City offers e-payment

The city of Corvallis has added an electronic payment and billing system for water and sewer customers, reports Gazette Times.

This is in response to increased demand for electronic services, which are intended to make things more convenient for customers. "Our goal is to get 20% of our customer base on e-bill. When we have 15 000 customers, that is pretty significant," says Tony Krieg, customer services manager in the city of Corvallis.

Utility billing is researching the use of an integrated voice response system to provide automated notification to customers regarding past-due charges, to avoid potential service interruption.

According to a recent survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, marketing budgets are being increased in line with sales and profit, and currently outstrip all other sectors, including IT and computing, reports Marketing Week.

Interestingly, the same survey shows 11.5% of businesses now allocate more than 15% of total budgets to online marketing. It also shows marketing to be playing a larger role within organisations.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents believe they have met or exceeded performance expectations for their overall marketing strategy in the past 12 months, with 81% believing the same to be true specifically for online marketing.

China Postal Savings Bank has selected Verifone to provide electronic payment systems for the bank, reports Banking Business Review Online.

As part of the deal, Verifone will supply systems incorporating the Verifone Vx 510, with dual dial and IP connectivity, and the wireless NURIT 8000 with GPRS connectivity. This solution also provides performance for payment and applications, including data-intensive, EMV smart card transactions.

"In choosing Verifone to supply all payment systems at such a momentous time in its history, China Postal Savings Bank has laid the groundwork for a sound working partnership, as well as mutual growth," said Yong Xiao, GM of Verifone China.