Fujifilm to replace Salmat as digital post replaces printed mail

Fujifilm will take over Salmat's stake in Digital Post Australia, which is planning to "drive paperless adoption" when it launches in the last quarter of this year.

Digital Post Australia (DPA) is an electronic channel to receive, store and pay bank statements, phone bills and other essential mail. It was formed by 40% partners Salmat and Computershare along with 20% shareholder Zumbox, which developed the software platform underpinning the service.

Fujifilm will take over Salmat's 40% stake in the digital postal service as part of the $375 million buyout announced earlier this week.

DPA has appointed new chief executive Randy Dean, who was previously a US-based senior vice-president at Zumbox.

Dean said: "We are excited about having Fujifilm's global perspective and assistance in making Digital Post Australia a great success.

"Despite the change in ownership, we'll continue to work with the same BPO team that has been a key contributor to our success so far and similarly, our clients and partners are unaffected by this change."

Dean also told ProPrint that DPA was on track to launch in the fourth quarter of the calendar year.

DPA is currently in a beta phase, with the service being trialled by major mailers and a group of more than 500 consumers.

After it launches, users will have to "choose one of the other" when it comes to receiving documents in printed form via the post or digital versions via DPA, said Dean.

He explained that users of DPA would need "turn off" paper-based mail to continue to use the system or opt to remain only with printed mail for their statements and other essential communications.

"The goal would be to allow the consumer some period of time to experience the digital solution before they turn off paper, so it is likely they will be presented with the opportunity to go paperless and a notification that if they don't let us know in a period of time, like a billing cycle of two, this document will go paperless.

"Our goal is to drive paperless adoption. We would give the consumer what we would think is ample time to make that choice, but they will choose one or the other," said Dean.

Read ProPrint's analysis on the impact of digital post.