Third-Generation Bill Presentment and Payment Solution Chronicles Events
from Enrollment to Creation to Payment and Remittance
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the BAI Retail Delivery Systems
trade show, CheckFree revealed the third generation of its electronic billing
and payment service, CheckFree E-Bill(sm). The new version includes
enhancements focused on enabling billers to deliver electronic billing and
payment options to their customers more quickly, and expands event tracking
and audit trail features to facilitate positive user experiences and customer
care.
Enhancements to CheckFree E-Bill
-- Expanded event tracking and auditing. Using open, standards-based
messages, CheckFree E-Bill tracks information each time a biller,
financial institution or consumer initiates a system request --
including enrollment, bill creation, bill delivery, bill payment
scheduling, bill payment execution and remittance. CheckFree E-Bill can
track these events on CheckFree systems used by financial institutions
and billers, or from any other third-party system that is enabled to
send tracking events to CheckFree E-Bill.
CheckFree E-Bill then enables consumers, financial institutions and
billers to access the same event information, providing a variety of
customer care options, including self-care by the consumer. By
providing billers, banks and end-consumers with open access to all
critical events, the costs associated with customer care can be
significantly reduced and the overall customer experience enhanced.
"The two most common customer care issues are billing amount questions
and why a previous payment was not reflected on the current bill," said
Peter J. Kight, chairman and chief executive officer. "With the fully
interactive biller-to-consumer dialog made possible by CheckFree
E-Bill, customers can go online to research billing questions and
quickly confirm that their payment has been posted by the biller." If
a customer chooses to call customer care with billing questions, the
same detailed event information will be available to participating
financial institutions and billers.
-- Streamlined Implementation Options. Built on OFX standards, CheckFree
E-Bill includes an SGML specification which billers and financial
institutions can code to directly. Or, they can use the online
CheckFree Services Application Protocol Interface (CSAPI) Toolkit that
has been developed to simplify the implementation process. This
toolkit is available in C++ and Java versions.
In addition to online connectivity, CheckFree offers streamlined batch
connectivity through the new System Interface Specification (SIS).
Users can employ the CSAPI Toolkit to build online interfaces for
events such as "enroll user" and "notify user of bill," and the SIS to
build batch interfaces for events such as "process payments." The new
development toolkit and batch specifications speed time to market for
both financial institutions and billers by eliminating the need to
create code "from scratch" to interface with CheckFree E-Bill.
-- "Direct Distribution" Support. CheckFree E-Bill enables billers who
want to offer their customers the convenience of bill distribution
through aggregation points, while ensuring that all their customers
access the biller Web site when paying bills. With "direct
distribution," the biller distributes a bill notification to
aggregation points, without bill summary data. When customers "click"
on the bill notification, they are seamlessly linked to the biller's
Web site, where they can choose to view the bill in summary or in
detail.
CheckFree E-Bill also supports classic distribution - where the biller
distributes bill summary data to aggregation points and links the
customer to the biller site only for bill detail -- as well as
biller direct, where customers log-on directly to the biller Web site
to access bills. CheckFree enables financial institutions and/or
billers to support any of these options in-house, or to outsource
system operation to CheckFree.
-- Automatic Authentication. With a single sign-on, consumers can access
an aggregator's Web site to view and pay all of their bills without
multiple log-ons and passwords. By verifying authentication tokens
and validating digital signatures behind the scenes, customers are
authorized to access bill summary data, view detail and make payments -
all without the hassles of re-authentication.
Scheduled Availability of Enhancements
CheckFree plans to complete alpha testing of the CheckFree E-Bill
enhancements in March of 1999, and to conduct beta tests internally and with
select banks and billers throughout the spring. A full market launch is
slated for late summer of 1999. The CheckFree E-Bill enhancements are the
culmination of product development and testing that began in 1995, a fully
operational launch in March 1997, and continuous improvements based on in-
market experience.
About CheckFree
Founded in 1981, CheckFree (www.checkfree.com), the operating subsidiary
of CheckFree Holdings Corp., is the leading provider of financial electronic
commerce services, software and related products for more than 2.5 million
consumers, 1,000 businesses and 850 financial institutions. CheckFree
designs, develops and markets services that enable its customers to make
electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based recurring financial
transactions and conduct secure transactions on the Internet.
CheckFree currently has contracts with more than 30* of the nation's
largest billers to provide end-to-end electronic billing and payment. Live
CheckFree E-Bill merchants include American Electric Power, BellSouth, Chase
Credit Card, Columbia Gas of Ohio, Consumers' Energy, CUNA Mutual Group,
Florida Power & Light, GPU Energy, HomeSide Lending, Northern Illinois Gas
(Nicor), PGE, and the Small Business Administration. In addition, the
following companies are finalizing implementation before their official market
launch: AT&T, Banc One Credit, Boston Edison, Chase Mortgage, International
Billing Services, Northeast Utilities (Connecticut Light & Power and Western
Massachusetts Electrical Company), Public Service Company of New Mexico,
Southern California Edison, Total System Services, Inc. (TSYS), and Washington
Water Power.
*Additional contract announcements pending.
SOURCE CheckFree Corporation
-0- 12/02/98
/CONTACT: Media: Laurinda Wilson, 770-840-1608, email:
lwilson@checkfree.com or Investor Relations: Terrie O'Hanlon, 770-840-1452,
email: tohanlon@checkfree.com, both of CheckFree Corporation/
/Web site: checkfree.com
(CKFR)
CO: CheckFree Corporation
ST: Nevada
IN: CPR
SU:
KS
-- ATW015 --
2718 12/02/98 06:30 EST prnewswire.com
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