August 2014 Advanced Electronic Solutions CONTENT play a role at Posts • NEWS IN BRIEF 2 The world is changing rapidly and technology • THE AssOCiatiOn 3 has taken the lead role in enhancing the • INTERVIEW FEATURE 5 way humans function. Postal businesses are affected by this transformation and they have • reGULATORY 6 come to accept the use of IT (Information • OPeratiOns 7 Technology) beyond supporting the postal activities and to configure the very nature of • MARKet 10 the posts in such a way that postal operators • SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 10 – regardless of going on being trusted intermediaries – are also becoming truly • EUROPEAN PROJECTS 11 digital. • ACKNOWLEDGements 12 PostEurop’s Advanced Electronic Solutions Forum was created some years ago to look at the latest developments in communication technology and investigate how they can UPCOMING MEETINGS further develop, improve and enhance process efficiency for Members in an inspiring way. This year’s forum “Advanced IT as Strategic Tool in the New Postal Business” which was held on 4 June 2014 in Riga, Latvia, hosted by Latvijas Pasts, addressed some key aspects of how trending new technological findings can make their way into the postal world. It also deeply explored the crucial role of advanced IT within postal organisations. > Continue on page 3 COMING SOON INNOVATING TODAY FOR PostEurop Plenary Assembly TOMORROW • 23 SEP - Terminal Dues Forum, San in San Marino will be held on PostEurop Business Forum in San Marino 24 & 25 September 2014. Marino • 23 SEP - REIMS Steering Committee Meeting, San Marino For more information please contact For more information please contact [email protected] [email protected] • 23-25 SEP - PostEurop Plenary Assembly & Business Forum, San Marino • 23-25 SEP - PostExpo 2014, Stockholm, Sweden • 14-15 OCT - UPU Strategy Conference, Abidjan, Ivory Coast • 27 OCT - 14 NOV - UPU CA, Berne, Find out more about us on www.posteurop.org Switzerland If you have any comments or any questions about this newsletter or if you would like to contribute to the content please contact: [email protected] / Written, edited and produced by PostEurop A.I.S.B.L. - Boulevard Brand Whitlock 114, B-1200 Brussels - Belgium August 2014 2 From the Editor News in Brief Dear Members and Colleagues, • Innovation: La Poste France banks on French start-ups. To cope with the drop in the volume of mail, La Poste Group is looking for ways to diversify In this issue of and become a driving force for start-ups. The Group launched, on 26 May PostEuropNEWS, you 2014, Start’inPost: an industrial accelerator that will be implemented within will find a report on the Group’s innovation process. € 4.8 million have been allocated to this the last Advanced project and its managing team, with the aim of speeding up the development Electronic Forum of twenty-five start-ups within twelve months. The topics covered are: (AES Forum) in which I had the pleasure e-commerce , local services, connected objects and digital trust. of participating. Whilst IT solutions have been predominantly used to • Slovenia Post signed revised Memorandum of Understanding with improve operational efficiency, its role Customs Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. While the first one is becoming increasingly important and focused mainly on the combat against drug smuggling, the latest one takes looks to help postal operators diversify into account the key factors influencing customs inspections and procedures and increase market offerings to meet of today, i.e. current violations of customs legislation, especially the traffic their customer’s increasing needs. What with prohibited contents and narcotics, counterfeit money laundering as well was interesting to note was the fact as violations of intellectual property rights. that so much has already been done. However, there is still so much more • Poczta Polska (Polish Post) is preparing a new comprehensive solution to do as participants learn about new for e-commerce to support the development of online stores. In 2013, the ideas. There also seems to be an infinite shipments by online stores represented almost 25% of the parcel market number of topics around this subject in Poland and the Poczta Polska handled about 31% of those shipments. as technology continue to develop However, the company does not limit itself just to shipping parcels but especially in the area of robotics, decided to take advantage of the fast growth of e-commerce to propose microchips and programming. There additional services. are of course ethical questions which continue to haunt us. Will this further widen the gaps between generations? Will everyone pick up the necessary skills to work with new technologies? What will happen in the future? Providing choice is also viewed to be a modern necessity and this is at the core of what the campaign Keep Me Posted • Partnership between Lithuania Post and CLEVY, International Logistics and EU is all about. For some months now Transport Company, to Ensure Cooperation with Alibaba, one of the Largest PostEurop has been involved in working E-commerce Businesses Lietuvos paštas has entered into a partnership discussions with EMIP stakeholders CEPI, agreement with the international logistics and transport company CLEVY FEPE and Intergraf as well as Royal Mail operating in China. The latter works with companies such as Alibaba Group to discuss the possibility of organising Holding Ltd. one of the largest world e-commerce businesses, which make a campaign highlighting the citizen’s 60% of items delivered in China. right to choose. An in-depth feature has been included in this issue following the • On the occasion of the United Nations’ World Environment Day, Deutsche first steering group meeting held in July. Post DHL called its 480.000 employees for action, to participate in activities for the environment and the climate. However, this form of engagement With that, we hope that you will enjoy is not a one-time activity: the Group’s GoGreen-program was launched in this summer issue and look forward to 2009 and encompasses the overall carbon efficiency improvement as well your feedback and further contribution. as a carbon neutral transport service. On 5th June, employees around the globe implemented specific environmental and charity activities, which often Cynthia Wee included customers and partners alike Communications Manager [email protected] If you have any comments or any questions about this newsletter or if you would like to contribute to the content please contact: [email protected] - More info on: www.posteurop.org August 2014 THE ASSOCIATION / OPERATIONS 3 > continued from front page identification cards are being used more next year’s AES Forum. and more to ease public administration. The forum kicked off with a keynote Postecom is a subsidiary of Poste presentation from Markus Kuckelhaus of Italiane focused on the development, Deutsche Post DHL (DP DHL) on the Open PostEurop Business management and integration of internet, Innovation Approach and looked at the intranet and digital certification services. Forum in San Marino, 24- hype around Big Data. Trend research is Poste Italiane Emiliano Vernini and Giovani an important part of what DPDHL does. 25 September 2014 Brardinoni shared their experience on To look into the relevant trends it was digital identity management and in Meanwhile some of the ideas have important for DP DHL to look at how particular PosteID and how it works been broadened and incorporated by technology works in real life and also look for citizens through various interfaces. João Manuel Melo in the preparations to learn from other industries with an Security features are an extremely for PostEurop’s Business Forum innovative mind-set. Big data was quickly important part of e-identification as they “Innovating Today for Tomorrow” in identified as the top technology trend further promote trust in its usage. San Marino on 24-25 September. Mr. at that point of time, which everybody is Melo will be speaking and moderating talking about but nobody appears to be Allan Barrie from IPC also gave a at the event bringing his insights from tackling it. “One of the main advantages presentation on the e-Commerce both CTT Correios de Portugal and as about this hype is that we have a lot of Interconnect Program, its ambitious Chair of the AES Forum. data to begin with” stated Markus. This intent for participating postal operators The business forum aims to give can be further analysed and used to reach to provide market access to an integrated Members an understanding of the out to customers and build new business and enhanced global postal e-commerce future consumer and technologies models. network at pace and in a coordinated manner. IPC and PostEurop are trending in their daily lives. It will The forum puts modern technology collaborating closely to enable a Europe- explore future trends which may have to use and had Matthew Sweeney wide approach within the programme. a direct impact on post and parcel from Flirtey, Australia to present, via activities as well as understand how video conferencing from the US, on his João Manuel Melo, longstanding Chair of some postal operators are addressing knowledge and experience with Drones – the AES Forum, enlightened participants innovation today. another hot topic. about how Innovation is managed within CTT Correios de Portugal and Pošta Slovenije having invested in IT and Who should attend? gave concrete examples of product built their own cloud computing services development, which underline the All postal senior professionals believes that it will have an impact on the important role of any postal operator as responsible for Strategic postal businesses, banking, sales, retail, trusted intermediary. Development, Commercial and etc. and it is a competitive area. Darja Marketing areas as well as those Murkovic Zigart showed participants how Throughout the AES Forum, participants in charge of Innovation and their internal cloud computing services discussed the inspiring ideas and Development.