eBills on the move

I'm trying to get my head around whether customers want to view eBills on their mobiles.

"Of course, why not?" is the obvious answer, but when you consider the question from different angles, the perspective becomes murky.

Coming, ready or not

In some developing countries, there is 10 times the number of mobile accounts than Internet accounts. If you read no further, this information alone confirms that an essential process like billing needs to cater for the growing market segment reachable only by mobile.

We can't assume all mobile users are Internet-enabled, but my Google research tells me that by 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide (Gartner).

Are you PC, mobile or both?

I'm excluding business to business invoicing from this deliberation, as I'm fairly confident that the creditor's clerk is working on a PC, not checking invoices on the fly between grocery shopping and gym class.

With the spotlight firmly on consumers, where does the personal bill recipient want to view their bill?

In the absence of thorough and expensive research (if I was operating on that level, this would be a thesis, not a blog), I offer my perspective, with an open invitation to offer yours.

1. Consumers want choice.

• Yesterday, they viewed their bill on their work PC and paid via Internet Banking.


• Today they checked the Payment Due information via their Blackberry and paid through mobile banking.


• Tomorrow they may switch to an iPhone, and expect to view eBills there too.

2. What customers don't want is hassle.

Customers avoid unnecessary effort at all costs. The general public is not interested in the development dilemma inherent in diverse mobile operating systems. The fact that a bill might be viewable on PC email, but not on mobile email is incomprehensible to the average Joe. It is just expected that as the market adds a channel, so the service provider must seamlessly integrate that channel into all communication processes.

What we need is an eBilling offering that works on PC email and across mobile operating systems. Is there such a thing?

The answer is yes, and it's murky with opportunity!

Alison Treadaway
www.striata.com