Isle of Man Post Office is pleased to announce that it will be unveiling Smart Delivery at ISLEXPO 2017. This year’s show takes place at the Villa Marina in Douglas on 24th and 25th of May.
Smart Delivery provides customers who receive mail with the ability to opt to receive their communications from product and service providers in several ways; physically in the post, via a digital mail box, or alternatively by email. They can choose one or more of these methods in which to receive items and can switch preferences at any point. Developed by Isle of Man Post Office, Smart Delivery is an extension of the Post Office’s traditional postal services and its 360° Mailing solution.
Smart Delivery offers a new and exciting alternative to the way service and product providers communicate with their customers. Until now the Post Office’s mailing division has provided a range of mailing solutions, and businesses can now also benefit from access to a simple email or recipients reading their correspondences from a digital mail box as opposed to receiving it physically. This will significantly reduce their print and postage costs.
The process begins with the secure handling of customer data under the Post Office’s ISO 27001 accreditation, with physical items printed using the high spec printers to ensure a professional finish and pdfs being created for any digital items. Items are then dispatched into either the Global mail stream, the digital mail system or email according to customer preferences. A digital mail box can be created for every recipient, which they are able to claim once the details have been sent by their service or product provider. Each time a new item is digitally received the customer will receive an email.
The new system could prove extremely useful to companies who are introducing changes to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As it will help companies obtain consent from their customers, to hold their personal data in a secure environment with functionality included for retention rules and other marketing preferences. Severe penalties are being introduced under GDPR for non-compliances from May 2018. Recipients will benefit from flexibility in the way that they receive their mail items, digitally or physically, and the ability to change preferences as they wish. They are also able to manage their mail items in one place and the more businesses on board the better it will be.
As customer habits continually change, mail volumes and payment transactions continue to decline, it has therefore become ever more important for the Post Office to continue to identify alternative business opportunities to help replace lost revenues. In doing so, the Post Office has progressed with its digital strategy which aims to protect postal services revenue, whilst at the same time introducing new ways of keeping Post Office business sustainable for the community and strengthening its presence in new markets, particularly within the digital technologies arena. Digital plays a pivotal role in today’s world so it’s therefore important that the Post Office embrace this along with continuing to provide traditional Postal services in order to remain current with today’s customer.
Niall Carey, Interim Isle of Man Post Office Commercial Director said: “We are looking forward to attending this year’s ISLEXPO and supporting DED with their event. Isle of Man Post Office is a sponsor of the 2017 Digital Lab and we are looking forward to this as it will provide the perfect platform for us to highlight to delegates our digital capabilities which many may be unaware of and which we have already used to help in the delivery of digital government services.”
Isle of Man Post Office has recently introduced a number of digital products in support of its digital strategy including MiCard, which has been designed to make the payment of social security benefits and pensions a lot more convenient and secure to claimants, without the need to carry or wait for traditional printed vouchers and cheques to arrive in the post. No cash value details are stored on the card and customers can access their benefits and pensions from the day that they are due, at a time that suits them, collected by themselves or their nominated proxy from one of its network of 25 Post Offices. Isle of Man Post Office is now looking to widen MiCard’s use to become the single card services supplier across Government. Click and Dispatch is a new secure online, easy to use, mail and parcel dispatch system that has been designed to streamline shipment processes. Customers can login to their accounts and then create or view their postage manifests and generate barcode address labels as well as being able to get real time information on tracked mail items.
To add to this, a 360° Mailing solution, a digital service which integrates all of the Post Office’s mailing division’s core services, including scan to digital and digital hosting, into one slick package, and which has already been used by the Isle of Man Government for key projects such as the 2016 Census. Finally, the roll out of mobile handsets to delivery staff which allows the Post Office to provide full track and trace integration with Royal Mail and effectively administer authority to Sign For and Safe place services.
Isle of Man Post Office is offering businesses in attendance of ISLEXPO a free trial of Smart Delivery, please come and speak with one of our representatives at the show who will be located in the Digital Lab, contact our team on 698444 or visit iompost.com/smartdelivery to find out more.
