DMA Supports Universal Postal Union's DotPOST and Digital/Electronic Post Marking Initiatives

November 15, 2006 — Addressing delegates at the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) 2006 Strategy Conference where representatives of the worldwide postal sector converged Dubai (United Arab Emirates) this week, Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, DMA executive vice president and chief operating officer, emphasized that direct mail and the posts continue to be increasingly important elements of multichannel direct marketing in the digital world. In his address, Ratan stated DMA’s support for a DotPOST domain of the Internet and digital post mark (DPM) initiatives.

"Global networks of Posts already represent secure and reliable channels for communications, financial transactions, and shipment of goods in the physical world," said Ratan. “These initiatives are a way for the Posts to leverage that trust and take a leading role in the online world.”

UPU Electronic Products and Services Group, led by Canada Post, has begun to build the framework for the implementation of the DotPOST domain with a focus on value-added benefits and services to commercial and individual customers, explained Ratan.

The UPU, a United Nations specialized agency based in Berne (Switzerland), is the primary forum for cooperation between Posts from nations around the globe. In addition to maintaining a genuinely universal network that provides modern postal products and mail- and parcel-delivery services, the UPU establishes the rules for international mail exchanges among its 191 members and makes recommendations to stimulate mail volume growth and to improve the quality of service for customers.

At the technical level, the UPU is working on standards for digital or electronic post marking, also termed S43. This work is illustrative of DMA’s own requirement that all of its member companies use some e-mail authentication method while remaining neutral about the specific technology.

More than 1.1 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion people are using the Internet, and the number is growing faster in developing countries. Today’s consumers and business are concerned with phishing, pharming, spyware and other threats.

DMA believes UPU’s DotPOST, which proposes the creation of a new domain of the Internet is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to develop a new strategic infrastructure that could provide wide ranging benefits to Posts and public/private sector business worldwide, and most importantly, the citizens of the economies in which they operate.

“The Posts have a unique opportunity to combine the trust people have in your brand and the need they have for an e-channel they can trust,” added Dr. Ratan. “DotPOST and DPM initiatives bring these two together and are important to the Posts and to the many constituencies they serve everywhere.”

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