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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: King David who wrote (2940)	2/28/1999 1:59:00 PM
From: zuma_rk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

<<That's what CKFR needs, a real shocker that reminds people they're on the verge of 2000 and shouldn't be licking stamps anymore.>> I totally agree, as well. I kind of thought that this was the purpose of the "Electronic Banking Association," you know, the banner ads with all those disturbingly friendly-looking folks with the signs: e-banking.org Seems like not too much has been done with this site. They should definitely be doing some "brand building" radio spots, or something similar. Although -- After thinking about this a bit, we still have a little of the "cart before the horse" syndrome. As Brooks pointed out, just because the biggies have begun to announce availability of e-bills, doesn't mean that there aren't a heck of alot of bugs to be worked out. We are MAJOR early adapters, here, IMO -- this stuff is not really "Moist Towelette" simple for most folks. Heck, I spent alot of time wrangling with Quicken to understand the way the downloading features were supposed to work. The timing is very important, IMO. CF could also waste alot of valuable marketing dollars (and customer goodwill) by promoting this thing wide, when it still only affects people "narrow." I'm probably a good case in point. I'm chompin' at the bit to get my bills presented electronically (not that it's "fun" to pay bills, but let's agree that it just doesn't suck as much as it used to). Also, I probably represent a "typical" target demographic. Work in New York, use Citibank for checking, Schwab and E-Trade for investing, American Express, cable bills, a couple of "brand name" credit cards, no utilities ('cause I rent), etc., etc. All that said, in spite of all the pilots, announcements and rollouts, the best I can achieve is ZIPPO e-bills thru quicken or my bank. ATT is likely to be the first e-biller that will have any relevance to me (for long distance), followed (hopefully, soon), by American Express. Not enough juice (yet), in my (revised) opinion, to justify the ad dollars. Even after a major portal rollout, I don't think we're there until users can generally get 3-4 bills each month presented electronically. That being said, as I mentioned in a previous post, I think the MCI announcement will REALLY get the ball rolling -- first, with ATT, Qwest and Sprint, and then the baby bells, etc., etc...It could wind up being that such a branding campaign makes total sense in a short 4-6 months, as all those folks get up and running. Anyway -- my humble opinion, for what it's worth... RK