Postecom
Developed by
Products used
Find more items that match:
Browse by Product:
From paper to digital
With a net income of €675.6 million in 2006—a 93.6% growth compared to 2005—Poste Italiane is an innovative operator, able to offer integrated communications, logistic, and financial products and service throughout Italy.
Recently, the company improved business efficiency by making use of digital technology to redesign its billing process and improve customer services. The company's Administrative Department was committed to enhancing its processes without increasing the number of employees. The main objectives were business process optimization, followed by greatly reducing reliance on paper documents.
Central to Poste Italiane's efforts is the use of Adobe LiveCycle solutions and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) to revamp its entire billing process from creation to delivery. At the end of the process, documents are archived and maintained in accordance with CNIPA (Centro Nazionale per l'Informatica nella Pubblica Administrazione), the Italian agency that supervises the use of computer technology in Public Administration directives.
Benefits
- Improved a variety of customer services
- Reduced operating costs
- Minimized reliance on paper
- Streamlined administration
- Complied with government regulations for document authentication and digital signatures
Project Details
Meeting multiple requirements
Poste Italiane entrusted its Postecom division that handles information and communication technology (ICT) services to pursue this ambitious goal. The solution implemented by Postecom in collaboration with its own chief information office also relied on Postel's services for all printing and packaging needs, and on Poste Italiane's services for the delivery of paper-based documents.
Roberto Palumbo, manager of Postecom's Business Unit Certified Mail and eServices, says, "In designing the new billing system there were a number of requirements that we needed to address. First, Poste Italiane wanted to eliminate paper from the billing cycle. Next, even though we wanted to adopt electronic billing within the company, customers needed to retain their ability to choose the type of delivery. From an information technology (IT) perspective we needed a single repository of all electronic bills sent. Finally, the use of digital signatures in accordance with current regulations was mandatory. Given all the above requirements, Adobe was a natural choice."
There were three reasons that made Adobe an ideal fit for Poste Italiane's needs. First, Adobe PDF is excellent for viewing electronic bills because it makes it easy for end users to read documents without having to download special software or having to make any modification to their PC configuration. Second, Adobe Reader is a widespread tool because it is free and readily available on any computer and operating system. Third, Adobe PDF is legally recognized as a valid format for digital signatures in Italy, as specified in an agreement between CNIPA (the National Centre of IT in the Public Administration) and Adobe.
Online convenience
Customers of Poste Italiane can now read their bills online and validate the associated timestamp through a feature in Adobe Reader. The new system uses Adobe LiveCycle Forms to automatically fill in the bills using data from SAP. It generates a bill in Adobe PDF and immediately adds to it a digital signature and timestamp. The bill can then follow two paths: it can either be delivered electronically through Postemail AR's service, or it can be delivered by Poste Italiane in traditional paper format. At the end of the process, all sent bills are archived and maintained according to CNIPA's regulations.
It is anticipated that the first batch of activities will issue about 300,000 electronic bills. "It must be noted that each business bill is a special case-in fact, it can have several attachments and therefore it can be made up of two or three pages," explains Palumbo. "Consequently, we estimate the production of about 1.5 million digital pages."
The system addresses the billing of all of Poste Italiane's services, including Postecom and Postel. The company decided to use a single repository in Postecom for all types of documents generated.
What about traditional billing? Palumbo clarifies, "It has been enhanced. After all, this choice is consistent with Poste Italiane's system overhaul which gives customers value-added services and allows the company to store its bills in an electronic format. In addition, the legal validity of digital signatures, workflow automation, and cost reduction in the billing process give strategic importance to this project."
Do you have a story you would like to share? Join the Adobe Customer Reference Program.
