BANCTEC DIPS ITS TOES INTO ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MARKET
May 5, 1998
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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE NEWS via NewsEdge Corporation -- BancTec Inc. [BTC], a force in the automated check processing industry, is taking its payment background and developing electronic commerce technology.
The company's system is aimed at bridging the gap between the current payments processing system - primarily checks and images - and the Internet-based electronic payment system that is gaining popularity and acceptance.
"Everyone is talking about electronic commerce, but no one is addressing the issue of legacy information - papers and images," says Joey Petruzella, BancTec vice president of corporate marketing. "Checks are not going away, so we have to address the customers that want to go electronic but aren't ready or able to throw their entire accounting system to a different payment system."
While paper- and image-based processing continue to dominate the payment processing field, it's clear that electronic commerce will be gaining ground quickly, reports the Dallas-based company.
"Payment processors will be challenged not only to handle the traditional processing methods, but the coming electronic ones as well," BancTec reports. "Providing seamless integration between paper, image and electronic processing, BancTec's E-commerce solution has the advantage of giving customers three different processing channels - all from within a single system."
The challenge of stage one of the E-commerce program, scheduled to be rolled out in the fall, is to install an electronic bill presentment and bill payment system using the same process streams for mainframe applications as paper or image.
The next three stages, in the development stage, are business to business, e-banking and e-POS (point of sale).
The four tiers are designed to give customers greater flexibility as they move toward a paperless environment.
"We're offering customers a bridge to go where they want while handling what they're doing today, all from one system," Petruzella says.
Odds For Success
Erica Rugullies, an electronic commerce industry analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Giga Information Group, thinks BancTec has a reasonable shot at success in its new endeavor, specifically the first phase of its system.
"Electronic bill presentment and payment is a very hot issue right now and that should benefit BancTec," Rugullies says. "Considering their role in payment processing, they are very well- positioned."
Despite competition from established players like CheckFree [CKFR] and MSFDC, BancTec will not be entering a saturated marketplace, Rugullies says.
"There's certainly a lot of room for additional players," she says. "There's going to be a huge market because everyone who presents bills on a regular basis will be interested in this kind of technology."
The actual level of success depends on the technology and the strategy that BancTec brings to the market, Rugullies says.
BancTec spent about eight months establishing a strategy for its electronic commerce product, and the company feels confident in its technology.
"We've already had a lot of interest generated in our products. We have a bunch of organizations who would like to be a beta test site," Petruzella says. "We are feeling really good going into this."
(Joey Petruzella, BancTec, 972/579-6452, banctec.com; Erica Rugullies, Giga Information Group, 617/577-4779, gigaweb.com.)
[Copyright 1998, Phillips Publishing]
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