bill presentment battle rages
RETAIL DELIVERY NEWS --
The bill presentment/payment model battle just got a
new contender. Odds-on favorites CheckFree [CKFR]
and MSFDC are being challenged by Open Internet
Billing (OIB), a model developed by Just In Time
Solutions.
The biller-centric model is, in fact, being heralded by one
such biller, New York-based AT&T [T], which says the
"thin consolidator" model lets billers control their data,
while allowing consumers to receive and pay bills at a
consolidator's user interface. OIB, which is based on the
OFX standard, also should ensure easier data portability
between billers, consolidators and banks, OIB
proponents say.
"Because of sheer size, the industry has been calling the
race in favor of MSFDC and CheckFree and the
third-party model they use," says Scott Smith, principal
analyst at Current Analysis in Sterling, Va.. The biller
direct model is "drawn toward shifts in its fundamental
model, this would seem an obvious pick, but one that we
think does not recognize some of the fundamental
dynamics emerging in the Internet financial services
market."
Just In Time's release comes at an opportune moment as
the industry embarks on expanded Internet acceptance,
Smith says. "The industry is in a good state of
acceptance now. Banks got their feet wet and now is a
good time to put Internet billing on the plate."
And while billers won't flock to deploy Internet billing
this year, you will see a number of pilots initiated and
services offered in 1999, Smith predicts.
"If open standards win out, which is likely to happen ...
it will come down to what value can be added to the
service" to win billers and consumers, and not a contest
of how many bills a consolidator posts at its site, Smith
says.
AT&T is betting on OIB as a cheaper means to
disseminate customer information to consolidators,
explains Kevin Duffy, staff manager consumer billing
strategy at AT&T. If the information has to be
summarized and distributed to a proprietary system, the
biller more than likely will have to redevelop that data for
each consolidator that sent the information, Duffy says.
"The Internet allows us to keep in more direct contact
with the customer. It goes beyond the bill and payment.
It is a significant customer care site and marketing
opportunity to keep AT&T involved with its customer,"
Duffy explains.
Not only is having the data stored at the billers' site
good for billers trying to sell new products and services
to customers, but it also allows them to check the status
of service requests, Duffy says. If the customer requests
an adjustment after the last bill was received, he
wouldn't be able to check the status of the request at the
consolidator's site, Duffy says.
MSFDC Scores Some Blows As Well
MSFDC, however, isn't down for the count yet. The
joint venture between Microsoft and First Data Corp.
[FDC] scored some points of its own when it announced
new biller endorsements for its bill presentment/payment
model last week.
Newly signed billing companies include: Arizona Public
Service Co., Browning Ferris Industries [BFI], Comcast
Cellular Communications Inc., Consolidated Edison
Company of New York [ED], en.able, Mobil Corp.
[MOB], Nevada Power Co. [NVP], Southern California
Edison Co. and Xerox Corp. [XRX]. New bill processors
are: Billing Concepts Corp., CableData Inc., International
Billing Services, Moore Business Communication
Solutions and Vestcom International Inc. New Systems
Integrators for MSFDC are American Management
Systems Inc. [AMSY], BancTec [BTC] and Corillian
Corp.
BancTec's role as a systems integrator will help its biller
customers transition from paper and image processing
systems to electronic bill and payment processing. "It
took almost 15 years to move from paper to image. It will
be a lot less than that time frame for the next phase
because the technology is driving the industry," says
Joe Petruzella, corporate vice president of worldwide
marketing at BancTec. (Joe Petruzella, BancTec,
972/341-4854, Kevin Duffy, AT&T, 212/387-5400; Scott
Smith, Current Analysis, 617/520-9120.) |
