National postal operator Royal Mail has been beefing up its e-commerce software portfolio with the purchase of Intersoft Systems and Programming, a company that makes delivery management software for international parcel shipments.
Royal Mail said that this acquisition complements the recent purchases of data management and labelling provider NetDespatch as well as the delivery software developer Storefeeder. This underpins the postal operator’s objective to “provide customers with flexible, integrated, technologically advanced solutions that make shipping parcels easier”.
The Intersoft Intelligent Shipper system allows customers to “fully manage their delivery options through the entire delivery journey”. This will include order management and carrier selection, through to delivery performance, invoice checking and payment authorisation among other services.
Nick Landon, Managing Director of Royal Mail Parcels, said of the acquisition, “Technological capability is essential in today’s e-commerce driven marketplace and our acquisition of Intersoft will further cement our offering in this space. Intersoft will give our customers access to bespoke, international shipping solutions and as with NetDespatch and Storefeeder, is part of our strategy to grow our parcels business.”
Royal Mail said that Intersoft will be “operated at arms-length, as a standalone external facing subsidiary” so it can “continue to securely provide services to all of its existing customers”. With recent research suggesting that large, bureaucratic operators tend to clash with their smaller, more aggressive software developer acquisitions at a management level, this is a very good idea as letting the creative create is more important than driving home management ethos that do not always fit well with their smaller acquisitions.
Royal Mail’s portfolio of new acquisitions will enable it to make progress through the rapidly changing and evolving e-commerce delivery ecosystem and take the lead in a field that may challenge its dominance in the medium term.
