SAP chooses Deutsche Post's "E-Postbrief"

SAP and Deutsche Post intend to cooperate in the Internet mail service area in the future. The two companies have signed a corresponding declaration of intent. The "E-Postbrief", or electronic letter, which has been developed by Deutsche Post, combines the benefits of the binding character, confidentiality and reliability of a paper letter with the speed of an e-mail.

This increases the efficiency of document processes and enables significant cost savings through reduced logistics costs. Deutsche Post and SAP are planning to provide interfaces between the IT infrastructure of the "E-Postbrief" and selected SAP applications. With it, companies and authorities will in future be able to seamlessly integrate the "E-Postbrief" into their business processes.

Despite companies and administrative departments using the latest hardware and software, media breaks still continually block the electronic workflow. The new "E-Postbrief" from Deutsche Post can solve this dilemma. The "E-Postbrief" is intended to be just as binding in character, confidential and reliable as a traditional letter.

It can therefore be sent easily and conveniently using the computer. Senders and recipients will therefore be absolutely certain about the persons with whom they are communicating and can be sure, thanks to the latest encryption technologies, that their correspondence is not seen by and cannot be modified by unauthorized third parties. Just like in the physical world, Deutsche Post will offer the entire transmission and reliable delivery of messages from a single source.

To use the "E-Postbrief" you must identify yourself for registration in the portal one-time via Postident. Anonymous e-mails are thus no longer possible. Even customers who are not yet linked to the Deutsche Post electronic portal can receive a hybrid version of the "E-Postbrief": Deutsche Post then prints out the electronic letter, and a mail carrier will deliver it in the traditional manner.

"With the "E-Postbrief" we are bringing the traditional paper letter into the digital age but still preserving the tried and tested value proposition of a binding character, confidentiality and reliability," explains Jürgen Gerdes, Corporate Board Member for the MAIL Division at Deutsche Post DHL. "Companies and administrative departments will be able to save billions of euros in total since media breaks in mail logistics have up until now meant very cost-intensive processes at companies and administrative departments. With the "E-Postbrief", printing, franking, sorting and opening mail can largely be eliminated in the future."

Focus on public administration

The intended collaboration between SAP and Deutsche Post in the area of Internet mail services requires that in the first stage the "E-Postbrief" is connected to the HR management software SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM). With this, companies can send their employees payslips - securely electronically or as a hybrid "E-Postbrief". It could also be used for providing certificates of wage tax deduction and other documents.

Another focus of the cooperation is in the area of public administration. The "E-Postbrief" is intended to simplify the end-to-end electronic communication of administrative departments with citizens and companies. For this, application scenarios such as proof of identity when accessing the portals of municipal administrative departments are to be developed and the legally binding sending and receiving of official information such as notifications of charges and business registrations is to be made possible.

In addition, payment functionalities as well as the secure payment of charges using an Internet mail service can be supported. It should therefore be easier and more cost efficient to process requests since the costs of the manual processing of letter mail for both citizens and administrative departments will largely be eliminated.

The exchange between Deutsche Post and SAP and the close collaboration with joint customers such as local authorities as part of initial pilot projects should ensure that further application scenarios are determined in a practical manner and can be incorporated in the development phase. Accompanying feasibility studies should help to determine further integration scenarios for the "E-Postbrief" based on economic and technological requirements

"As the market leader in corporate software, SAP sees the launch of the "E-Postbrief" as an important step towards making end-to-end business processes available to companies and authorities by providing a legally binding electronic correspondence", explains Dr. Kerstin Geiger, Head of Industry Solutions at SAP AG. "In the first use case, SAP is planning to support this project through an interface which enables any company using SAP for its payroll to generate proofs of remuneration from SAP and to send them directly via the "E-Postbrief". Thus a high volume of mail currently printed and transported in the traditional manner will be migrated to the digital world."