UK’s Royal Mail Jumps onto the On-Demand Bandwagon | A Complete Analysis
The On-Demand Economy has swiftly taken over the traditional business models by serving people with what they want and where they want. Royal Mail, UK’s designated Universal Postal Service Provider has been at the forefront of this technological shift as it continues to improvise its digital strategy to leverage on the new trends and stave off competition from the evolving technology disruptors. Founded in year 1516, Royal mail has always tried new innovations to keep up with time, and once again as the economy is shifting to the on-demand model, Royal mail is ready for the future with its wide range of services. Here’s how UK’s Royal Mail is leveraging the on-demand economy to serve the people of UK in the best way possible.
“Delivery companies are technology-led companies and IT transformation throughout Royal Mail Group is central to the company’s parcels and letters business,” said Catherine Doran, CIO at the Royal Mail Group.
This clearly shows Royal Mail’s overarching focus on technology to modernize its business, improve efficiency and customer service and cut operational costs while providing its customers with flexible, integrated, technologically advanced solutions to better manage the shipping and tracking of parcels.
Royal Mails’ On-Demand Services
Over last few years, Royal Mail has introduced many innovative services for its customers with the focus on ‘instant gratification’. Some of these include:
- Online Business Account (OBA): It is a tool that allows businesses to manage mailing services, invoicing and reporting.
- Click & Drop: It helps simplify postage buying. Regardless of number of packages, it allows customers to print all postage in one go right from the desktop. Payment can also be done online by credit card, PayPal or by using an OBA account.
- Local Collect: It allows customers to opt for a delivery at the nearest Post Office from where they can collect their orders at any time according to their convenience.
- Despatch Manager Online (DMO): It is a great help for businesses which want to automate parcel dispatching and shipping processes. It helps businesses with address and bar code label generation, management of sales order data, production of relevant customs documentation, creation of reports on shipping statistics and more.
- Franking Services: One of the fast, convenient and cost-effective way to mail, which helps customers create a professional image by printing pre-paid postage onto envelopes and in-hose labels.
- Royal Mail Tracked: This service lets customers track their UK-wide deliveries in real time and hence keep them stay informed about the progress of their parcels.
- Same day On Demand: It is a reliable assistant to customers’ most planned and urgent shipments. Available any time of the day, any day of the week, it guarantees collection of the parcel within an hour. It coms with real-time tracking and eventually the package is delivered on the same day.
Empowering Mobile Workforce
While Royal Mail has implemented revolutionary on-demand services over the years, the engine that drove this growth was the development of a highly scalable and robust mobile workforce management solution. It was only due to this workforce management solution that Royal Mail was able to streamline the real time tracking of deliveries and enhance the customer experience for its services. The present technology infrastructure allows Royal Mail to:
- Increase quality of service to customers by enabling them to view the status of their deliveries in real-time via Royal Mail’s web portal.
- Improve business efficiency and reduce operational costs by replacing its current paper based tracking system with a real-time mobile solution.
- Provide with the ability to collect proof of delivery and to capture event and time stamping throughout the delivery process providing visibility to Royal Mail’s operations and customers in real-time.
Powered by this superior technology in the on-demand field, Royal Mail has been able to meet the ever increasing demands of customers over the years and ensure that it retains competitive advantage in a market place where competition is cut-throat.
Acquisitions: An Inorganic Strategy that made it Quick
Apart from developing its in-house digital infrastructure, Royal Mail has also made a number of investments to improve its technological capabilities and enhance its offering. For a Government owned service, acquiring a startup is a huge step that shows Royal Mail’s dedication in evolving as the best company in deliveries and offer something new to its customers. Here are few major acquisitions from recent past.
- eCourier: In November 2015, Royal Mail acquired eCourier, a leading same day on-demand parcel delivery company. The acquisition was meant to enhance its parcel offering, expand its network and capture more value in the fastest growing business segment of the UK.
- NetDespatch: In December 2015, Royal Mail acquired NetDespatch, a leading software solution provider specialising in parcel data management and labelling for retailers and parcel carriers. The acquisition of NetDespatch supports Royal Mail’s strategy of providing customers with leading edge e-commerce software.
- Storefeeder: Acquisition of Storefeeder by royal mail has supported its Click & Drop software. It has also helped Royal Mail with order management capabilities.
Apart from these acquisitions, Royal Mail also invested in Market Engine, which builds new marketplaces and enables businesses to manage online shop fronts in major global marketplaces.
Innovate or Perish
As Ubers’ and Amazons’ of the world continue its march to disrupt the courier & delivery industry, it is of paramount importance that the traditional companies keep reinventing themselves. Royal Mail, driven by its focus on technology, is well positioned to innovate and survive in this new digital on-demand world.
Are you also thinking to take your business to the next level? Get in touch with us to know how we can help you leverage the on-demand economy.
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