Post's new flagship retail store in Melbourne
Full-page advertisements appeared in leading daily newspapers today touting a free, digital mailbox service from Australia Post. The service is promised to be available to all Australians and to start this year.
The ads follow up on Post’s formal announcement of the new service yesterday.
Australia Post Chairman, David Mortimer, said it will be available 24/7 and entirely secure.
“The Digital MailBox will allow businesses, government entities and customers to communicate through a secure online portal that can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, wherever they are”.
“Just as the traditional letterbox has been a vital part of people’s communications for the past 200 years, we think a personal digital mailbox for every Australian is the perfect complement to the letterbox in this online revolution,” he added.
It may also be the perfect complement to PostBillPay, and indeed it appears that may be how Post intends to make money out of this free service.
Businesses will be charged for bills sent to customers via their digital mailbox and/or paid via their digital mailbox.
Certainly an Australia Post promotional email describes the new digital mailbox service as 1, a place to receive email, 2 a place to pay bills and 3, a place to store documents.
Post public relations executives are also focussing on the bill payment aspects.
An email from one Post PR executive said that the new service is a “total system for storage, management and payment of statements and bills”.
“Australia Post Digital MailBox is a total system for storage, management and payment of statements and bills – customers can log in to view bills and pay them with one click. It also allows users to view the history of their relationship with a service provider on one page – i.e. see all statements, bills and communications from that organisation.”
However it is already clear that Australians need not rush into Post’s arms just to get a free digital mailbox, whenever they become a reality.
That’s because earlier this month two ASX listed local companies and their US partner announced exactly the same thing as Post has, except with a different name – Digital Post Australia.
Computershare, Salmat and American company, Zumbox Software Inc announced the service, and the joint-venture which will back it omn the 14th of March.
David Hynes, Chairman of Digital Post Australia said that digital service will be the next generation of mail delivery and make mail more relevant to today’s marketplace.
“Digital Post Australia will transform the way we receive and organise all our essential communications”. “We are taking one of the oldest forms of communication and making it more relevant to today’s marketplace.”
The Australian consumer is ready for the next generation of mail delivery and the benefits it will bring will be significant and widespread for both consumers and business.”
Stuart Crosby, CEO of Computershare said: “With the click of a button, people can receive their mail online no matter where they are, bypassing the physical post box..”
Grant Harrod, CEO of Salmat commented: “We see digital postal mail as a great extension of our multichannel communication strategy and in particular our focus on digital communications. This investment in our BPO Division will complement the extensive communication services already undertaken by that business, including electronic delivery of essential mail. Our partnership with Computershare and Zumbox provides unrivalled reach to bring this innovative new service to market.”
John Payne, CEO of Zumbox added: “Australia is a compelling market for this type of digital service – sophisticated, widespread and digitally savvy. We offer the leading technology platform in the digital postal world and are delighted to be part of this groundbreaking joint venture.”
According to Digital Post Australia, the new service will do all the things that Australia Post is promising for its digital mailboxes.
“This offering allows consumers to receive their important postal mail, such as bills, statements, insurance documents, government mail, stock and brokerage disclosures and annual reports in one central and secure online location.”
Moreover like Australia Post, Digital Post Australia is promising the service will be free.
“This service is being deployed now and will be available in the second half of 2012 for all consumers in Australia to access free of charge.”
For more information go to
www.auspost.com.au/personal/digital-post.html?cmpid=edm-digital-mailbox-banner-120327
www.digitalpost.com.au
See the Australia Post promotional video at Youtube
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=s3gg4SStUl0
Register for the new Australia Post digital mailbox at
https://contactus.auspost.com.au/app/forms/digital/?ilink=pers-apdigitalmailbox-incontent-link
