This is an excerpt of the keynote speech that will be delivered on Friday by Korea Post President Jung Kyung-won at the UPU High-Level Conference held in Bern, Switzerland. _ ED.
Recently, the development of information technology and market liberalization has led to a fundamental change in the postal sector, which was formerly considered exempt from competition.
The development of more convenient communication systems based on IT has given rise to diversified and sophisticated customer needs. On the other hand, it has decreased volume of traditional mail.
Besides, market liberalization is forcing the postal service providers to reduce its monopoly advantage and to embrace a competitive environment that involves competition with private companies.
This change means that customers have taken initiatives in the market, not postal service providers.
Eventually, a newly developed environment requires the postal service provider either to secure competitive advantage by fulfilling customer needs or to be driven out of the market.
Two-Way Approach
In order to respond to the rapidly changing business environment, Korea Post has made a two-way approach.
One is innovation in process _ the successful example being PostNet, an advanced postal logistics system _ and the other is innovation in business operation using up-to-date information technologies, and the Internet.
When it comes to operations, we have developed and introduced new products and services to keep up with the new era of e-commerce _ they are ePost, an Internet post office; an Internet banking system; and philatelic database and portal.
Korea Post implemented the informatization of the whole mail handling process from acceptance to delivery using IT and set up the Web-based postal logistics system designed for seamless connection to internal and external related systems.
In 2006, PostNet was selected as one of the top 10 innovative brands the Korean government had introduced. Using the advanced IT infrastructure in Korea, PostNet has improved productivity and decreased the workload of employees.
The track and trace information system has been improved by offering more than eight stages of information in real time rather than two to four stages in the past.
With this system, customers are notified via cell phone messages to their mobile phone about the status of their mail delivery.
In addition, we have also shortened the time taken for postmen to deliver mail by more than one hour a day.
This has been made possible by automating the entry of information such as delivery notice and results by using personal digital assistants distributed to postmen.
e-Commerce
The Internet Post Office, ePOST is another system Korea Post has ambitiously pushed for along with PostNet. ePost is equipped with a shopping mall to enable producers to sell local specialties directly to consumers.
ePost also provides customers with an open market to guarantee a safe online shopping experience for customers.
In addition, customers can gain access to various postal services via the Internet, such as door-to-door parcel and EMS pick-up requests, hybrid mail reception, congratulations and condolences card reception, mail tracking, and postage stamps sales without visiting a post office in person.
As of December 2006, the number of Internet users in Korea was 34 million, about 70 percent of its population of 49 million.
With widespread use of the Internet, usage of Internet post office services has been increasing dramatically every year.
In 2006 alone, ePOST handled 40 million door-to-door parcels and EMS orders, and processed 250 million tracking inquiries. It also generated $54 million of revenue from its shopping portal.
The second example is electronic banking and life insurances system.
To enable the public to use postal financial services anytime, anywhere, Korea Post offers an electronic financial services environment, using CD and ATM, telephones, the Internet and mobile phones.
In 2000, we established a phone banking and Internet banking system. At present, we offer mobile banking services through business alliances with mobile telecom operators.
We also offer TV banking services, which enable people to conduct financial transactions at home.
In the near future, we are planning to provide one of the world's best electronic financial services, by adopting newly emerging information technologies such as Internet protocol TV and WiBro.
As of December 2006, 66.7 percent of total postal financial transactions were made electronically. The Internet and mobile banking services of Korea Post contributed to increased sales and revenue as well.
At the same time, our e-financial services are helping to improve brand images of the postal financial services, sell more financial products and generate revenue through various customer channels.
Ambitious Scheme
In conclusion, I would like to lay out our future direction, our vision and hope for Korea Post to achieve u-POST.
Korea Post seeks to realize a u-POST environment in which customers can use mail services conveniently anytime, anywhere based on the synchronization of information with mobile technologies, radio communications and radio frequency identification (RFID).
In order to deploy the u-POST environment, Korea Post is currently cooperating with the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, an R&D institute, to develop an RFID-based mail operation system.
Korea Post has set out its vision for becoming an advanced postal authority beloved and believed in by its customers and is planning to push four major strategies to fulfill this vision.
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