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Technology Stocks : CheckFree (CKFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jjs_ynot who wrote (5192)	6/16/1998 10:08:00 PM
From: g_m10	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8545

Re: AT&T and CF deal. zdii.com

To: jjs_ynot who wrote (5192)	6/17/1998 8:12:00 AM
From: Benny Baga	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8545

Another article, I don't think it has been posted: Digital Divide Over Using The Internet For Billing June 17, 1998 INTERNETWEEK : As Internet bill presentment systems emerge with great promise, a conflict over how these systems should be structured has become what one analyst calls a "raging religious war. " Guarding one front are Microsoft and First Data Corp., which argue that corporate IT departments should outsource such services and send all billing and payment data to third parties. On the other side are America Online Inc., AT&T, CheckFree Corp., CyberCash Inc. and Intuit Inc., with systems that call for multiple partners to share the work but for data to remain in-house. In the middle are corporate IT departments at companies that must manage large numbers of electronic bills sent to their customers over the Internet, industry analysts said. "There's a lot of grabbing of mind share going on; we're talking about something that largely doesn't exist today," according to Yankee Group analyst Boyd Peterson. As systems come to the fore, IT executives at any company that bills the public will have to weigh whether the chance to reduce costs and enhance customer service and cross-selling opportunities overshadow the risk of fundamentally altering relationships with online customers, Peterson said. Discussion of these issues is expected to come to a rolling boil this week at the Billing '98 trade show in Atlanta. Today, AT&T plans to announce an agreement with Intuit to place its bills on the Intuit.com site, using processing services from CheckFree and management software from Just In Time Solutions. AOL is expected this week to detail a relationship with CyberCash that will let billers deliver statements directly to AOL consumers and outsource payment processing. And MSFDC, a joint venture created by Microsoft and First Data, will announce within a week a slate of new customers and financial partners, said Bryce Hausmann, vice president of business development at MSFDC. The opportunity for handling bills via the Internet could be huge, Yankee Group's Peterson said. In the telecom market alone, billing, customer care and fraud management represent between 10 percent and 12 percent of a company's total costs, he estimated. It costs the average company $1, including postage, to send a bill to a customer, according to Hausmann. Between 40 percent and 50 percent of that expense could be trimmed by presenting bills to customers over the Internet, he said. But users fear the different approaches to billing could hurt the market. "There's widespread confusion as to the benefits and underlying costs of each model," said Gavin Norwitz, district manager for consumer billing strategy at AT&T. Intuit senior product manager Nancy Tubbs said MSFDC is underestimating its customers. "Billers can create reasonable systems themselves; speed will continue to increase so there isn't a need to have everything in one physical set of servers," she said. "Companies doing total consolidation overlook the creativity that billers have when dealing with their consumers." Beyond disagreement over billing architectures, the issue of consumer comfort also must be addressed. Norwitz said a wide array of models, along with the possibility of data leaks over the Internet, could alienate consumers.