The SA Post Office (SAPO) has entered into an agreement to form an alliance with CompuQuote, the Cape Town-based comparative insurance and financial quotation and e-commerce company, to provide financial services via a number of its electronic delivery channels.
David Hersch, CEO of CompuQuote, says it is intended that these services will start being installed as soon as December.
SAPO is in the process of rolling out a number of electronic offerings to extend its range of services at its traditional post offices around the country.
These include the Citizen`s Post Office (CPO) concept, a specially designed networked computer system providing telephones, faxing and photocopying, "Internet-Caf'e" computer facilities, Internet access and value-added financial services through CompuQuote.
Biometric systems developed by CCH are in place, which will uniquely identify and register a prospective user allowing the user to utilise a CPO anywhere in the country. The user is allocated an exclusive e-mail address for future use and a secure PIN access number, which will allow access to all these facilities.
In addition, SAPO is setting up a number of Public Information Terminals (PiTs) in conjunction with the Department of Communications to provide access to the Internet, personal e-mail services and government information, which includes immediate access to passport and ID forms and the like.
PiTs provide an e-commerce platform, says Hersch, and financial services will be provided on the PiTs by CompuQuote and SAPO, as with the CPOs.
SAPO has also developed a number of payment systems that take advantage of its unique infrastructure and distribution throughout the country. These services include "Pay-a-Bill" which allows the public to pay over a hundred different accounts at Post Office counters such as Telkom accounts, SABC licences, municipality accounts, mail order houses, financial institutions, loan repayment and credit cards retail accounts.
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