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Technology Stocks : BillServ.Com(BLLS) Going for the EBPP Market Small Billers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Julie Simmons who wrote (141)	2/21/1999 10:46:00 PM
From: Paul S.	Respond to of 918

Julie - The BLLS report was written by ISN ( Internet stock news. You can subscribe to their reports at their website: www.internetstocknews.com They seem to feature a lot of high flying NASDAQ stocks in fact their 1999 watch list is up over 58% since Jan 1

To: Julie Simmons who wrote (141)	2/22/1999 12:17:00 PM
From: TLindt	Respond to of 918

February 22, 1999 Billserv.com browsing market Firm eyes $20 million offering, may add up to 700 jobs Sebastian Weiss Officials with Billserv.com Inc. are heading to Wall Street to raise funds for an ambitious customer-support center initiative in the San Antonio area. The local Internet billing firm is moving forward with plans to issue a secondary offering of stock that is anticipated to yield between $15 million to $20 million in growth capital for the company, according to Billserv officials. The proceeds will primarily be used to bankroll a network of customer-support centers in San Antonio and outlying communities that are projected to employ 700 people within five years, Billserv officials add. "The (customer-support) centers are the main focus of the money," says David S. Jones, senior vice president of Billserv. Billserv executives are scheduled to travel to New York and Boston in late February to meet with investment banking houses interested in underwriting the offering. Company officials expect to have underwriters lined up by early March. The offering could take place as early as this summer. Jones says the number of shares to be offered to investors will depend on the company's share price come midsummer. The price of Billserv's stock has more than doubled in recent weeks. The stock is currently trading near $7 per share. One of San Antonio's newest public companies, Billserv became public late last year through a reverse merger with a Nevada-based shell company. The company currently has some 10.03 million shares outstanding and a market capitalization of about $67.7 million. "We would hope (the proposed offering) wouldn't be more than 2 million shares," Jones says. Billserv specializes in offering Internet billing services -- the process of issuing bills to end-users over the Internet and facilitating the payment of those bills over the same channels. In addition to offering e-billing services to companies on a contractual basis, Billserv also offers consulting services to companies interested in developing their own e-billing systems. The proposed network of customer-service facilities is needed to support a client base that is expected to grow substantially in the future as e-billing gains acceptance among billers and consumers. The centers would provide billing-support services to customers, both via telephone and over the Internet. The market for online billing is potentially huge. An Internet-billing research report issued by the New York-based investment firm of Salomon Smith Barney indicates that the nation's 110 million households each receive an average of 12 bills per month. If 33 percent of U.S. households would pay their bills online, the potential size of the e-billing market is $2.1 billion annually, according to the report. However, the future of the e-billing marketplace, along with the future of companies like Billserv, is far from certain, according to industry analysts. It is unclear, for example, what role banks and other financial institutions will play in the e-billing process. Furthermore, the challenge facing companies like Billserv is twofold: billers must be convinced to change their billing infrastructure, and consumers must be convinced to change their payment habits. "It takes a lot to change consumer behavior," says Erina DuBois, a digital commerce analyst with DataQuest, a San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm. Billserv figures indicate the number of calls received by the planned customer-support facilities is projected to grow from 1.25 million in 2000 to 22.6 million by 2003. The centers will be designed to support a variety of web-based communications technologies, including Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony, Web Whiteboarding, Web Chat and web-based video-conferencing. In addition to supporting its own customer base, Billserv anticipates offering customer-support services to companies whose existing customer-care facilities are not equipped to receive web-based inquiries. The company plans to make these services available to any firm that conducts business on the Net, such as online retailers. "We feel we're going to bring business that is not e-bill related as well. We've already got customers expressing an interest in outsourcing to us," Jones says. Billserv's first customer-support center is expected to open in San Antonio this fall. The facility, which will be able to accommodate 150 employees, will initially employ about 50 people. Future expansion plans call for Billserv to establish four satellite facilities in outlying communities, such as Seguin or San Marcos. Employment at the combined facilities is expected to grow from about 100 people in 2000 to more than 700 by 2003, according to company projections. The customer-service representatives will earn about $10 per hour. Billserv is one of a handful of companies competing in the undeveloped Internet billing marketplace. The company is currently working to establish access points for electronic bills on the web. Among the conduits Billserv is pursuing agreements with are the Internet portals -- popular gateways which are seeking to add more services to their sites in an attempt to drive traffic. Jones says Billserv has been in discussions with many of the leading portals, including Excite, Infoseek and Yahoo. But Jones says Yahoo, the most popular site on the web, has taken the most aggressive stance. "One way or another our bills will be on Yahoo," Jones says. amcity.com