During the course of my business travels, I have been lucky enough to meet many different people from different cultures and a variety of Telco's, utilities, financial institutions and government departments around Asia. Some already have an eBilling platform in place (often a web-portal) and some are still investigating the option of developing/implementing one. But they all seem to have one thing in common - when I ask them about paper turn-off rates, either current or projected, they all look rather sheepish and start mumbling about "early days still" and "consumer adoption difficulties…"
The goal is to save money!
Let's get this clear from the start – The goal of any eBilling project is to save money! It may be sold as environmentally friendly and in some cases as a convenience tool, but organisations do this to save money. Total eBilling costs are typically 50%-80% lower than traditional mail. In the current, difficult economic climate, you'd assume that a detailed ROI analysis is done before any eBilling project kicks off - cost of project divided by savings on paper/postage.
Yet for in-house developed web-portals, I regularly see paper turn-off targets set at 3% for the first year, and even 5% over 3 years! In other words, a full-blown web-portal with detailed security and firewalls is being developed and implemented, yet 95% of the customer-base won't use it within the first 3 years. Well, there's nothing like setting your sights low…! And just how does that ROI analysis stack up? Lots of development costs today, in return for 3-5% paper-turn off over 3 years. It just doesn't add up.
When I mention that we have clients around the world, both in developed and developing countries, that have achieved 17% paper turn-off in 18 months and 60%+ paper turn-off over 5 years, that sheepish look returns with comments like "But it's different here in our country." Well, the fact is that it isn't different.
Beyond the technology, there needs to be a coherent adoption strategy
These results haven't been achieved due to some psychological propensity to eBilling inherent in certain nations or customer-bases, Striata has achieved these results, because it has 10 years of eBilling experience and has learnt from all the mistakes that in-house project teams are about to make. We understand that beyond the technology of eBilling, there needs to be a coherent adoption strategy across the organisation, supported by analytic tools that identify who is and isn't receiving and reading eBills. Cloud technology means that all this is available with minimal up-front investment and implementation timescales of weeks, not months.
It's about starting with the right ROI in mind
eBilling is a specialist area spanning technology, methodology and consumer psychology. And like any other specialist area, if you don't have the full skill-set in-house, it pays to call in the specialists. I mean, I'm sure you could fix your own car's broken gearbox if you spent enough time studying up on it, but isn't it quicker and ultimately cheaper to send it to a garage?
So the next time you're reviewing your eBilling capabilities go over your ROI calculations again. And ask yourself just what is your target paper turn-off rate for this year? If it isn't into double digits, give me a call…
Keith Russell
Sales Director - Asia Pacific
www.striata.com
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