Amid government and management requirements for modernisation and restructuring, unbelievably, UK Postal workers have again voted to go on strike and the first national postal strike for two years will start today.
This is bad for business.
Surely we can all see the need for postal modernisation, in a market where more and more business and consumer communications are moving to electronic means.
In the UK, there is still a heavy reliance on paper invoicing; companies are still transitioning to e-Invoicing.
Surely a postal strike now would be disastrous for those companies (particularly SME’s) who still rely on paper invoices and the postal service.
Invoices will be held up in the post, delivered late or even lost. If invoices don’t arrive on time, they won’t be paid on time, this will inevitably result in further cash flow issues at the time that they need if least, a recession with tight money flow and budgets. Companies will need to spend more time, money and effort on credit control and perhaps using couriers to deliver invoices.
Surely this is the right time to consider e-Invoicing:
e- Invoices are
- not reliant on an ‘unreliable’ postal service
- are delivered in a matter of minutes, not days
- don’t get lost in the post
- guaranteed to be delivered
The postal strikes must inevitably accelerate the move to electronic document delivery services. Perhaps the most urgent need is for electronic invoices, the document that fuels cash flow.
There is an undeniable need for an effective postal service, but the management and workers at the Royal Mail must move on and re-invent themselves to provide a service recognises the age that we live in. Businesses will suffer and lose confidence – that is not good for any of us.
Click here to read how you can use e-Invoicing to avoid the disruption caused by the postal strike.
In particular, if you want to make sure that your invoices are delivered quickly and enable immediate electronic payment – click here to read about OB10 e-Billing and Payment services.
Resources and related articles
BBC – bbc.co.uk
Royal Mail – royalmail.com
Financial Times - FT.com
RealBusiness – realbusiness.co.uk
Filed under: News
