FRANCOTYP-POSTALIA INVITES ENTRIES FOR 2014 FP DE-MAIL INNOVATION AWARD

• Companies, institutions and individuals can take part
  
• The closing date for applications is 31 January 2014
  
• The awards ceremony will be held at CeBIT 2014
  

Birkenwerder, 19 November 2013. The Francotyp-Postalia Group, an expert in physical and fully electronic mail communication, has fired the starting pistol for the 2014 De-Mail Award for Innovation. The prize intends to honour innovative communication concepts based on De-Mail, the legally binding form of digital communication in the 21st century. At the same time, FP wants to encourage a critical debate about De-Mail and the opportunities for written communication.

Companies, institutions and individuals (students from specialist disciplines such as communication science or IT, for example) can take part in the competition. An independent jury will decide who will win the FP Award in a two-stage process. The jury is made up of four experts from politics, research, the press and advisory services: Under-Secretary Achim Hildebrandt from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Prof. Christoph Meinel from the Hasso Plattner Institute, Christian Schlesiger from the weekly business magazine, WirtschaftsWoche, and Dr Ulrich Stumpf from the Scientific Institute for Infrastructure and Communication Services (WIK). The terms and conditions of participation and application documents are now available at www.fp-award.de. The closing date for applications is 31 January 2014.

The 2014 De-Mail Award for Innovation will be awarded at CeBIT, which will take place from 10 to 14 March 2014. As part of this year's CeBIT in Hanover, the Francotyp-Postalia Group awarded the one-off De-Mail Pioneer Award to Citkomm, the municipal IT service provider from Iserlohn. Mainly active in North Rhine-Westphalia for municipalities and non-profit organisations, Citkomm was quick to identify the opportunities that De-Mail provides for simple and legally binding communication between citizens and authorities.

Hans Szymanski, CEO & CFO of Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG, explains: "De-Mail is an innovative communication channel with a great deal of potential. In awarding the prize, we want to honour the pioneers who recognise the benefits that De-Mail delivers and who highlight opportunities for collectively optimising written communication processes within companies or public authorities."

The FP Group itself is setting a standard for mail communication of the future with its De-Mail solutions. As a multi-channel supplier, FP is able to develop the ideal combination of different communication channels for written communication together with its customers. FP's CEO, Mr Szymanski, says: "The more companies and authorities reorganise their processes and use De-Mail, the more customers and consumers will understand and learn to appreciate the benefits of the new electronic communication channel. It was the same situation when online banking was launched – pioneers who inspire other subscribers and users are needed. We want to honour these pioneers."