ALKHOBAR, 14 November 2006 — During his visit to the Kingdom last week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates signed an agreement with Saudi Post President & CEO Dr. Muhammed Saleh Benten to launch a long-term strategic relationship.
The goal of the agreement is to integrate traditional mail with state-of-the-art electronic services, providing citizens and organizations with integrated and unified postal and electronic mail solutions. Saudi Post believes that this initiative promises an unprecedented and unique offering in the world of postal services.
Saudi Post Vice President and CIO Dr. Usamah M. Altaf explained that the initiative is a two-pronged approach. The first part of the initiative involves building a complete business-to-consumer and e-marketplace that enables subscribers from varying backgrounds and with diverse interests to interact with Saudi Post electronically; conducting a wide set of transactions easily and efficiently. The second portion of the initiative involves bolstering the portal with a scalable state-of-the-art e-mail solution that provides every subscriber with his own personalized e-mail account that is tightly integrated into the various e-services provided through the portal.
Through the personal account, the user will be able to subscribe and interact with many Saudi Post services such as WASEL e-services, Express Mail Services (EMS), Parcel Services, Normal Mailbox Renewal Services, Print-on-Demand E-Letters, E-Telegrams and E-Postcards. The system establishes a framework that provides the flexibility and ease needed for building and expanding for future services.
In addition, Saudi Post will be offering a unique opportunity to companies and establishments to publish their catalogs to the Saudi Post e-marketplace, advertise their services and allow individuals and other organizations to interact and transact. This will establish a first-of-its-kind e-marketplace in the Kingdom. The e-marketplace solution will cater for automated supply-chain infrastructure to directly connect those businesses’ online presence with their back-end systems; hiding all intricate details of payment and shipment reconciliation from visitors and yet allowing tracking and reporting on transactions.
All the basic services of the portal will be extended through a host of other information services. For example, the system will provide visitors to the Saudi Post portal with a complete contact directory of companies and government agencies. There will also be a Branch Locator System and a Postal Code Locator System to enable easier use of other Saudi Post services.
Saudi Post will be targeting new revenue streams through their portal with Direct Mail Campaigns and Content Targeting. Site administrators will be able to run mail campaigns that address subscribers with matching profiles. Dr. Altaf stated that this would allow the right information to reach the right audience and provide for a effective communication channel. The system will also collect feedback and reports on the success of the campaigns.
The Saudi Post portal, its individual e-mail accounts and other functions will be accessible over the Internet on any device — be it a PC or mobile handset. The new applications will be set up to intelligently recognize the access device and then provide a matching interface and information form factor to best fit the device being utilized to retrieve the required information.