When a Bill Isn't Just a Bill

At the June Billing 2000 show, one message was clear: Billing is headed online and to wireless phones. Wireless providers want to cut costs with paperless transactions and raise revenues by using bills for cyber-marketing. But before customers can receive their bills anytime, anywhere and via any device, there are a few challenges.

Aengus Linehan, Hewlett-Packard director of alliances, network and service-provider industry, said packet networks will make time-based pricing irrelevant, and providers will charge according to value of content and transactions. WAP, several speakers agreed, allows usage-based and content-based billing, so billing via wireless is just around the corner.

One hurdle is developing sophisticated pricing systems that link to billing and network-management systems, said Kenan Sahin, Kenan Systems president. Activity-based transactions and pricing is billing's future, but today's systems can't handle tomorrow's converged, open networks.

Many wireline providers currently are implementing or trialing online billing. Edocs is working with Sprint to provide marketing messages via online bills for its long-distance customers. BellSouth Telecommunications has partnered with Check-Free, Yahoo and banks to offer electronic billing presentation and payment (EBPP), ordering, advertising campaigns and customer care, and Klaus Werner, director of consumer e-business marketing, said that the program will expand to wireless.

Philip McKinney, Teligent e-business groups senior vice president, said that the billing experience can be a market differentiator. Teligent's online eMagine solution features near-real-time billing and call-data, transaction-detail, e-payment and e-support capabilities, and customers get it free. Providers "must move away from the billing cycle because while (providers) operate on a bill cycle, customers don't," McKinney said. Teligent found that the more customers use eMagine, the more they spend: 2.5 times more per month than those who prefer paper.

Don Tiedeman, DMR Consulting senior management consultant, predicted that more billing software would include non-billing functions such as provisioning and sales support. The idea is to make it easier for customers to purchase services online. But Tiedeman envisions 100% implementation of electronic billing and electronic provisioning only in the distant future.

Billing vendors and service providers also have begun experimenting with ways of using billing to make money. Some analysts anticipate that by 2005, $30.5 billion will be spent on Internet bill advertising-induced purchases.

"Historically EBPP has been a cost-cutting measure," said Jeetu Patel, Doculabs vice president of research. "Now companies use it to generate revenue. But we're just getting to the value-added stage."

Edocs' MarketWorks software, for example, piggybacks ads with online billing statements. Although edocs customers such as BTI and Sprint have chosen to market their own products and services first, Steve Schmitchel, edocs director of product marketing, predicts future expansion into third-party advertising.

Schmitchel said that ads can be customized using information received from customers during the application process, or marketing personnel can analyze the customer's billing records for trends that might suggest appropriate marketing strategies.

Alltel Information Services' Rhapsody suite also combines marketing and billing, as does Solant's interactive customer care and EBPP software, which can deliver personalized marketing messages to customers.

If there's a discouraging word, it's adoption. Only approximately 3% of telecom customers sign up for EBPP, said John Hansen, Solant CEO; other attendees agreed that the adoption rate is small. One reason is that the market is providing few incentives, said Avivah Litan, The Gartner Group's research director-industry applications. She said customers do not want to be charged extra to pay bills online and that few companies offer incentives.

Paper bills also are getting makeovers. The white space on paper and virtual bills is "valuable real estate" that providers should use to deliver marketing messages, coupons and campaigns, said Kelley Sloane, Exstream Software vice president of marketing. But edocs' Schmitchel warned that an "opt-in" for personalization during enrollment is necessary to let customers decide which messages they'll receive.