By these times of crisis, we never need more than today to have a strong vision of future which will help to keep the right direction while weathers are bad.
A lot of organisations are working on it : french governement, unesco,
Here is a little trying of post office business vision for these next years.
2020, Calte, a small country has succeeded in postal business. 2 of its companies have spread their services across “Aprop”, the biggest continent of “Perre” planet. I live in Trance, a medium rich country. It is Saturday morning.
After a good breakfast, I check my mailbox at the Post office : I take my mobile terminal which is connected permanently to Internet. I select the link which opens the post office space. I am recognized immediately and my mailbox status is : “4 mails have been received”. Then, I open it with a touch of my finger : a registered mail from a lawyer , a parcel from mum, my electricity invoice and a postal card from a friend.
I started with the registered mail since it makes me feel nervous. I had to sign electronically first the acknowledgement, then I was able to read. Good news, my trial went well. Postal service keep the original archived for me, should it be on paper or digital, and it is able to give me back whenever I ‘ll need.
Then I check out my parcel. It is fresh food from my mum. I need to get it quickly. It is available at the delivery point close to my apartment, but I am not there. I fill my current address and ask for an urgent delivery at my current location. In 2 hours from now, it will be done.
I check electricity invoice all seems OK, except the number of ads. Do really energy operators need to do extra business with ads ? I’ll have to pay in 15 days. I sign electronically the authorization, and the post service will get the money from my account and pay for me the bill.
Now, what’s up with my friend ? He is old-fashioned and likes to write with a fountain pen instead of sending photos and videos as my other friends do. Indeed, it was a beautiful card, with an old photo of Puerto Rico. He wrote some delicious words as he knows. All makes me happy. I reply with an electronic one. It is my lifestyle. But he will receive it in a regular paper wrap as he like.
OK, my post office tasks are done, I could switch to the supermarket…
During the afternoon, I use to visit Jeremy, an old but nice neighbour. He spent his life working for the legacy post office of Trance which has disappeared by now. He told me the whole story.
“Calte companies started by opening virtual post offices and convinced some big administrative mail senders to do it virtually with an attractive price. Administrative senders were only interested for small companies mail, they did not believe in private mail at this moment. They have concerns due to invoices with mean of payment attached and registered letter system was not available. This reinforce the perception of legacy post office that the market was not suitable for pure players.””
“By this time, Calte companies business were viewed as business internet service providers, most for free, revenues coming from ads. The business with administrative senders started gently.”
“Around 2016, Internet went considered as a common service. When you get in a new flat, you could plug your computer and be on Internet, in the public space you might use the services of your mobile operators or be connected to free Wifis available everywhere. Almost everybody had a mobile tablet which was connected to Internet.”
“The break through came after the economic crisis of 2017, when some administrative senders would like to change radically their relationships with their customers. Especially, they were attracted by the virtual post office concept which avoid for customers the burden to go to the real one.”
“Calte companies solved issues one after one : registered mail, means of payment, archive services, with the same approach : basic service free, additional value charged. They were working on innovation, virtual check books and were investing in a deposit devices available in streets. Their service was simple to use, consistent, friendly and reliable.”
“It came a time when real post offices had to close one after one, undergoing social troubles. This is when I quit”.
It sounds always as a classic story, but changes are hard to setup. We are now by 2009, we will see these next years how it will happen…
