24 April 2012
Oman Post launched its ePost service during a press conference at Park Inn Hotel, Al Khuwayr on Tuesday. Developed in collaboration with Vantage Post Technologies of the Netherlands, ePost offers every Omani national, expatriate resident and companies in Oman, their own digital ID and virtual post box. According to Oman Post, the service is unique to the sultanate.
Oman Post launched its ePost service during a press conference at Park Inn Hotel, Al Khuwayr on Tuesday. Developed in collaboration with Vantage Post Technologies of the Netherlands, ePost offers every Omani national, expatriate resident and companies in Oman, their own digital ID and virtual post box. According to Oman Post, the service is unique to the sultanate.
Eng Saif bin Amir al Shaqsi, chairman of Oman Post believes this new initiative is going to revolutionise the postal service. "Oman post was established by a Royal Decree in 2005, and since then we have improved our services so that we exceed international standards," he said.
Unni Krishnan, director of technology at Vantage Post, stated that ePost will address the shortage of physical post boxes in Oman. "There are only 62,000 post boxes in the country, and people are forced to share these with friends, or get their mail through companies' postal address," he said. "For practical and privacy reasons, we're offering a platform for people to communicate digitally."
Advantages of ePost
- ePost is a free ID offered to anyone who registers for it at Oman Post. Using the ID, people will be able to send and receive digital mail.
- Users will be verified by Oman Post and the system will be operated in collaboration with Information Technology Authority.
- Subscribers will be able to track and trace their mail, knowing exactly when recipients open it.
- Documents can be verified through the Document Authentication feature.
- ePost aims to becomes a means of communication between individuals and government departments, so that applications and other processes are simplified.
- Virtual box feature will tackle the problem of lack of individual post boxes, it will allow individuals to receive notifications through their ePost ID. Mail can be held at the post office of their choice, redirected to a physical post box, or collected by a person whom they authorise.
- ePost will offer eStamps, which can be printed on home printers.
- ePost will have a registration and information desk set up at COMEX 2012 later this month. The registration process has begun and the ePost service from the portal ePost.oman will start by the end of June. Services such as Follow me, Virtual Document Authentication, Track & Trace and eStamp will be rolled out over the next year.
© Muscat Daily 2012
