For companies trying to maintain their existing business base while evolving towards using the Internet, one of the biggest challenges is the migration of paper-based billing and payment systems to electronic systems.
EDS` Integrated Payment System (IPS), the first comprehensive suite of services to combine traditional and electronic billing capabilities answers that challenge.
Introducing IPS to the local market, EDS Africa MD Ron Ayres said: "Companies can`t simply abandon their legacy systems to hop on the Internet. Those systems represent decades of investment and millions of Rands in assets. What they can do is integrate and consolidate those paper and electronic systems and let us help them set the technology pace for their customers and their industry."
IPS has been brought to market at the onset of a global explosion in electronic payments, where some industry experts estimate that more than 50% of all bills will be paid electronically by the year 2005 - a fivefold increase on today`s levels. The most important of IPS` benefits is a centralised ability to help companies control the complexities of the change-over.
EDS` entire IPS package is to be made available to customers on a phased basis during 1999. The first IPS offering, Billing and Receivable Services, enables large businesses which issue great numbers of invoices to successfully manage the paper and electronic flow. Clients can choose from eight different options to fit their needs, either individually or in a package:
Interactive Billing Services: secure electronic invoice presentation and payment of consumer bills on the Internet.
EDS*Pay: automated pay-by-phone services.
Interactive Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Services: connects EDI-capable and non-EDI-capable businesses so that they can exchange data via the Web.
Financial EDI Services: allows non-EDI-capable banks to offer financial EDI to commercial customers.
EDS ACH Services: an automatic clearinghouse capability that is used heavily by banks.
Remittance Processing: creates a national lockbox network for companies with high-volume consumer payments.
EDS Statement Rendering Services: provides printing and mailing services that quickly turn files into statements for customers.
EDS Remittance Information Consolidation Services: enables companies to receive remittance data from any source in a single format.
The second phase of IPS offerings, to be introduced later this year, will target point-of-purchase transactions and disbursements.
"Our financial industry clients will now have the competitive advantage of being able to present statements to and accept payments from their customers through a number of channels," says John Heger of EDS Africa`s financial services division. "The competitive advantage will grow as consumers become more and more comfortable paying their bills electronically."
He adds that EDS` long history in traditional payment processing and its position as a leader in emerging payment technologies makes it the ideal partner in helping companies evolve toward electronic business. Billing and Receivable Services integrates the proven technologies that more than 1 000 EDS clients are presently using to process more than three billion transactions per year.
It is, however, just one of the sets of electronic business services that EDS is offering to help clients streamline their business processes, reduce costs and accelerate time-to-market. Others include interactive marketing and payment services; Internet and online services and advertising; electronic commerce; electronic data interchange (EDI); smart cards; security services; multimedia and home shopping; and the construction, operation and management of Internet sites, intranets and extranets.
EDS` role in the electronic business market is that of a transformer - helping its clients make the transition from today`s industrial-age model to an information-age model. The company not only assists its clients to transform their internal processes like order management and logistics using Web technology. More radically, it is creating trading communities for entire industries: multiple companies with multiple suppliers serving multiple customers within an industry group.
"These are enormously complex projects," says Ayres. "The ability to succeed in this area, as we already have, clearly differentiates EDS from all our competitors in this space."
From the creation and management of the France98 World Cup IT infrastructure, to the Automotive Network Exchange which links the entire US automotive supply chain, to Brazil`s Interchange corporate electronic trading community, EDS is setting the pace in electronic business. As "digital architects" in this arena, the group is able to draw on the expertise of various affiliates and divisions, from management consulting all the way through to technical implementation and maintenance. It also constantly monitors the vast array of emerging tools and technologies, helping its clients select the best-in-class components for their electronic businesses.
In 1997, the estimated global market for electronic business was $68 billion. At a projected compounded annual growth rate of 24.5 percent, the market is expected to be $200 billion by 2002. "It won`t be long before the term `electronic business` becomes obsolete," observes Ayres. "At EDS, we believe all business will soon be electronic."
Share
EDS
EDS is a leader in the global information services industry. The company`s more than 120 000 employees specialise in applying a range of ideas and technologies to help business and government clients improve their finances, products, services and relationships. EDS, which serves clients in 45 countries, reported revenues of US $16.9 billion in 1998. The company`s stock is traded on the New York and London stock exchanges. EDS Africa has grown rapidly since opening its doors in South Africa in 1995, increasing its staff complement from 600 to over 2 000, often taking on staff from client companies in outsourcing deals. Visit EDS via the Internet at http://www.eds.com and EDS Africa at http://www.za.eds.com.
Editorial contacts