Electronic Bill Payment Week 5

EBPP  EBPP is essentially paperless billing and settlement.  Bills are presented as electronic transactions that can be viewed, tracked, and settled electronically through a web browser.  The system saves billers money by eliminating costly overnight print runs, saves customers time by letting them view and pay accounts online, and creates additional online marketing opportunities.

EBPP  EBPP is equally attractive for individual consumers and businesses, billers and recipients.  The greatest savings from using EBPP rather than traditional paper billing are certain to be gained primarily by businesses that generate massive recurring billings such as utility, telecommunications, and credit card companies.

How it Works

Why use EBPP?  The advantages of EBPP are so compelling that experts are anticipating an explosive surge in its use.  At present, paper checks are typically used to pay paper invoices that are delivered by mail.  EBPP could save billers as much as $1.00 per bill.  EBPP makes it possible to exploit a whole new communications channel between a biller and a customer.  Online billing is fundamentally changing how billers interact with customers, transforming the bill from a simple payment vehicle into a powerful platform on which to build relationships with customers.

Why use EBPP?  It accelerates the resolution process.  Billers can see at any given time where customers stand in the payment process and can remind them about discounts they might be eligible for if they pay their bills on time.  By making such vendor responsiveness possible, EBPP can facilitate an enhanced level of customer service.  EBPP also provides new opportunities for promotions, advertising, cross-selling, and up-selling.

EBPP Obstacles  The continued growth of EBPP depends on overcoming the usual e-business obstacles, however.  These include:  the availability of Internet access devices  communication bandwidth  the maturing of emerging transaction-processing standards, such as Open Financial Exchange.  Getting consumers to change their behavior. (This will only happen if they can see that Internet billing offers them significant benefits over paper-based bill processing.)

E-Billing Models EBPP takes at least three basic forms:  single biller access,  consolidated billing access from a remote site,  and consolidated billing access from a local desktop.

Single Biller Model  The issuer is fully responsible for setting up and maintaining the EBPP technology and has full control of the publishing and payment of e-bills by its customers.  Although, top-tier and midtier enterprise resource planning (ERP) suites do not as yet offer integrated EBPP functionality, many ERP suites have been offering electronic data interchange-based electronic billing for some time.  Moreover, some midtier and small-business accounting suites, such as ACCPAC Simply Accounting, allow issuers to send invoices via rather than normal mail.

Consolidated Billing - Remote  Consolidated billing access from a remote site, requires fewer visits to payment web sites than the single biller access model and is thus likely to be more popular with customers.  The disadvantage of the consolidated billing method is that it requires the biller to pay a service fee to a consolidator, however.  There are already a growing number of e-billing consolidation providers, and competition is increasing, so prices are likely to drop.  These e-bill consolidators include traditional outsource bill printers and new Web-based e-billing services.

Consolidated Billing - Desktop  Consolidated billing access from a local desktop, is likely to be the most popular with consumers because it is a "push" model that requires little effort on their part.  One of its disadvantages, however, is that it requires the development and implementation of sophisticated technology to automate push billing at what could be millions of customer desktops.  This form of e-billing will probably be best delivered through popular consumer-oriented desktop finance packages.

Learning Tips  We learn better by pictures than text  We need to relate what we don’t know to what we know  We better remember  Unusual events  Humorous events  Interesting events  We learn better by doing  We learn by repetition  We can learn better with background music