New Zealand and Checkfree announce progress..Just another 80 million Potential Bills
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday July 13, 6:31 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: CheckFree Corporation
CheckFree and New Zealand Post Launch Electronic Billing and Payment Solution
ATLANTA, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR - news), in partnership with New Zealand Post, has launched a program that will enable New Zealanders to receive, view and pay their bills electronically through the Internet. This program is the first electronic billing and payment offering CheckFree has provided outside the United States. The system will be in final beta testing during the next three months and will go into full commercial launch in October of 1999.
Also involved with the program is the Bank of New Zealand, the largest bank in the country, which provides the payment mechanism and allows customers to access the system from its home banking system on the Internet. The initial bills being presented and paid on the Internet are from Saturn Communications and Bank of New Zealand Credit Cards. Consumers will be able to make payments directly from their Bank of New Zealand bank accounts.
Bank of New Zealand Managing Director Mike Pratt said the service would streamline the bank's credit card billing services. ''We are always looking to the future and to more convenient ways in which customers can do business with us. The benefit of electronic billing is that it allows us to extend the range of services we offer and provides customers with an easy and flexible way to pay bills.''
Elmar Toime, New Zealand Post Chief Executive, stated that initial research on the service indicated interest and demand for electronic billing and payment services, even from customers who were not currently connected to the Internet. According to Toime, of those polled, ''some 33 percent with access to a PC and 31 percent of those without access to a PC indicated they would strongly consider using the service.'' Mr. Toime said that because the service would eventually include most banks and most common household bills, it will provide a single, secure Internet site where they can decide when and how much to pay for each bill.
Toime described the service as a ''natural extension of the range of bill production, delivery and payment services New Zealand Post already provides.'' In conjunction with its subsidiary Datamail, New Zealand Post produces in excess of 80 million bills annually, and its shops and agencies already manage 13 million consumer bill payments annually.
CheckFree has served as consultant on the project from the onset. CheckFree and New Zealand Post specifically designed the billing and payment system for the New Zealand market though it is modeled after CheckFree's existing U.S. operations. Doug Williams, senior vice president of International Business Development for CheckFree, said, ''New Zealand Post provided CheckFree with an in-country partner that had solid experience in bill production and payment, as well as the market presence to bring in other key players like Bank of New Zealand and make the value chain for the billers and consumers extremely effective. By working with this group of partners, CheckFree has gained very valuable knowledge on how to effectively export its business model outside the United States. This project demonstrates how quickly and efficiently a billing and payment business can be built and delivered if you understand who the right partners are and bring them into the endeavor early.''
Williams continued, ''We expect that this will become the delivery system of choice for all major billers and financial institutions in New Zealand, as well as the preferred method of receiving and paying bills for consumers across the country.''
About New Zealand Post
New Zealand Post (www.nzpost.co.nz) is internationally recognized as providing one of the most efficient and inexpensive postal services in the world. While it continues the tradition of carrying and delivering of letters and parcels, New Zealand Post has responded to customers' growing communications needs through innovation in the residential, business and international markets. Today, the company provides communications solutions for a wide range of people and businesses, using its people and technology to achieve long-term growth.
New Zealand Post's core business activities are message communication in letters, distributing courier and parcel items and financial transactions. It also provides distribution logistics, stamp and telegram services as well as data processing and mail production. The company is the fifth largest employer in New Zealand, with nearly 9500 full-time and part-time employees and the 29th largest company in the country, as measured by annual turnover.
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