust that it will prove useful to policy makers, regulatory agencies, postal operators and the ICT industry in This publication has its origins in a project on which the Inter- general. We do hope that the successful experiences of the national Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Universal Posts of Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Italy, Korea (Rep.), Russia Postal Union (UPU) collaborated for a number of years. In and Saudi Arabia will prove useful to decision-makers of 2003, the ITU, the UPU, the Governments of Bhutan and other countries wishing to embrace new technologies. Dr Hamadoun I. Touré Edouard Dayan Secretary-General Director General International Telecommunication Union Universal Postal Union GeNevA BeRNe Acknowledgements This publication is the result of close collaboration between the ITU and UPU. It was jointly funded, formulated and completed. It was coordinated at the ITU by vishnu Mohan Calindi (Coordinator of Rural Telecommunications at the Telecommunication Devel- opment Bureau) and at the UPU by Nils Clotteau (Partnership and Resource Mobilization expert, executive Office). We owe special thanks to vinod Dhamija who as an ITU expert brought to this book his vast experience with India Post and the UPU, his wide knowledge and his insights into how the system works in different contexts. We would also like to extend our thanks to José Ansón and Paul Donohoe, both from the UPU, who read all the contributions with great diligence and provided valuable comments. The study would not have been possible without the whole-hearted cooperation of the officials of the national postal adminis- trations and operators. We owe a debt of gratitude to Abdulaziz H. Allahem (Saudi Post), Majed M. Al-esmail (ex-Saudi Post), vantuyl Barbosa Jr., Rodrigo Figueiró de Andrade and João Souza Neto all of empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos, Kezang Choden (Bhutan Post), Keoagile Rafifing (BotswanaPost), Simona Condorelli (Poste Italiane), Sergey Dukelskiy and Lev Razovsky (State enterprise Russian Post), and Sook-yeon Lee (Korea Post). Several UPU colleagues also contributed to make this study possible. We would like to specially mention Justine Beyaraaza, Olivier Boussard, Abdel Ilah Bousseta, Lahcène Chouiter, Johanna Grant, Thierry Grossenbacher, Jackie Hediger, James Holden, Nadia Izzo, Daniel Le Goff, Gary Long, Ken McKeown, Faryal Mirza, Juliana Nel, Fredrick Omamo, Lesley Pasqualotto, Rémy Pedretti, Sabrina Perez, Garbo Pinheiro, Lynsey Poole, Mark Prosser, Delu Qu and Keiji Takemoto. At the ITU, we owe special debt of gratitude to emamgholi Behdad, Annabel Behrouz, Abdelkrim Boussaid, Patricia Lusweti and Riccardo Passerini. We are grateful to Sami Al-Basheer Al-Morshid, Director of BDT, for his encouragement. About the authors Vinod Dhamija is a former UPU Regional Adviser for the Asia Hoon Jung received a Ph.D. in Industrial and Manufacturing Pacific region. In that position, he was involved from 2002 to Systems engineering from the University of Missouri, U.S.A., 2008 in formulating and implementing many projects aimed in 2001. He joined the electronics and Telecommunications at improving the postal services in the region. Before joining Research Institute (eTRI) in Korea in 2002. He has worked the UPU, he worked in India Post for 32 years and held vari- for the u-Post research team as a researcher and became ous positions at the middle and senior management levels in a team leader in 2006. His research focuses on the postal the areas of international relations, postal operations, postal logistics chain management, customer interface technology, planning and development as well as postal financial services. internet-based postal service technology or intelligent mail service strategy. Graeme Lee is a Senior Partner in Sunflower Associates, providing consultancy in the ICT and postal sectors. Graeme Hans Boon is one of the leading experts in ICT-based finan- has worked in the international postal arena for 20 years with cial services through the postal network, and the associated Royal Mail, Correo Argentino, DHL, the World Bank and set issues of postal reform and financing. In this field, Hans has up Sunflower Associates in 2006. Through Sunflower Associ- 20 years of experience leading cross-cultural teams in more ates he provides policy, strategy and operational advice to than 60 developing countries worldwide under assignments Governments and postal operators throughout the world. of the World Bank, the UPU and others. He started in 1977 at the Netherlands Post, and Post Office Savings Bank, helping Juan Ianni has spent over 37 years in the postal industry to establish Postbank in 1986. In ING, he led the international working on postal projects in more than 60 countries. He Postbank operations till 2007. Hans is based in Amsterdam, spent most of is career with the U.S. Postal Service, where he as Managing Director of PostFinance International Develop- was in charge of international postal development projects. ment. He also spent two years with the World Bank as Senior Postal Policy expert and since 2004 has worked as a private consult- Farah Abdallah is a doctoral student and a research associ- ant developing postal sector policies and regulatory regimes ate at the Management of Network Industries Chair, at the for government and private clients. Juan has co-authored a ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (ePFL), Switzerland. number of postal sector studies including the “Postal Industry She worked on consultancy projects for Swiss Post and SAP.