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Post finds new way to stay in touch
Instead of giving in to faster communication tools like email and mobile phone features, state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia hopes to cooperate with telecommunication companies in order to diversify services and keep business alive
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nstead of giving in to faster communication tools like email and mobile phone features, state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia hopes to cooperate with telecommunication companies in order to diversify services and keep business alive.
Denpasar Post Office head Akhmad Taufik on Monday said partner telecommunication companies would provide payment services and send bill notifications to the companies' post-paid subscribers thanks to the wide distribution network of the country's postal system.
"If there is no cooperation, we may close (our office)," he said.
Akhmad added that the flow of greeting cards among individuals and companies ahead of Christmas and New Year's was very slow at his office.
The peak seasons at the post office used to fall during Idul Fitri, the biggest Muslim festivity, and Christmas and New Year's celebrations.
With the cooperation, he said, almost every week would be peak season.
To date, the Denpasar Post Office also provides overseas money transfer services via Western Union and Prisma (prism), which gives customers the opportunity to have their own picture collections pasted on half of the stamp.
The prism stamp collection, which issues legal stamps, was first introduced by Australia as a "personalized stamp" in March 1999 during an International Stamp Exhibition.
Indonesia was the second country to adapt the innovation, followed by 11 other countries including Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Belgium, New Zealand and Japan.
I Nyoman Sukadana, who manages prism stamp services at the Denpasar Post Office, said the demand to create a stamp collection was still small in the city.
"We only receive orders for 10 to 15 big stamp collections. It's probably because of the number of declined mail," he said, adding that some school students still liked to come to make the prism stamp collection.
A big stamp collection can consist of 10, 12 or 20 stamps with a denomination of Rp 900 to Rp 1,500 each and worth from Rp 20,000 to Rp 45,000 (US$3.75).
Sukadana said companies and government institution as well as political parties could make use of the product service for promotional materials.
PT Pos Indonesia also offers an SMS-Post product, which is created in cooperation with major cellular operator companies, to send cards without necessarily going to the post office.
They just need to send a message containing the full address of the recipients to the access numbers provided by the operators.
The message will then be forwarded to the destination post office, which will then send cards with certain designs chosen by the customer to the recipient's addresses.
The service is helpful to send greeting cards to people who do not have mobile phones, but many people apparently misinterpreted the service as they sent season's greetings to the post office instead of the recipients' addresses.
