Digital disruption is affecting – and will continue to affect – nearly every aspect of the global post and parcel industry, from transforming customer experience and the upheaval of last-mile delivery services, to recruiting and retaining digitally savvy teams and leveraging the intelligence from analytics. That’s the expectations outlined in a recent report from Accenture.
The report, Achieving High Performance in the Post and Parcel Industry: Accenture Research and Insights 2015, is based on a comprehensive analysis of 30 postal agencies and delivery companies across five continents, which together represent about 90 per cent of the world’s mail volume.
The report introduces the Accenture post and parcel digital performance index, which evaluates digital readiness in three key areas – digital strategy, which pertains to ensuring that digital is represented in strategic plans and organisational vision; digital servicing, which pertains to assessing and launching digital products and services; and digital enablement, which pertains to making digital ‘business as usual’ and not the exception.
The performance index demonstrates how digital investments are positioning the organisations included in the study for growth and evaluates companies and agencies according to their current digital capabilities.
“Digital technology is the powerhouse,” said Brody Buhler, global MD for Accenture’s post and parcel practice. “As digital accelerates the pace of market change, high-performing post and parcel agencies are taking advantage of these technologies, including mobility and analytics, to meet m-commerce-inspired new consumer expectations and drive growth in parcel volumes and revenues.”
Digital disruption occurs when new digital technologies affect existing business models. In the post and parcel industry, these disruptions have resulted in new products and services that improve the customer experience, such as the ability to check package delivery on a mobile phone as well as new delivery models that threaten profitability and growth.
Since the publication of its first high-performing posts report in 2006, Accenture has conducted ongoing, in-depth research of the industry. Using the Accenture high performance business methodology, Accenture has reviewed and assessed the relative performance of delivery organisations.
The top five performers, according to the 2015 report, are Singapore Post, Belgium’s bpost, Norway’s Posten Norgen, United Parcel Service (UPS) and Poste Italiane. But the list shifts when calculated based on the digital performance index, with FedEx, Deutsche Post DHL, UPS, La Poste and Canada Post Corp. leading the list.
“On average, companies in the post and parcel industry score better in setting digital objectives and service functions, with greater attention needed for digital customer interactions,” Buhler said. “While successful digital investments to date have focused primarily on cost containment and improving productivity, the focus now needs to turn toward digitising delivery and harnessing digital to create new revenue streams.”
According to the report, post and parcel organisations need to embrace digital technologies to increase operating efficiency, digitise delivery and create new revenue streams. This new digital strategy will be essential for organisations to meet three strategic priorities necessary to achieve high performance in the market – defend the core mail business; grow the parcel opportunity; and selectively diversify products and services.
This is part one of a two-part feature on digital disruption and parcel delivery industry. Part two of this feature will be published tomorrow (Friday March 25), so watch this space.
