New Book Describes Transformation of Global Postal Industry

NEW YORK; May 18, 2004 – Montgomery Research and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today released a groundbreaking book detailing the transformation of national postal organizations and the postal environment worldwide.

The book, Pushing the Envelope: Achieving High Performance in a Competitive Postal Environment, describes the innovative solutions that visionary postal executives are implementing to restructure and transform their organizations. The book was developed jointly by Montgomery Research and Accenture.

The publication of Pushing the Envelope comes at a critical time for global postal leaders, who are dealing with falling mail volumes, increased competition, rising customer expectations and emerging technologies. Such challenges leave postal leaders with a difficult paradox: How can the postal industry continue to provide affordable, universal service in the face of a continuing decline in traditional mail and revenue sources coupled with an increase in operating costs?

Pushing the Envelope tackles this and other questions by providing insights from some of the world’s leading postal practitioners. It includes high-level strategic views of the industry from a variety of perspectives and addresses the ways that regulators and consumers are changing the face of the global postal industry.

The book also features interviews with key industry leaders and practitioners on successful transformation and solution offerings from major postal suppliers and partners. These topics are addressed through white papers and case studies based on the experiences of national postal organizations from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“When we began holding conversations with postal executives around the world, we quickly realized that they all were describing similar challenges,” said Accenture partner Sylvain Bacon who leads the company’s global Postal practice. “Regardless of the nationality or the unique circumstances that their organizations might be experiencing, this book helps postal leaders arrive at strategies to outperform their competitors. There is truly something for everyone in this book.”

Pushing the Envelope highlights some of the successful initiatives undertaken by individual postal organizations in their journeys toward higher performance and greater efficiency and includes perspectives from leading postal authorities about how they achieved them.

One such example is that of the United States Postal Service (USPS), which implemented a transformation plan that enabled it to increase revenue, improve operational efficiency, promote a performance-based culture and streamline existing functions. The book describes how the USPS is able to use the “power of mail” to attract and keep customers, how it is using technology to stay ahead of its competition, and how it managed to develop strategic partnerships with other mass mailers and private companies that capitalize of the strengths of all parties involved. The story of the USPS is told through the eyes of some of its most experienced executives, including its chief operating officer, chief technology officer and vice president of strategic marketing.

The book also provides insight into the transformation from government bureaucracies to privatized entities that a number of postal organizations have undergone, featuring commentaries from the experts responsible for the transition.

For instance, Australia Post — once an organization with indifferent service, marginal financial results and a limited range of products — today is achieving high performance, greater financial results and higher efficiencies because of major operational changes. Germany’s Deutsche Post, one of the world’s most aggressive postal companies, underwent a similar transition, and Pushing the Envelope takes a look at how it has used its merger and acquisition strategy to transform itself into a major global postal powerhouse.

“From building a high-performance workforce to optimizing the postal supply chain to simply understanding what innovative products or services one’s competitors have launched, this book provides a broad perspective that is sure to entice and interest any executive in the postal industry,” said Michael Coughlin, Accenture associate partner. “Our goal with this book was to provoke thought and provide global postal leaders with a blueprint toward higher performance and greater efficiency. Pushing the Envelope accomplishes both beyond our greatest expectations.”

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills, and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With approximately 90,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$11.8 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2003. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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