DHL Parcel Online Postage
Send parcels very quickly and conveniently by using the online postage option provided by DHL using Micromata’s software.
The Story
The cooperation between DHL and Micromata successfully started back in 2001 with the eBusiness portal „e-komplett“ and continued with the 2004 project “online postage label printing”. The specifically programmed tool enables customers to fill in parcel and package labels online conveniently and quickly from their own homes. Customers could print the labels, stick them onto their parcels or packages and then take them to one of the 13,500 post offices or 850 parcel stations within the country and pay for them.
However, DHL was even more ambitious and wanted to not only offer online label printing but also 100% secure online payment for the labels – “Parcel online postage” (POP) the new project was called.
Boris Mayer, manager of the DHL parcel marketing CtX comments: “Online franking is a very important feature with which DHL differentiates itself from the fierce competition. It is central in our multi channel strategy. A critical success factor thus was the selection of a qualified IT specialist who could realize this goal and design a flexible as well as performance orientated application. The decision to work with Micromata on this matter stemmed from the successful cooperation DHL has had in the past with Micromata, plus Micromata’s PDF competence and the attractive offer at hand of course.”
The Goal
It was essential not to lose any time with regards to the development of the software because only those companies that appear on the market in a fast and qualified manner manage to distinguish themselves remarkably from the competition and are able to secure market shares. During the development it was important to take into consideration the highly demanding parameters such as the creation of 50 PDF files per second with automatic version recognition, the non-stop availability and the necessary scalability of the application. For the customers the application was meant to be simple and conveniently accessible, i.e. without any special franking software, registration or account request.
Realization and Results
Henning Endruscheit, manager of the DHL IT Parcel department praises the cooperation with Micromata: „The Micromata Team delivered great results with the realization of the software. In particular, Micromata’s subject knowledge and the proactive development of solutions enabled us to work within our time constraints and budget.“
The application can be used via the DHL home page (http://www.dhl.de). The customer chooses a product, fills in contact details of sender and receiver, delivers payment via pay pal or bank transfer, prints the label, makes a booking for the parcel to be picked up or drops it off at the nearest post office. Ebay customers can make use of a very special service: they do not have to type in their shipping details manually but instead they are able to transfer the contact details onto the DHL application with just a few mouse clicks.
The security is 100% guaranteed on each one of the web pages. The one-off-print-encoding for the PDF files offers the guarantee that each parcel and package label will only be printed off once.
Not only the customer is delighted, Boris Mayer happily reports: „The frequent usage of the online franking solution has exceeded our expectations and thanks to the professional realization as well as the user-friendliness of the software, we are one step ahead of the competition.“
Click here to view the official promotion of the DHL online franking service as well as an advertising campaign designed by trainee producers:
