The South African Post Office (SAPO) has revealed plans to invest about R430 million in IT projects over the next two years, as part of the organisation`s ongoing transformation process.
CEO Khutso Mampeule says SAPO will spend R200 million on a point-of-sale (POS) system to be implemented in all 2 500 offices around the country.
"The roll-out of this is set to begin in October," he says, adding the touch-screen POS systems will be deployed by Irish-based IT company Escher, in partnership with the local African Legend Technologies.
He expects the POS system to be in place in all the outlets by the end of March 2007, allowing SAPO to expand on the billing services it offers (like Eskom, Telkom, municipal and SABC payments), and include things like vehicle licensing payments - a project in pilot stage.
SAP deployment
SAPO`s R140 million SAP implementation (including a new track-and-trace deployment) will commence before the end of the calendar year, notes Mampeule.
"We are looking to move away from application modules to a strategic enterprise management system - and the project is well under way; we have started the process of finalising the architecture with SAP," he explains.
The SAP deployment will assist in coordinating SAPO`s four major divisions: mail services, banking, retail and logistics.
Mampeule says the track-and-trace project will allow people to trace numerous items of post (of different classifications) with a single call to the call centre. However, since the track-and-trace system will also be Web-enabled, the pressure on the call centre should be lightened, resulting in better customer service, he says.
The future
These projects, along with smaller initiatives, are part of what Mampeule describes as the Post Office`s "major strategic theme", namely aligning the organisation`s internal environment with strategic goals and objectives. He believes one of the core roles of "the new Post Office" is providing assistance to small businesses and private individuals in the rural areas.
"We want to be able to provide financial services, business services like copiers and fax machines, and Internet connection to people in disadvantaged areas," he says, explaining that SAPO has a mandate to provide services to people throughout the country.
As SAPO transforms itself from being a classic mail service provider, to a technologically-driven multifaceted organisation, Mampeule hints its image may be in for a dramatic change.
"We are busy with a brand-repositioning exercise," he says, explaining the public`s perception of SAPO should be consistent with the services it offers.
"It may include a name change," he says, but declines to comment further on this issue.
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