The days of the paper-based billing process are numbered. Billers that switch to Electronic Bill Presentation and Payment (EBPP) can achieve significant cost-savings over the antiquated, labour-intensive, and time- and tree-consuming alternative.
"No-one enjoys sending invoices and statements," says Mike Wright, CEO of The E-mail Corporation in Johannesburg. "It is one of life's mysteries that a company has to spend money - and often a great deal of money - in order to be paid what it is owed."
The solution? EBPP - a highly cost-effective paperless system for sending bills and returning payment electronically. EBPP has been widely characterised as the next "killer app" and is creating a great deal of interest in e-commerce circles.
"The motivating driver behind EBPP is the desire to save money," says Wright. "One needs only to look at the costs associated with traditional paper-based billing in order to understand the significant savings one can achieve by automating the billing process."
Conservatively speaking, the average paper-based invoice or statement costs around R7 to generate, including labour, printing costs, envelopes, stamps and marketing material. Now compare this with the estimated R1 it would cost to send an electronic bill via e-mail.
"The average retailer in South Africa sends approximately 500 000 bills per month, which amounts to a saving of R3 million each month," says Wright. "Do the maths over a year, and you'll see that e-billing can, quite literally, save you millions."
The introduction of EBPP also results in a reduction in telephonic-based customer service due to the self- service nature of the online environment. It reduces customer care costs by providing anytime, anywhere interactive access to electronic account management functionality.
Additional benefits include: a reduction in debtors days as a result of a significantly faster bill payment cycle; a decrease in expenses related to payment errors; and the competitive advantage companies gain from enhancing customer loyalty through higher levels of customer satisfaction.
"Companies need to realise that the initial investment cost involved in implementing EBPP technology is far less than the savings they can achieve in the first month alone," says Wright.
EBPP offers organisations an opportunity to sustain business growth and competitiveness, to improve customer service, increase revenues and decrease costs. EBPP delivery is set to play a crucial role in the future of business communication, and first movers within this arena will have a highly competitive advantage
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