Ntsundeni Madzunya, IT Personality of the Year 2005, is at the forefront of a technological revolution at the SA Post Office (SAPO), of which he is CIO.
Madzunya's current projects and plans are seen as the building blocks towards every post office having a Citizen Post Office by 2010.
The concept includes existing over-the-counter services, but with a few added extras.
The current roll-out of public Internet terminals continues, with 125 being added to the existing 700, which are placed in post offices and multipurpose centres throughout the country.
These terminals' paramount function is to "bring government services to the people", says Madzunya. The aim for 2010 is to have these individual terminals developed into Internet cafes, available free at every post office in SA, he adds.
Part two of the endeavour is to increase availability of business centres within post offices, which will offer faxing, copying, printing, Internet and telecoms services.
"Trust centres" will also be created to have official documents certified by the post-master (all of whom are commissioners of oaths), and have SAPO store original documents, making certified copies available on request, according to Madzunya.
SAPO is embracing smart card technology, as pensioners receive their monthly pensions by identifying themselves with the cards, which hold critical information such as fingerprints and photographs.
Not a replacement
Madzunya does not believe that technology will replace over-the counter services, since the vast majority of South Africans do not have access to the Internet. However, technology has done a lot for SAPO in terms of streamlining processes and increasing accuracy and efficiency in its systems, he says.
He feels that SAPO needs to "embrace technology to reduce the cost of services and delivery as a commercial and logistics company", with technology being used to aid SAPO's infrastructure.
The main focus will be on mobile technology as it is an easier means to reach rural areas.
Already in the research phase, mobile technology, dubbed M-Post, will provide mobile services which will reflect current over-the-counter services. M-Post will include mobile banking and parcel tracking via SMS. Plans are to roll-out the project towards the middle to end of next year. This will be in conjunction with the Internet banking project's roll-out at about the same time, says Madzunya.
Immediate changes for the coming year include the four current track-and-trace services being incorporated into one by the end of June. Despite the logistics involved, "we have made them fit", he says. This follows the one process, one system policy SAPO intends to adopt.
Although not yet complete, many other SAPO systems have been integrated into one, which Madzunya says has led to increased accuracy, efficiency and cost saving.
One major success has been the consolidation of the eBulk Delivery Note service. Users can now register online, calculate how much a bulk mailing will cost according to their specifications and pay for it via the Internet. This leads to a tremendous saving in delivery time since the process is now fully automated, says Madzunya.
Madzunya says technology has been a key factor in SAPO's profit growth. SAPO achieved a profit of R135 million this year, compared with last year's R30 million, which was the first time the post office made a profit in 200 years.
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