Postal organizations have the opportunity to build a bridge between physical and electronic delivery spaces. Mailers want the flexibility to reach out to consumers through traditional mail, electronic channels, or even a combination of media types. Consumers want more choice in what, when, and where they receive their communications. Posts are in a unique position to become key players in the secured electronic communication space by building new electronic channels to access their services while leveraging their established trust, assets, and traditional delivery business.
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Situation
Innovations in information technology, mobile phones, and the Internet are driving dramatic changes in the ways people communicate. To stay relevant to their customers, postal organizations can take advantage of these new communication channels to add value to the traditional business they deliver in the physical world. In the past years, Posts have deployed great efforts and innovations to combine the physical and the electronic means of communication. Services such as Track & Trace, Hybrid Mail, online banking, electronic payment, proof of delivery, and self-service kiosks are completely integral to this product and service mix. This trend is accelerating in the multichannel and multimedia age, in some cases hastened by environmental concerns.
Solutions
As the PC and mobile phones are more and more becoming the main communication tools in the Enterprise and Consumer market, postal organizations look for ways to integrate their services into these devices to facilitate the access, convenience, and positive customer experience. The secured electronic mailbox seems to be a natural next step for many posts seeking to provide multichannel services. The secured electronic mailbox is the online equivalent of the physical mailbox, which builds a secured channel between authenticated mailers and receivers that permits individuals to choose how they receive their correspondence. In addition, Microsoft is working in collaboration with the post and the Universal Postal Union to build new e-Postal Services such as the Digital Postmark integrated with Microsoft Office 2007.
Benefits
Solutions for e-Postal Services can deliver:
| • | New services and sources of revenue including secure electronic transactions, online advertising, and customer insight. |
| • | Reduction in costs and environmental impact associated with physical mail including returns, paper waste, and pollution. |
| • | For private customers: protection from spam and fraud, easy access to e-Government services, opt-in control over contextual advertising, and new services such as scanned images of physical mail. |
| • | For mailers: recipients who are authenticated, contextualized, and targeted with insight into what recipients actually do with their mail. |
| • | For business users: reduced time managing mail and access to secure and reliable B2B and B2C transactions and other secured services. |
For more information, please contact msegov@microsoft.com.
Overview
Secured Electronic Mailbox
