E-Business: Parcelforce - Essay Example

Center of discussion in this paper is Parcelforce Worldwide, the trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd, a UK based courier and logistics service firm. Since 1990 Parcelforce has been playing a pivotal role in the postal industry by delivering thousands of parcels a day to homes and businesses across the United Kingdom and other parts of the globe. The company’s efficiency in quick worldwide delivery can be attributed to its well functioning international partner network. Currently, the company delivers over one million parcels a day across 34 European countries.

Since the Parcelforce deals with such a large volume of business a day, the company has to practice more E-Business tactics to improve its global market operations. The Parcelforce’s operations are centered on a ‘hub and spoke’ collection and distribution system, under which two hubs are operated at Coventry. One of these two hubs is functioning for the UK parcels whereas the other deals with international parcels. The UK hub deploys a well developed automated tracking and sorting technology that can manage up to 40,000 parcels an hour.

Currently, the company handles its collection and distribution system by means of a network of 53 local depots. As per the company overview, the Parcelforce’s business framework is centered on mail and website orders and hence it has no other sources of revenue. As a result, the company is forced to depend on a distribution partner. Hence, the market repute of the Parcelforce Worldwide is highly linked to the distribution partner’s standards of delivery and customer service. . These all challenges indicate the need of a well developed E-Business application in Parcelforce’s operations.

E-Business for Parcelforce Worldwide Postal service providers cannot effectively meet the increasing needs of an ‘electronic world’ unless they adapt to the technological developments. In case of postal industry, it is evident that effective way of information sharing is necessary to extend its services to different parts of the globe. E-Business applications can be effectively employed to integrate the operations of the Parcelforce Worldwide’s global divisions. Through this policy, every division of the company across the globe can get timely access to business information just with a mouse click.

As discussed earlier, a single hub that operates in the UK is responsible for the managing whole international parcels. Hence, integration of information is necessary to ensure timely, safe, and uninterrupted delivery of parcels. E-Business models involve data sharing and information processing tools, which can greatly assist the Parcelforce also to meet safety standards while delivering parcels. Digital mail and other customized digital developments offer potential opportunities for the company, because younger generation is highly interested in digital communications.

It is recommendable for the company to develop mobile phone applications for service delivery as this strategy may add value to safety measures. For instance, recently, the German postal player has launched “digital stamp ‘handyporto’ to replace traditional stamps” (Accenture). This change is recommendable for the Parcelforce also as this policy would assist