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

To: Ilya Pichkhadze who wrote (6513)	8/6/1998 7:57:00 AM
From: Benny Baga	Respond to of 8545

Banks Push Onward With MSFDC August 6, 1998 RETAIL DELIVERY NEWS -- MSFDC, a joint venture between Microsoft [MSFT] and First Data Corp. [FDC], is rounding up support for its bill presentment/payment model and could announce live implementations as early as the end of the year, says Warren Dent, director of business development for Microsoft's desktop finance division. MSFDC's bank partner, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank [WFC], is piloting the system for six months with bank and MSFDC employees, enabling participants to receive their Wells Fargo credit card bills online the day after each billing cycle concludes. The pilot could lead to a consumer rollout early next year, says Susan Weinstein, a vice president for Wells' online financial services group. Pilots Test Employee Acceptance Initially, pilot participants will receive bills online only through MSFDC, but the Wells Fargo service ultimately will be capable of delivering all of a customer's bills, even when presented through other sources, Weinstein says. Mellon Bank [MEL] also announced intentions to participate in a pilot with MSFDC this summer. The bank is a member of Integrion, a competitive bank-branded bill presentment/payment company. "As an owner bank of the Integrion consortium, it is important to integrate the service with our other technology and systems," says Allan Woods, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Mellon. Banc One [ONE] also participates in both systems. Billers Still Sorting Out Options Neither MSFDC nor Integrion is cornering market versions for bill presentment/payment models, says Bill Burnham, an electronic commerce analyst at San Francisco-based Credit Suisse First Boston. Billers and consumers alike have yet to commit to one and new systems still are emerging, Burnham says. MSFDC has catered heavily to bank needs, offering its service free to bank participants and consumers, but billers still haven't rallied unilaterally behind any of the existing bill payment/presentment options, Burnham says. Some banks will be the consolidation points, but others won't, he contends. That is a realization that both MSFDC executives and CheckFree/Integrion developers slowly are realizing, he says. Billers have a lot of options and can't figure out what is best, Burnham adds. Many may start to take more control of the process, as has AT&T [T], which now supports Just In Time, another bill presentment/payment model developer. "Our research says most consumers pay their bills and think about their financial state," not where they paid their bills, Dent says. "If we can have the financial data integrated with where I get my bills, that will be most helpful," Dent says. Billers still can use smartly packaged advertising within the bill to draw consumers to their site, Dent says. Even with the use of online financial exchange, billers still will need to develop Internet pages in a proprietary system, Dent says. "HTML was designed to transmit transaction information not present bills, " he says. (Bill Burnham, Credit Suisse First Bosron, 415/836-7600; Warren Dent, MSFDC, 425/936-1109; Susan Weinstein, Wells Fargo,415/396-0510.) [Copyright 1998, Phillips Publishing]