CMP Media:
Lewis describes CheckFree E-Bill as a natural evolution of its online
bill-payment services. "We have more than 800 merchants who we've set up with electronic links to their accounts receivable operations," he says. "It wasn't long before they started asking us, 'Why don't you help me do what really costs me money-getting these bills out?'
It costs a company 50 cents to print and mail a one-page bill, while
multiple-page telephone bills can cost as much as $2 each. Compare that to online billing rates of about 20 cents a customer. With almost 17 billion bills sent in the United States each year (with an added expense of 4.25 million trees), the dollar-savings potential of e-bills is tremendous. CheckFree corporate clients taking advantage of these savings include BellSouth Corp. and Southwestern Bell Corp.
While CheckFree's Lewis is optimistic about the new service, at least one industry observer is more pragmatic. Bill Burnham, senior research analyst for electronic commerce at Piper Jaffray Companies Inc., a
Minneapolis-based investment bank, thinks "presenting customers with all of their bills is easier said than done."
Instead of many companies adopting CheckFree as a standard, Burnham
sees the industry turning to formatted e-mail. "It's simple, doesn't take a rocket scientist to do, and you don't have to get a committee of bankers together to figure it out," he says.
Lewis disagrees. "We offer the ability to receive and pay from a single source," he says. "Individual companies simply can't do that."
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