Post Haste 4
The challenges facing the department are many. “To plan a foolproof network, identify suitable software packages, train a taskforce… But none of them are insurmountable,” says Col Sadasivam confidently, adding, “Technology has always been assimilated in our department quietly. We will do so again.” The staff seems very enthusiastic to start the venture and deal with technology,” asserts the postmaster.
The target audience has not been segmented according to age or income brackets. “This universal service would have two main beneficiaries. People who would want to send a large number of letters to different addresses and if either the sender or receiver has never been exposed to the Net,” explains Col Sadasivam.
The revenue generation issues also seem clouded. “We have already identified the revenue generation streams and details are being worked out,” says the Colonel. Roughly, 500 mails per day in major centres would mean a break-even while 100 mails per day would suffice for smaller centres. Also, there seems to be no ad spend allocated for this project with word of mouth being their only trumpeting factor.
What might hamper this dream is the lack of connectivity to an ISP. But Col Sadasivam plans to start talks with major regional ISP players, and intends to add an e-commerce accent to this venture in the near future. “The dream is to see 20,000 of the 26,000 major post offices linked as inlets to serve the public.”
Let’s hope, this remains no pipe dream.