Australia Post on $700m systems revamp

Australia Post's outgoing managing director Graeme John has announced the national postal service's plan to invest $700 million over three years in new IT systems.

"In recent months, the board has approved almost $700 million worth of investments in the future of Australia Post. Now is the right time to hand over to a successor who can steer the corporation through the next phase of its evolution," John said today in a statement as he announced his retirement.

The postal giant had already flagged its Future Delivery Design five-year program, which will see it invest in new barcode sorters, optical character reader (OCR) scanners, and mail sorting software and hardware.

In recent years Australia Post has also made efforts to extend its business into digital mail delivery services, document imaging and business process outsourcing, and has also acquired electronic document service subsidiaries, such as Decipha and PrintSoft and its joint venture with Wellcom for the iPrint digital mail service.

Chief information officer Wayne Saunders has also been heading up Australia Post's SAP revamp, which saw it spend $111.7 million last year. A core element of this has been its parcel post tracking system, which was launched late last year. The revamp is ongoing.

It is not clear how much, if any, of the $700 million will be directed to the SAP system revamp.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today congratulated John for transforming the postal service into a fully fledged logistics company.

"Graeme has successfully led the transformation of Australia Post to become a major logistics player and one of the world's leading postal operators. I would like to congratulate Graeme for his great contribution to Australia Post and wish him the very best for the next phase of his professional life," Senator Conroy said.