MESSAGE FROM THE NEW DIRECTOR OF THE PTC The new Director of the PTC, Harald Weyerich, took up his new position on the 1st of April 2006. He spoke to Post*Info about his background, his first experiences at the PTC and the challenges lying ahead: “I am grateful for the warm welcome I received when arriving at the UPU in the middle of the POC sessions. It was most interesting to learn about your situation and your expectations regarding the use of Information Technology (IT) and the PTC’s role in this regard. During our discussions the important role of the Postal Sector and the UPU in helping to narrow the digital gap became very clear. Seeing the range of solutions provided so far in supporting the management of mail, financial services and quality reporting was really impressive. My personal background is linked to IT and organization for nearly 30 years. After studying Com- puter Science at the University of the German Armed Forces, I managed application development projects in the Defence area for ten years. I then switched to management consultancy and managed various projects in Business Process Re-engineering and IT strategy in different industries. Next I came in touch with the postal industry for the first time, consulting on the introduction of new ZIP codes and procedures for new sorting machines. After five years of international consulting and establishing consulting organizations I returned to line management, serving as Technical Direc- tor responsible for Services, Support and Customer Relationship Management for two different software vendors for 10 years until my arrival at UPU in April 2006. With this background, I believe that the UPU has some state-of-the-art solutions developed by a dedicated team which many software vendors would be happy to have on board. Being non profit- oriented, the evolution of the UPU’s solutions is financed by your contributions, either as members of the cooperative, and/or as users of these solutions. From a commercial point of view this has a definitive advantage to users, namely best value for your money! No commercial operation with its overhead for marketing and sales could ever provide any comparable solution and services as the PTC can do for you. Especially for less developed Posts, this makes it the only way to keep pace with the electronic age and avoid the digital gap to widen. In every cooperative the members do not only have rights and advantages but also duties. To achieve the objectives of the Bucharest Congress it will take more than just implementing techno- logy solutions. We need your active cooperation, steady feedback and support – especially in the area of postal business, postal products and its marketing to customers. I look forward to working with you for the future of the Universal Postal Service!” Also see the article “Farewell to Jean-Marie” on page 6 POST * Info In this issue April 2006 Issue n�06 2006 Universal Postal Union – PostalTechnology Centre Issue n�06 2006 Universal Postal Union – PostalTechnology Centre Issue n�06 2006 Universal Postal Union – PostalTechnology Centre 2006 Universal Postal Union – Postal Technology Centre page 1 The newsletter of the Universal Postal Union’s Postal Technology Centre Front Page Message from the Director of the PTC Telematics Cooperative General Assembly Mail services IMS User Group meeting Message from David Hamilton IPS: Greece and Hungary exchange new receptacle standard Finance services IFS User Group meeting E-business AES User Group meeting New appointment Case study spotlight Farewell to Jean-Marie News in brief Focus on a PTC employee For your planner n°88 - September 2005 N°06 – April 2006 English Online glossary Harald Weyerich Director of the PTC
Transcript
MESSAGE FROM THE NEW DIRECTOR OF THE PTC
The new Director of the PTC, Harald Weyerich, took up his new position on the 1st of April 2006. He spoke to Post*Info about his background, his first experiences at the PTC and the challenges lying ahead:
“I am grateful for the warm welcome I received when arriving at the UPU in the middle of the POC sessions.
It was most interesting to learn about your situation and your expectations regarding the use of Information Technology (IT) and the PTC’s role in this regard. During our discussions the important role of the Postal Sector and the UPU in helping to narrow the digital gap became very clear. Seeing the range of solutions provided so far in supporting the management of mail, financial services and quality reporting was really impressive.
My personal background is linked to IT and organization for nearly 30 years. After studying Com-puter Science at the University of the German Armed Forces, I managed application development projects in the Defence area for ten years. I then switched to management consultancy and managed various projects in Business Process Re-engineering and IT strategy in different industries. Next I came in touch with the postal industry for the first time, consulting on the introduction of new ZIP codes and procedures for new sorting machines. After five years of international consulting and establishing consulting organizations I returned to line management, serving as Technical Direc-tor responsible for Services, Support and Customer Relationship Management for two different software vendors for 10 years until my arrival at UPU in April 2006.
With this background, I believe that the UPU has some state-of-the-art solutions developed by a dedicated team which many software vendors would be happy to have on board. Being non profit-oriented, the evolution of the UPU’s solutions is financed by your contributions, either as members of the cooperative, and/or as users of these solutions. From a commercial point of view this has a definitive advantage to users, namely best value for your money! No commercial operation with its overhead for marketing and sales could ever provide any comparable solution and services as the PTC can do for you. Especially for less developed Posts, this makes it the only way to keep pace with the electronic age and avoid the digital gap to widen.
In every cooperative the members do not only have rights and advantages but also duties. To achieve the objectives of the Bucharest Congress it will take more than just implementing techno-logy solutions. We need your active cooperation, steady feedback and support – especially in the area of postal business, postal products and its marketing to customers.
I look forward to working with you for the future of the Universal Postal Service!”
Also see the article “Farewell to Jean-Marie” on page 6
POST*InfoIn this issue
April 2006 Issue n�06 �� 2006 Universal Postal Union – Postal Technology Centre Issue n�06 �� 2006 Universal Postal Union – Postal Technology CentreIssue n�06 �� 2006 Universal Postal Union – Postal Technology Centre �� 2006 Universal Postal Union – Postal Technology Centre page 1
The newsletter of the Universal Postal Union’s Postal Technology Centre
(from left to right)Stefan Lindholm,Chairman of the Management Committee of the Advance Electronic Services User Group and Vice-Chairman of the Management Board; Suleman Msofé, Director of Operations and Technology of the UPU; Jean-Marie Gassmann, outgoing Head of the PTC;Edouard Dayan, Director General of the UPU; Christopher Grosser, Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative Management Board; Abdeljalil Azzane, Vice-Chairman of the Management Board with responsi-bility for the Strategy;
Telematics Cooperative General Assembly
POST*Info n°06 - April 2006
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In his opening address to the General Assembly of the Telematics Cooperative on the 3rd of April 2006 in Bern, the chairman, Chris Grosser, welcomed the new Director of The PTC, Harald Weyerich, and thanked his predecessor, Jean-Marie Gassmann, for his contribution over the past five years. The General Assembly finalized a number of new appointments at the meeting. Gérard Jourdas, Special Assistant to the Directorate of European and International Affairs (France), was elected to the post of Vice-Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative responsible for finance, and Peter Dei Ofei, General Manager, Legal Investigations and Security (Ghana), to the post of Vice-Chairman of the TC respon-sible for legal affairs. The meeting also ratified the election of David Hamilton, Business Systems Manager (United States of America), as Chairman of the International Mail Services User Group. The meeting also discussed financial matters including the amendments to the Telematics Cooperative 2007 scale of charges which include free access to the QCS Mail and Finance applications for members of the TC and a rate of 6,500 CHF per year for non-member countries. The meeting noted the financial result for 2005 which showed a positive balance of 41,387 CHF. It also discussed the 2006 financial forecast and approved a balanced budget for 2007/2008.
The chairman referred to a number of challenges facing the Telematics Cooperative, including:
Data Centre
Network availability
Ticketing tool / RSC
Customer satisfaction
Development of the IFS network
Web site redevelopment
Rules and Policies (application development)
.post and dPM projects,
Accounting receivables Christopher Grosser introduces the new Director of the PTC, Harald
Weyerich, to the TC General Assembly
David Hamilton, Vice-Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative Management Board and Chairman of the International Mail Services User Group; Harald Weyerich, Director of the PTC; Lev Razovskiy, Vice-Chairman of the Management Board and Chairman of the Management Committee of the International Financial Services;Gérard Jourdas, Vice-Chairman of the Management Board with responsibi-lity for the Business Plan and Finance
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MESSAGE FROM DAvID HAMILTON:
”The opportunity to serve in the new roles of Chairman of the International Mail Services User Group (IMSUG) and Vice-Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative Management Board is one I am very pleased to receive. I am determined to give my best effort in representing the mutual best interests of the IMSUG and all Cooperative members.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on the IMSUG Management Committee and the Telematics Cooperative Management Board and indeed with the entire Telematics Cooperative membership to advance our shared objectives and aims, and implement solutions to `bind together` and connect the world through achieving the best postal technology solutions possible.
My fellow Management Committee members and I remain at your service and look forward to hearing from you on your interests, objectives, and priorities.”
INTERNATIONAL POSTAL SERvICES: IPS/IPS LIGHT IMPLEMENTATION
Two countries - Canada and Bermudas - have implemented IPS.Sri Lanka has implemented IPS Light.
Mail services IMS USER GROUP MEETING
Canada Post has become part of the growing number of Posts using IPS. This was announced at the meeting of the IMS User Group (IMSUG) during the POC in Bern in April 2006.
The number of countries using PTC applications for the management of the mail is constantly growing. A total of 113 postal adminis-trations are currently using PTC software for the management of their international mail.
The election of five new members of the Management Committee of IMSUG by postal voting was confirmed at the meeting. The new members are: Sam Curro (Australia), Colm Farrelly (Ireland), David Hamilton (United States of America), Vincent Ortega (France) and Toshihide Suzuki (Japan). The Management Committee elected David Hamilton as its chairman which means he will also be a member of the Telematics Cooperative Management Board.
The question of EMSEVT migration was also discussed at the meeting. In an effort to simplify the EDI transmission processes and to reduce costs to its members, the PTC is planning to harmonise its EDI message standards for items on the POST*Net network. In view of the above, the PTC strongly recommends that all Postal Operators migrates its EDI message exchanges from their current format to EMSEVT version 1 as soon as possible. The deadline for the migration is 1 November 2006. Due to the complexity of the procedure, it is im-perative that Posts using EDI message type other than EMSEVT version 1, contact the PTC technical support team in order to receive precise instructions on how to proceed.
IMS User Group meeting
David Hamilton, Chairman of the IMS User Group and Vice-Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative
Mail services
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GREECE AND HUNGARY FIRST IPS USERS TO EXCHANGE NEW RECEPTACLE STANDARD
The receptacle identification standard S9 was modified in mid 2004, with the inclusion of a new mail stream se-gregation code. The new code, defined in UPU code list 161, replaces the final and registered/insured indicators and combines the information with the receptacle type, format of contents and more.
The mail stream segregation code is particularly useful for letter mail exchanged between European Posts of the REIMS group. In REIMS the format of contents is crucial for the process and accounting.Handling the new standard in the system speeds up and secures data capture on the inbound side, even when PREDES is not available.
In IPS, the new receptacle standard was imple-mented in version 422 in November 2005. In March 2006 Greece Post and Hungary Post, both using IPS, successfully started to exchange the new standard between them. They are the first Posts in the REIMS group to use the new standard and are now waiting for more partners!
Reference to UPU code list 161:
not final
not registered/insured
IPC tray
Format of contents: E
IFS USER GROUP MEETING
A number of positive developments were highlighted at the meeting of the IFS User Group during the POC in Bern in April 2006. It was noted that that the overall availability of the IFS Network now stands at almost 99.9%, which means only one hour of outage for a full month of production.
Mention was also made of the successfully launch of IFS Light. Workshops as part of the pilot phase for the development of the product were held in Tajikistan and in Uzbekistan at the beginning of January 2006. The first exchanges through IFS Light were carried out during this training. IFS Light was developed for Posts with a low volume of exchange of money orders. It is expected to be a very appealing solution for Posts looking for a reliable, fast and cheap service in the International Money Orders market.
The new Quality Control System for the IFS application (QCS-IFS), scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2006, was presented at the meeting. QCS-IFS will analyze money order traffic on POST*Net and
provide quality measurements, reports and general statistics on the performance of the network as a whole. It will be available free of charge to members of the Telematics Cooperative.
The next IFS User Group meeting will be held during the CA meeting later this year.
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SERvICES: IFS IMPLEMENTATION
Colombia has implemented IFS.
Financial services
IFS User Group meeting
At the IFS User Group meeting Josiane Geoffroy presen-ted a report on workshops conducted by La Poste France to improve the use of IFS.
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AES USER GROUP MEETING
Significant strides have been made in the development of postal electronic services such as DPM (Digital Postmark) and RFID as well as achieving an own sponsored top level .post domain. This was one of the conclusions by members of the AES User Group at its meeting during the POC in Bern in April 2006. Members were optimistic that 2006 would be the year to realise digital postmarking inter-operability between UPU members worldwide, following the approval by the POC of new standards, regulations and rules in this regard. More information is available at: http://www.upu.int/press/en/2006/digital_postmark_goes_international_en.pdf
At the meeting the AES User Group Management Committee and the Secretariat pro-mised an interesting year with revamped member participation and active involve-ment in a number of new sub-programs. The case study knowledge base on the PTC website would be made more visible to members to draw and share experiences in postal electronic service projects. The development of a global hybrid mail standard and technology was seen as an important factor to strategically position Posts world-wide in the transition to an electronic marketplace.
Another key outcome of the meeting was the approval by the CMB of a feasibility study on new generation eServices (NGeS) which would scope and explore the opportunities for integrating DPM and .post with PTC products such as IFS, IPS, and QCS.
NEW APPOINTMENT
Fredrick Omondi Omamo from Kenya Post has been seconded to the UPU for a period of one year as e-Business Programme Assistant at the PTC. He took up the position on the 20th of March 2006.
He spoke to Post*Info about his career and the challenges of his new position: “I was employed by Kenya Post in 1998 as Business and Information Systems Analyst in the Information Techno-logy (IT) department. My key achievement in this position was the analysis of the existing manual services and re-engineering them to operate in the world of electronics. I participated extensively in the country-wide deployment of the VSAT solution in over 350 postal locations to provide Internet and email access to the public. To ensure that customers can access postal products and servi-ces online, I designed the specifications to transform the Kenya Post website from purely an information site to a truly dynamic, interactive, and transactional website. The website, which will feature electronic services such as track and trace, online box rental and postcode search services as well as online bill payment, should be ready by September 2006.
Regarding my new position, I believe that the future of the Posts lies in their diversification strategies to develop and deploy postal electronic services and products. I will bring along my experience and extensive background knowledge of Posts in the developing economies, which I hope will even-tually help boost the global postal industry and create a win-win situation to all stakeholders. I intend to share any new knowledge and experience that I acquire at the UPU with the rest of the developing and less developed countries and the post fraternity at large to advance their level of postal electronic services and open avenues for new revenue streams.”
AES CASE STUDY KNOWLEDGE BASE
In this issue, we focus on CorreiosNet Shopping, the e-commerce portal of Brazilian Post (ECT).The CorreiosNet Shopping service is a powerful e-commerce environment that is used by ECT and its cus-tomers to sell products and services on the Internet.
ECT’s e-commerce strategy involves three areas of activities: . Sale of our own products and services . Sale of third party products. Store for taking integrated logistics orders
The service for selling third party products, the Virtual Shopping Mall of the Brazilian Post, was launched in 2003. In March 2005, with 51 virtual stores in operation, a new commercial policy and various changes in the technical functionalities of the service were imple-mented. As a result of the new policy the year ended with 416 stores in the Shopping Mall and 300 new stores in negotiation.
For details on the case study go to: http://www.ptc.upu.int/pi/pi_cstudy_correiosnet.shtmlFor further information on how to submit case studies for publication, contact [email protected]
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Farewell to Jean-MarieJean-Marie Gassmann, Head of the PTC for the past four years, stepped down from this position at the end of March 2006. Jean-Marie joined the International Bureau in late 2000 from Swiss Post. He was appointed acting Head of the PTC from 1 January 2001 and became Head of the PTC a year later.
In this special message, Chris Grosser, Chairman of the Telematics Cooperative, pays tribute to Jean-Marie:
“As we look back across the 5 year period over which he held stewardship of the PTC, we recognise enormous achievements have been made. The mail services network of IPS/IPS Light users has doubled to over 100 users whilst the number of messages exchanged on the Post*Net server has grown five fold, to over 5 million per annum. IFS has passed the prototype stage and, with a new version IFS 3.02 released in late 2005, it is now a secure and reliable backbone for postal financial services throughout the world.
In the area of advanced electronic services, we have seen the extensive work directed to the Digital Postmark and to the foundation of the .post environment which may become the complete environment for Posts wishing to provide for distribution, payments and advanced services using new technologies.
Jean-Marie leaves behind a credible list of technical achievements that he readily ascribes to the dedicated team at the PTC and to the efforts of members of the Telematics Cooperative. Individually, he has a personal stake in the creation of a Communication and Marketing unit in the PTC in 2002 and to the clear separation of Operations and Development within the day-to-day running of the PTC. A strong advocate of normalising wor-king conditions and contracts in the PTC with those of the International Bureau has been one role he has enthusiastically pursued, but he has de-parted sadly leaving some work still to be achieved. Importantly, he has also strongly supported the introduction of a new ‘ticketing tool’ to im-prove the operations of the applications support team across the globe.
On the financial side, the PTC has benefited from his past experience with Swiss Post in that we are now achieving a balanced financial outcome, living within our means but ensuring that sufficient funds are available for development and support of the UPU suite of applications. In all, Jean-Marie leaves the PTC and his role as a Board Member of the Tele-matics Cooperative in good hands, and for this we offer our thanks and appreciation.
As Jean-Marie prepares for retirement from the International Bureau later this year, we extend our best wishes and express our grati-tude that he is able to be on hand as our new Director settles into the tasks ahead for the UPU’s PTC.”
Edouard Dayan, Director General of the UPU, Christopher Grosser Chairman of the TC and Jean-Marie Gassmann, Head of the PTC from 2001 to 2006
For your planner
Council of Administration (CA), International Bureau of the UPU, Berne (Switzerland) 10, 11, 12 Oct. 2006
IMS User Group, International Bureau of the UPU, Berne (Switzerland) During the CA
IFS User Group, International Bureau of the UPU, Berne (Switzerland) During the CA
AES User Group, International Bureau of the UPU, Berne (Switzerland) During the CA
For further information on the Te-lematics Cooperative, the Postal Technology Centre and its products please do not hesitate to contact Valérie Bataille at:
April 2006 Issue n�06 �� 2006 Universal Postal Union – Postal Technology Centre page 7
Sylvie Spring
Job Title: Assistant to the Director of the Postal Technology Centre (PTC)
Date of joining the UPU/PTC: 1999
“My role is to support the whole Secretariat of the Postal Techno-logy Centre (PTC) and in particular it’s Director. I am responsible for managing the mail, filing and archiving PTC documents. My
work includes keeping PTC databases up to date, both with regard to members of the Telematics Cooperative and the participants in the different User Groups: International Mail Services, International Financial Services and Advanced Electronic Services.
I help to write the documents produced by the PTC, in particular the minutes of the meetings of the Telematics Cooperative Management Board, the Telematics Coope-rative General Assembly and the User Groups. I am also responsible for distributing the documents for these meetings. So, if your country is a member of the Telematics Cooperative or one of the User Groups and you would like to be able to take part in their meetings and receive the relevant documentation, please let me have your contact details.
From time to time, I also answer questions from the members of the Telematics Coo-perative regarding the Cooperative’s Statutes and Principles of Operation, and provide legal interpretations of them.
The Telematics Cooperative’s activities are constantly growing and require ever more thorough administrative management. I am ready to rise to this challenge through close collaboration with the Director of the PTC and his personnel. “
