Australia Post creates dedicated e-commerce unit

Australia Post has sharpened its focus on e-commerce by creating a dedicated business unit headed by former CIO Andrew Walduck, as part of the organisation's drive to become a "sustainable e-commerce company".

In July AusPost CEO Ahmed Fahour moved Walduck out of the IT division and into its digital solutions unit to grow the postal body's services business.

Fahour has placed his bets on digital services being the saviour for an organisation suffering from both a steep decline in letter volumes and falling rates of foot traffic in its retail outlets.

Yesterday he told staff the postal body would place an even greater emphasis on e-commerce by splitting its operations out from within the larger postal services division and into its own business unit.

Walduck will head the new 'trusted e-commerce solutions' division.

Fahour told staff, in a message sighted by iTnews, that over the past few months the organisation had drilled down further into what it needed to deliver on its 'part of tomorrow' strategy.

"We are increasingly clear that trusted services opportunities within e-commerce, which we have been deliberately and carefully investing in over the past four years, are core to our future business," Fahour said.

"We must focus on the growth of this critical opportunity."

Australia Post needs to move on from just enabling governments and corporates to communicate with their customers through physical letters, he said.

"We must now, in addition, place dedicated focus on building and delivering solutions that enable governments, financial institutions and major corporates to create and accelerate their own digital futures, so they can easily connect with and provide essential services to their citizens and customers."

The organisation has also decided to pull together all its shared services - such as finance and procurement - into one business services unit, which now sits alongside the organisation's four main business divisions. It will be headed by former Medibank Private chief customer officer Laz Cotsios.

The changes come into effect on Monday. 

Walduck's team will work closely with the postal services and parcels divisions to sell e-commerce solutions to their customers, Fahour said.

"As we continue to build out our competitive and sustainable e-commerce business, we need to devolve decision making and work differently to rapidly deliver new innovations for our customers," he told staff.

"I have no doubt that under this new operating model we will be successful in taking the next leap forward."

What was formerly known as the trusted services division has so far overseen the launch of products including the MyPost Digital Mailbox and identity, travel and financial services.

Digital Mailbox had 30 providers on board at the time of its most recent annual report, and will soon be expanded to include parcel tracking, warranty receipts on behalf of retailers and change of address notifications.

Australia Post said it plans to extend the range of services it offers to include white-labelled travel solutions - passport applications, travel insurance and cards, and foreign currency exchange, among other things - plus identity services such as the Keypass identity card.