Charlie, Re CF going out to AOL with an EBill button, in order to nudge the banks along....
I recall you have been around long enough to watch CF's strategy and marketing messages evolve....from:
1. "Sign up here, consumers, for CF bill pay". CF served as direct-to-the consumer retailer of billpay services....with the banker as the back end
to:
2. "You can trust CF, Bankers...we won't go direct to your customers like Bill Gates and Scott Cook want to do". CF as back end enabler and partner to the bankers, who handle the customer enrollment and marketing....(but, oh by the way, we at CF still do some direct to consumer billpay....but its a sideline)
to:
3. "We at CF are withdrawing from various non-strategic businesses unrelated to E-commerce. We no longer accept direct consumer billpay customers. We are busting our rear ends to give you Genesis grade quality, and to develop E-bill as THE Killer Application that makes end-to-end billing and payment a reality for you bankers and your customers". CF settles in as THE semi-silent partner to the bankers. Gives up the right to go out and retail and brand its service, in order to gain the bankers confidence and trust on who they will partner with in building a web delivery channel (while this still developing service gets its operating kinks and data exchange standards worked out).
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That is, of course, all my opinion of the transition.
Why aren't consumers signing up at the banks at breakneck speed? They are, at those that have been in full rollout. Several, including NationsBank, surprised themselves with too much response, and had to turn down the marketing volume while they got their customer service ranks trained and staffed better. Another distraction is Y2K. They will have that mostly resolved by mid 1999, but it is taking all the extra energy now.
Meanwhile, a standard for transactional websites is not evident. I thought CF would help set the standard there. Instead, they spun that software business off (Corillian). It is now signing customers up, but once a banker buys the solution, he still must build it out, make sure it talks to the mainframe, etc... all takes time.
I see a HUGE amount of spadework already done by CF and the bankers, CF has 20 salesmen on the street signing up billers, Genesis is happening and its going to be bulletproof, and the bankers are getting the rails built for their web rollouts. Bank-by-bank, when they have their act together, they will turn on the marketing machines and we will get the hockey stick we all expect. It will happen in 1999 and 2000. No matter how much noise MSFDC makes about Pilots.
Now is not a great time for CF to do anything to undo their promise to serve as the trusted back end enabler for their bank partners.
And I don't think it will ever be a good time for them to go back to competing at retail.
That's my spin on the banker perspective.
Best regards,
Brian |
