Snail mail no longer

THE age-old tradition of posting mail has been dragged into the 21st century by the advent of hybrid mail.

National mailing service NamPost has ensured it will be at the forefront of the new technology by investing N$5 million in new facilities for the service.While mail might be considered old-fashioned in the electronic age, it is still the format companies choose to send out their most important communications: their bills. Hybrid mail, which has been around in Namibia since 2004, fuses the best of the electronic world with that of traditional mailing to create a more flexible and efficient system. Data is sent from the company via e-mail and is processed and sorted at the hybrid service centre before it is printed and sent out as ‘traditional’ mail. This can result in significant savings in both time and money.Victor Queiroz, Executive Manager of Document Messaging Technologies for Pitney Bowes South Africa, explained that mail which needs to go to Walvis Bay, for example, can now be sent there electronically before being printed out.He said the new system would save transport and mailing costs and also reduce the amount of incorrectly delivered mail, which currently stands at about 5 per cent. NamPost CEO Norman Cloete said the system will make mail reach its destination a ‘full two days earlier’ than before. Pitney Bowes is a mailstream technology company implementing the new system for NamPost in conjunction with Schoemans Office Solutions. Queriuoz added that wrongly addressed or lost invoices can present a huge cost to businesses in terms of interest earned on payments.According to him, the new hybrid mail system implemented at NamPost would ensure that very few invoices got lost or misaddressed. This is because the system is based on a process which Queriouz describes with the word ‘integrity’.Integrity means that the system can not only detect lost or faulty invoices like the more common ‘intelligent’ systems but also accounts for them in more detail.This can save on costly reprints as it allows the system to exactly pinpoint the faulty invoices.Queriouz also said that the system could add value in terms of marketing as invoices could be customised to customer needs and interests. FNB Namibia has used the hybrid mail service since May 2008, and according to Business Analyst Reckliff Kandjiriomuini the bank is extremely happy with the service.He says there ‘has been no infringement’ on the bank’s strict confidentiality standards by outsourcing their mail and that the swift service ‘has improved our relations with our customers’. The Ministry of Finance and MTC are two other notable customers using the service. Cloete said that the costs of the service will depend on specific companies’ needs and that a price would be worked out ‘which would suit both parties’.