Association for Postal Commerce
"Representing those who use or support the use of mail for Business Communication and Commerce"
"You will be able to enjoy only those postal rights you believe are worth defending."

Challenging Times—Positioning USPS For Continued Relevance

The following is a postal perspective by Adam Grossman of Epostmarks, a PostCom member, for the PostCom Bulletin.

Reduced mail volume and skyrocketing fuel prices have many people asking how Postmaster General John Potter will deal with challenging times?

So far it looks like Potter is making well considered moves. He brought in an executive focused on revenue generating activities who has a proven record of building businesses and delivering revenue while driving down costs. He is taking advantage of recent changes in federal law to move into the competitive environment. These are excellent ideas to improve the bottom line.

The Electronic Postmark (EPM) is an idea the USPS should take seriously.

The EPM platform is an ideal source of significant low-cost revenue that the USPS isn’t taking full advantage of today. The Postmaster General has already identified that “When the economy does rebound, mail volume may not return to previous levels”.  Leveraging electronic services not tied to mail volume and grandfathered by the 2006 PAEA law mitigates this risk.

Scott Charney, Corporate Vice President Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft Corp., asks “As we become increasingly dependent on the Internet for all our daily activities, can we maintain a globally connected, anonymous, untraceable Internet and be dependent on devices that run arbitrary code of unknown provenance? If the answer to that is “no,” then we need to create a more authenticated and audited Internet environment—one in which people have the information they need to make good trust choices.” The USPS is uniquely qualified to establish criteria for participating in a trusted communications environment. The EPM technology platform is an elegant way to leverage the brand trust and legal applicability of the USPS to protect this environment.

The USPS can fulfill the growing demand for online trust spanning industry and government by partnering to build applications that leverage the EPM platform. The USPS has staged an ecosystem of public and private sector partners to leverage the EPM platform for trusted email, document signing, medical records management, plus numerous others that capture new revenue streams with very little additional investment and minimal cost. Key to note is that these applications are what drive volume—and ultimately revenue—for the EPM platform.
 

Case Study Background

Our nation currently faces significant challenges with email issues that the USPS has successfully dealt with before in hard copy. Vigorous enforcement associated with the security of mail service maintained the public trust even in adverse times. Email needs the trust and assurance that the USPS is uniquely qualified to provide through a public-private partnership.

Phishing and spam have wreaked havoc on email communications, and their presence continues to proliferate due to the ineffectiveness of countermeasures in addressing the sheer volume, sophistication, transnationality, and velocity of duplicitous email activity. The unprecedented growth of fraudulent and unsolicited emails has largely caused a regression in use of email for high value communications and transactions. The capabilities of communications technology have outpaced the capabilities of society to establish and implement appropriate usage standards for reliability, safety, and trust. This leaves U.S. citizens and business vulnerable to situations with dire consequences and no accountability. The USPS can improve convenience of and confidence in the email ecosystem. EPM technology enables the USPS to apply its unique mix of brand power, enforcement, and address verification to help establish sorely needed End to End Trust in electronic transactions.

Leveraging a Model that Works

For over 200 years, the USPS has played a critical role in binding our nation together by providing a trusted universal communication infrastructure and continually advancing message delivery technology. The USPS has evolved with America. The history of the Postal Service is a journey into the history of transportation, economics, industrialization, communications, and government. (USPS)

The USPS provides a natural model of trust and economics for email that is analogous to the model already established for physical mail. The idea that a citizen can opt to purchase and apply a stamp to written correspondence in return for trusted delivery is intuitive to all Americans.

Benefits

More people use the Internet for email than for any other reason, making it the most popular application to emerge from the Internet revolution. Fraud has grown out of control and criminal activity remains undeterred due to lack of accountability on the Internet, which is globally connected, anonymous, untraceable, and rich with targets. The problem today is that those who want greater safety have few effective ways to achieve it. (Charney, 2008)  Email is losing the battle and U.S. businesses and citizens are paying their share of the $60 billion global price tag.

The EPM positions the USPS as a relevant part of an End to End Trust solution that establishes a foundation for the digital communications architecture of the future. There is strong support for the USPS to fill this role; for example, the Delaware legislature unanimously voted to amend its Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) in June. They have joined the ranks of South Carolina, Nebraska, and Maryland to provide that EPM® protected messages may have legal equivalence to First Class, Certified, or Registered Mail under many circumstances. Additionally, the Universal Postal Union, supported by twenty member nations’ postal operators, has seen growing interest in and development/implementation of EPM technology. Microsoft has also endorsed the program by piloting a Microsoft Office 2007 plug-in, developed with Poste Italiane, in 15 international Posts.

Opportunity

The time is now ripe for the USPS to “set the bar” and address the substantial need for trust in Internet communications.  Beyond keeping USPS competitive on a global scale, this significant role will diversify the Postal Service’s revenue stream and maintain the Postal Service’s relevance in future online initiatives. By establishing a licensing model (Foti, 2008), USPS has made way for an ecosystem of application developers to efficiently meet market demands for trust products with minimal investment of money, time, and other resources.

The USPS is uniquely positioned to enhance trust on the Internet through the EPM program.  Market conditions are optimal with huge fraud problems, broad industry adoption of supportive and complementary technologies, and continued legislative support. By leveraging existing assets and competencies, U.S. citizens, businesses, government, and the USPS itself will reap huge benefits.