Postal Agencies Diversify to Fight Volume Decline, 24-Country Accenture Study Shows
Research finds little success with digital mail, but increasing parcel business
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Achieving High Performance in the Postal Industry: Accenture Research and Insights 2013 identifies two new trends for the industry: digital mail has not reinvigorated postal agencies as originally expected and private postal operators have become more aggressive, creating greater competition for postal agencies in both the mail and parcel business. Postal agencies in 24 countries and two commercial companies – FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) – are included in the study.
“Despite a continued tumultuous business climate, some postal organizations are thriving. They are launching new business lines, combining their products with new technology and radically changing their cost structures to be leaner and more agile. As these posts reinvent their business models, they are emerging as very different organizations that are well positioned for future growth,” said Brody Buhler, managing director for Accenture’s global postal industry practice.
The 2013 research was presented at the European Postal Services Conference here. The 16 largest postal agencies included in the research represent nearly 75 percent of the world’s mail volume.
Since the publication of its first high performing posts report in 2006, Accenture has conducted ongoing, in-depth research of the postal industry. Using the Accenture High Performance Business methodology, Accenture has reviewed and assessed the relative performance of postal organizations. Starting with the postal systems of 16 countries and extending that research to include 24 posts and two commercial companies in 2013, the study gives a comprehensive review of what drives high performance in postal agencies.
The 2013 research shows little movement since 2012 in the top 10 postal agencies, with the exception of Norway, which jumped five positions to seventh place and Finland, which dropped eight slots to 15[SUP]th[/SUP] place in the 2013 study. The top 10 highest performing posts, according to the Accenture research, are Singapore Post, United Parcel Service (UPS) (USA), Austria Post, Poste Italiane (Italy), Australia Post, FedEx (USA), Posten Norge (Norway), bpost (Belgium), TNT (Netherlands) and Correios Brasileiros (Brazil). According to the research, the bottom five postal organizations are straddled with large legacy costs and limited diversification, often due to regulatory or legislative limitations: PostNord (Sweden and Denmark), Magyar Posta (Hungary), Japan Post, Correos (Spain) and the U.S. Postal Service.
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