Swiss Post’s smartphone applications are very popular with customers. The applications from Swiss Post and PostFinance have been downloaded more than 150,000 times altogether in the space of just a few weeks. These «apps» are an example of Swiss Post’s pioneering role in bringing together physical and electronic postal services. Swiss Post’s knowledge in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) is internationally recognized. Yesterday (Thursday) in Berlin, CEO Jürg Bucher presented Swiss Post’s skills in this area to political and economic decision makers.

For the past several weeks, two smartphone applications from Swiss Post have been available as a free download: the Swiss Post app and the PostFinance app. The Swiss Post app helps you search for the nearest post office or track your mail, and provides information about the most important prices for sending letters and parcels. It has already been downloaded more than 100,000 times. The PostFinance app has been downloaded over 50,000 times. It is the only Swiss smartphone application so far which enables users to transfer amounts up to CHF 100 from one postal account to another. It also provides a search function to find the nearest Postomats, PostFinance branches and post offices and enables users to call up stock market information, account balances and account transactions, and to top up talktime credit for prepaid mobile phones. Our customers call up 430,000 balances and account transactions each month and carry out 15,000 financial transactions.

An interface between the physical and electronic world

Swiss Post is predestined to launch innovative solutions and offers at the interface between the physical and electronic worlds. Another example of this is the Swiss Post Box which enables customers to call up their physical mail from anywhere in the world using a computer or smartphone. Swiss Post also has the SuisseID, a security solution with which customers can identify themselves on the Internet. Thereby, Swiss Post is creating the foundations for digital business processes such as electronic signatures on legal contracts. In the area of digital document management for large concerns, Swiss Post is also among the leading companies – thanks to its many years of knowledge in digitization and experience in handling confidential documents. It also provides solutions to simplify communication with the authorities (e-government) and helps to improve efficiency in healthcare with the health card (e-health).

CEO of Swiss Post in Berlin

The innovative power of Swiss Post is also a topic at the seminar for members of the Swiss parliament and members of the German parliament in Berlin under the patronage of ICT Switzerland. Numerous political and economic decision-makers are taking part in this event. Swiss Post is represented by CEO Jürg Bucher. His statements of yesterday focused on the challenges faced by Swiss Post due to technological developments and as a consequence of changing customer behaviour. Bruno Frick, a member of the Council of States who also attended the seminar, welcomed Swiss Post’s participation in the event, as the company plays a pioneering role around the world in combining physical mail with information and communication technology.

PostFinance is a member of the Mobey Forum

PostFinance is also continuing to drive forward the development of innovative solutions in mobile payment transactions. The financial arm of Swiss Post has been a fully-fledged member of the Mobey Forum since June 2010, and intends to play an active part in shaping standards in the areas of «mobile banking» and «mobile payment».