Hiya TLindt,
You said: <<I see a lot of partnering going on out there right now.. Madjor Companies are setting up distribution thru the "Search Companies", Yahoo, Excite, Lycos...ect... And it's more than advertising. It's all kinds of services, that are being added to these Search Companies Sites. These partnering Companies are comming to the Net thru the high traffic areas of these Search Sites to insure their success.
Why not hook up with one, if not all of these Search Companies to provide the E-Bill Service? >>
This is a very logical suggestion. Probably tempting to CKFR in some ways, particularly in the short run....however....
CKFR has already staked out their position and who their strategic partners will be. CKFR is the banker's "trusted agent" providing the back end processing for billpay AND E-bill. The banks, credit unions, and brokers are the front end service providers, each selling the home banking, billpay and e-bill services under their own brand names, and maintaining the direct contact with their existing banking clients. These front end guys want the E-bill button on THEIR web page and home banking access points.
You added in your post that MSFDC may want to deliver E-bill as a stand alone web site service. It is possible they will, but somewhat doubtful. FDC does not want to alienate their existing banker clients over this still small market in E-bill services. More likely we will see MSFDC take the same approach CKFR has taken: Back end infrastructure provider.
I look for more deals where CKFR lines up an institutional billing service as a partner in offering E-bill. CKFR can work out the protocols and details with a biller, then they and the biller can sign on multiple existing clients of that biller with the bugs already worked out. Everybody makes a few points, and the only loser is the US Postal Service.
Ain't technology wonderful?
Good luck all,
Brian |
