Growing an industry requires champions. The drivers of new technology adoption are not companies, business units, consultants, or even teams, but rather individuals who are willing to give the technology a chance to prove its value to the business.
More mature technologies have high-level individuals assigned specifically to implement, maintain and manage their success in the business. "He`s the SAP driver" or "she`s the Siebel custodian" are not uncommon job descriptions.
Conversely, the implementation and management of e-billing does not yet have its own job description in SA, rather it becomes the responsibility of any number of individuals with very different job responsibilities.
Newer technologies, like those that enable e-billing, are typically driven by someone who recognises the potential of the technology to change business in a positive way.
In the larger consumer-focused businesses, the manager in charge of billing will be key in getting e-billing running. E-billing is seen as another channel to deliver invoices and statements, and therefore is grouped alongside the responsibility for paper billing. If there`s a `billing manager` at an organisation that wants to do e-billing, this person is in an ideal position to introduce an electronic process. An understanding of where the billing data is generated, what process is followed to create the billing document, and what the end document should look like, are all required pieces of the puzzle that will be provided by the billing manager.
In the local banking environment, there is usually a person responsible for digital communication or electronic channels. This person is also an ideal champion, as they are tasked with moving communication across from traditional channels to electronic channels. Their mandate is to save costs and improve efficiencies, and they can see these benefits coming from e-billing.
Like the billing manager, the e-channel manager operates across business units and products, and is able to manage the roll-out and adoption of e-billing as a standard across the breadth of the business.
Conversely, the implementation and management of e-billing does not yet have its own job description in SA, rather it becomes the responsibility of any number of individuals with very different job responsibilities.
Alison Wright, MD, Striata
In business-to-business organisations, if there isn`t a billing manager, a common person to drive e-billing is the financial manager or director. This person sees the cost saving of sending the bill electronically and the potential reduction in payment periods, both of which will impact positively on the health of the business. The financial person is targeting efficiency, and is also typically the person who gets requests from clients to receive billing information electronically.
In organisations where many different business units send documents to customers, the product manager of a specific area could drive the implementation and roll-out of e-billing for their product. This is also a potentially productive champion; if one product manager can demonstrate the value of e-billing, it will encourage other product managers to follow suit.
In smaller organisations, where job descriptions are a lot broader, the person who does the debtors management typically drives billing and therefore e-billing.
When asked to list the most common champions in the American market, the response from our New York office was quite different from the South African scenario. Most large US organisations have a billing director that would assume responsibility for electronic billing. Other champions included the head of customer care, the VP of customer services and the VP of marketing.
It is interesting that our US-based operation had not come across a company where either an IT or financial person was the e-billing champion.
Driving e-billing implementation and adoption in a business is reliant on someone seeing the value and taking responsibility for electronic billing. In small organisations, the success of this will be dependent on the ability and priorities of the person in the driver`s seat. In larger organisations, it is often a factor of the level of authority and responsibility of the champion. The higher the champion within the organisation, the more likely the project will succeed.
Whoever the champion, the e-billing project has to involve the other types of resources in order to succeed. The champion must enlist the support of the person who will change processes in the call centre, the person who will decide what marketing information should go out with the e-bills, and the person who will assist in the technical setup of the e-billing solution. While the champion is key, a strong support team is also vital.
In all likelihood, e-billing will be flying in a year or two and there will be an e-billing manager job description at every large organisation, and hopefully lots of ready candidates.
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