(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Irfan Bukhari / The Peninsula
DOHA: The Smart Innovation Lab of the Ministry of Transport and Communications in collaboration with Qatar Post has successfully completed a pilot project on drone delivery system.
'The pilot project was a success and now we are exploring potential routes and assessing the market demand, aid Maud Daniel, Head of Marketing and Communications of Qatar Post while talking to The Peninsula.
She said that drone delivery was at the heart of the current innovation debate within the postal sector globally. 'While it gives a strong competitive edge to postal organisations, the option of drone delivery is still in a testing phase with major reliability, safety and regulatory issues currently being examined. At this stage, the debate is still ongoing between key industry stakeholders, regulatory authorities and civil society, she added.
Maud is heading the Marketing and Communications division of Qatar Post. Her mission is to shift perception in order to make Qatar Post a trusted brand in Qatar, to provide a successful legacy for the future Qatari leaders of Qatar Post while ensuring the profitability of the company.
Daniel said that Qatar Post had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Transport and Communications aimed at developing an autonomous drone delivery service 'changing the way we deliver parcels and goods in Qatar.
Maud Daniel
She said that 'CONNECTED, Q-Post's e-commerce service, was one of company's strongest and most appreciated products. 'Despite the current diplomatic crisis, our international shipping service continues to operate and deliver with no interruption, showcasing the reliability of this star product.
To a question about Qatar Post's revamp, she said that Qatar Post was currently going through a major structural change across all business departments, aimed at providing 21st century postal services to each citizen's and each business' door step.
'To this end, our teams are working on multiple fronts. As people are at the forefront of postal services, our HR team is upgrading and strengthening our human resource policy and process with new programmes, staff trainings and knowledge sharing sessions with a clear focus on talent identification, retention and growth.
In parallel, Maud said that Qatar Post had also launched a Qatarization process aimed at building a strong Qatari workforce driving the Nation's postal sector.
'Qatar Post is partnering with the best organisations in the sector on a global scale in order to exchange best practices. Since SingPost (Singapore Post) and Turkish Post are leaders in the postal sector, they are natural players to team up with and learn from.
She said that Qatar Post had recently sealed partnerships with them in order to strengthen Q-Post's e-commerce platform and products offering, a key priority for Qatar Post to remain competitive and respond to emerging needs from our customers.
'We signed our partnership with Singapore over a year and a half ago to build our CONNECTED platform, which is now working at full speed with a growing customer base. Our partnership with Turkish Post started in March this year in the area of e-commerce. Qatar Post and Turkish Post have agreed on developing a roadmap, designing a product sales plan from Turkey to Qatar and vice-versa and benefiting their customers based in both countries.
When asked about the challenges being faced by Q-Post, she said: 'Like many postal organisations worldwide, Qatar Post is currently facing two major challenges: the digital transformation and a growing competition from international players.
At Qatar Post, she said: 'We consider that embracing the digital age is both a challenge and a major business opportunity: fast-moving customer's needs, new demands from the millennial segment, high expectations and a mixed purchasing power in Qatar combined with a fierce competition pushed our organization to face the digital challenge head on in a clear move towards a smart post office.
In parallel, Qatar Post had to drastically upgrade its products offering in order to remain competitive on the market and to appeal to new customers, both retail and corporate.
'We are also operating in a complex market composed of highly diversified customer profiles with different needs, different purchasing powers and a high turnover from the expat community. While we believe that competition is healthy to maintain a level playing field, we feel that Qatar Post, as the historical postal operator in Qatar, holds a special responsibility to provide the best postal services to its people.
On Q-Post's home-delivery services, Daniel said that it was launched two months ago. 'Home Delivery provides our customers with a personal P.O Box. This new service, covering both letters and parcels, is available to all personal post box subscribers, with choice of delivery from one to six days a week. Home Delivery is a very successful product with an increasing demand and our current customers number amount to a total of 200 to date and this number is growing at a fast pace, giving us confidence in the future of this new product.
In fact, she said Q-Post's CONNECTED Lifetime Membership was growing nicely, a sign of encouragement to continue investing in shipping services overseas for the benefit of our customers.
Maud has 13 years of experience working for global and local brands across 4 countries, with broad experience in marketing, brand and communication, operations, sales, business development, strategic planning. Prior to working for Qatar Post, Maud has worked for Orange, France Telecom, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Qatar.
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