XN000022-1996-02-07 — Page 5

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To mark the event, a signing ceremony for the assignment was performed at the Conference Room of the General Post Office by Mr Footman, the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr K H Lau, and the managing director of the EDS Electronic, Mr Stephen K M Lau.

According to Mr Footman, the Track and Trace System was an advanced computer system with workstations at all the branch post offices and sorting centres.

Its main function is to enable the Post Office to tell customers almost instantly the whereabouts of certain categories of their mail, such as Speedpost, because the movements of such mail are logged into the computer at every transfer point until delivery to the recipient.

Through international electronic data interchange networks, data can be exchanged with overseas postal administrations, making it possible to track down mail at their overseas destinations.

The main purpose of the System is to reduce the response time in handling customer enquiries under the present manual system.

However, the Track and Trace System is also able to capture information that will serve internal accounting and management control purposes.

The total cost of the assignment is about $10.4 million and EDS Electronic will work closely with the Post Office and other relevant government departments during the assignment period to procure a cost-effective Track and Trace System to meet the Post Office's requirements.

The System will be implemented in phases, the first of which for tracking Speedpost is planned for completion in May 1997, and the remaining phases for tracking mail bags, parcels, registered, recorded delivery and insured mail are planned to be completed a year later.

The Track and Trace system will bring better service to customers of Post Office and at the same time result in significant savings in its operating cost, because of the elimination by the computerised system of a lot of manual writing and filing work.

It is expected that the cost of the project will be paid back six years after the Track and Trace System is fully commissioned.

End