5 Reasons why PDF will be the saviour of eBilling and eInvoicing

For many years we have written about why PDF for email bills is the ideal process for eBilling and eInvoicing alike. The proof is in the adoption statistics - 'push' email billing solutions produce double or triple the adoption of paperless processes when compared to web portals.

A recent article by renowned eInvoicing commentator Friso de Yong; 7 myths and 7 facts about PDF invoices, ended with this question to readers: "... aren't PDF e-invoices a great starting point for (1) massive adoption of e-invoicing and (2) a transition to more efficient forms of e-invoicing?"

A key point of this argument is that the bulk of eInvoicing (including EIPP) will be done between SME's and that they will most likely utilise PDF as the format and email as the transport layer.

 

Why PDF is the perfect format for eBilling and eInvoicing:

1. PDF is the accepted standard for exchanging documents between different parties

A parallel can quickly be drawn in the eBilling space, (readers should reacquaint themselves with the differences between eInvoicing and eBilling).

PDF is the perfect format for bills, statements and other documents that can be dematerialised and delivered over email. It provides the option of password security (see Striata's view on No registration, shared secret usage) that is far superior to "secured with spit", a process that the Post Office still seems to think is a good idea.

2. PDF provides multiple layers for both presentation and data

PDFs can include a data layer or an embedded data file with relative ease - this way, the recipient can extract the data into their accounting system or open it in their favourite tool for editing and manipulation.

PDF technology also allows the embedded data to be extracted from the PDF, combined with user input and then reposted back to a server for processing. This is the same process that facilitates 'One-Click' bill payment directly from within the email or mobile bill, which has also been proven to speed up payments and reduce debtors days.

3. Delivering PDF documents by email helps drive paperless adoption

eBilling adoption rates have long disappointed the supporters of paperless processes. While enthusiasts have registered at eBilling portals, many refuse to turn off their paper safety net. Reasons for this behaviour range from "my accountant needs it" to "I like to have a copy in my filing system". Delivering a PDF document by email allows it to be forwarded immediately and electronically saved and backed up and yes - it can also be printed, if required. This makes the transition to a paperless environment less daunting.

4. Secure PDF processes can facilitate portal registration

Striata is often approached by companies with online portals that are languishing in the mid teens for user adoption. No matter how much marketing the company has applied; where there is a registration process and 'pull' back to a web portal, customer adoption plateaus well short of the anticipated numbers. We've proven time and time again that using a secure PDF process can facilitate portal registration through trusted links.

We do believe that there is a requirement for an online portal, as some customers like to have a history or archive of their documents in one place. In fact, the rise of the consolidator portal is testament to this requirement.

5. eConsent splash pages can streamline the on-boarding process

PDF documents also lend themselves to accepting and storing electronic consent. This is often a key hurdle in the go-paperless process. Multiple layers in the PDF allow the user to be presented with a 'splash' page that requires their consent before viewing the actual document. In this way, the requesting, gaining and storing of the electronic consent is all handled as part of a seamless customer experience, that drives the high adoption rates e-billing managers around the world are battling to achieve.

 

The answer to the question?

So in answer to Friso's question "... aren't PDF e-invoices a great starting point for (1) massive adoption of e-invoicing and (2) a transition to more efficient forms of e-invoicing?"

I say YES! I agree.

Michael Wright
striata.com

If you’re already talking, why not make it more worthwhile?

To be honest, I never really saw the point of blogging. Writing random pieces to relate a topic back to my everyday life was a notion I didn't buy into at first. But our website stats and the feedback that we've received from our partners, customers and prospects in response to our regular blog posts has proven me wrong.

Pushing the blog has increased readership

The fact is that everyone in Striata and on our mailing list has a common interest – electronic document delivery – and this type of regular, informal communication helps to build a stronger relationship between us. Each week some new ideas or a different perspective on accepted views are put out there to hopefully get people thinking and maybe inspire changes to the way things are done. But mainly, it lets everyone know that we're passionate about what we do, that we have opinions and ideas and that we are keen to share our passion with our clients, partners and other contacts. Plus of course "pushing" our blogs out to you dramatically increases the readership. I mean, you're not going to visit striata.com every week just for fun to check and see if I've written something interesting/witty/useful, are you?

This all got me thinking about other companies' regular communications with their customers. We often hear that the bill is the only regular touch-point between a company and the customer. But, standing alone is it a good customer touch-point? Does it add value to the relationship? Generally, the best you can hope for is that the customer isn't upset at the amount due of their bill. No-one will ever look forward to receiving their bill.

What if your eBill could add value to the relationship?

So, why not use this regular communication to expand the relationship to something that isn't just money-focused? Why not include a blog or newsletter with each eBill? It may be obvious, but every company has something in common with their customers. It shouldn't take much to come up with something to tell your customers each month that will show you're interested in more than their money. Depending on the type of company, there are all sorts of things you can discuss. Product reviews eg. the iPhone vs. the latest Samsung smartphone. Tech/green updates like the latest scrubbers in your power-station chimneys or femto-cell roll-out to boost mobile coverage. Or perhaps even charitable work your company or employees are taking part in? Anything that shows your customers that you're more than just a faceless corporation only interested in the bottom line.

Of course, with paper-based billing, the cost of this sort of newsletter/blog sent with each bill would be prohibitive. But with eBilling, the cost of an additional page is negligible if anything at all. And of course you can also include a call-to-action such as a link to your website to pre-order the iPhone 5 or whatever else works for you. It's about giving your customer informative, unbiased and engaging information or offers. Just a thought, chew on it!

Keith Russell
Sales Director, Asia Pacific
www.striata.com

If iPhone and BMW can do it, why can't an eBill?

Whilst I’ve never been directly involved in consumer product development, it strikes me that to ensure success, there is at least one fundamental requirement: the new product should be better than the one it’s replacing. When the iPhone 3G was introduced, it took all the attributes and features of the old model and added faster networking. The latest flat-screen televisions are clearer, larger but much thinner than the bulky old CRT models, and hence fit into our lifestyles (literally!) much better. The latest BMW 5-series is faster, more economical, less polluting, better looking and better equipped than the old model.

So ‘improvement’ is truly a fundamental requirement… unless, it seems, you’re introducing an eBilling product… in which case it appears that you’re allowed to remove the customer’s convenience of having the bill delivered to their doorstep, and provide them no additional benefits in return.

Is it really an upgrade?
The paper bill has recently had an ‘upgrade’. Today in Asia, the average eBilling offering is an in-house development and falls into 1 of 2 categories: either the customer must register and then log into the biller’s portal to pull their bill details from the website, or else a pdf or html version of the printed paper bill is pushed to them via email. So, just where exactly is the benefit to the customer in these situations?

The portal-based solution is certainly far less convenient than paper; there’s a website registration process, another id/password to remember and the need to download the bill if you want to store or print it locally. Plus, while a flat pdf or html rendition of the printed bill delivered via email could be considered as convenient as a paper bill (or perhaps more convenient to some customers), it doesn’t add any real value to the billing experience.

Did BMW or iPhone pay their clients $5 to upgrade?
Giving a $5 credit on the next utility bill for registering for eBilling, or charging $2 per month for a paper bill is a clear indication that your eBilling product doesn’t meet your customer’s requirements. If there’s no real value for the customer – no added convenience, they just won’t go for it! And that’s why many end-customers need to be cajoled and pressurized into adopting eBills and turning off paper. They just don’t see a benefit in it for themselves.

What does a real bill upgrade involve then?
Well, the minimum starting point is actually emailing the bill to your customers – you always delivered the paper bill, so don’t expect your customers to be happy by now having to go fetch their eBill from your portal. But then let’s add a payment form within the eBill, to allow bill payment without visiting (and logging onto) another website. Not only is this convenient, but your cash-flow will improve significantly because many people will pay the same day they get their bill. Then we can include the facility to slice and dice the bill details and dynamically graph say, IDD vs local calls or peak vs off-peak energy consumption. Or let’s allow the customer to upload the bill details into Excel or their accounts package for further convenience. And how about targeted marketing? Done properly, marketing within eBills (transpromotional marketing) is a real value-add to the customer, and a great new channel for generating additional revenues. Suddenly eBilling sounds like something worth having for the convenience and benefits provided to the customer; not just something reluctantly accepted to avoid surcharges for the paper bill.

Sure, you’ll still have to market your eBilling offering, but you won’t have to threaten, pressurize and cajole your customers, wearing them down until you eventually hit double-digit adoption rates. They’ll like it, they’ll want it and they’ll tell their friends about it. And best of all, this functionality and more is readily available through eBilling suppliers such as Striata; no need to develop/maintain such complex solutions in-house.

In conclusion, here’s a note to all of my own billers; my telco, my ISP, my energy supplier, my water company and bank. When BMW introduces a new model that is slower, thirstier, uglier and worse equipped than their previous model, I’ll sign up for your slower, less convenient, poorly equipped eBilling solution. Until then, keep sending me the paper, thanks…

Keith Russell
Sales Director - Asia Pacific
www.striata.com

The eStatement is Prime (Marketing) Real Estate

An electronic statement may not be as in-your-face as an outdoor billboard or as flashy as a TV ad, but it offers many qualities that make it an ideal place to practice some real one-to-one marketing.

Regular, expected, accepted, interactive . . . all of these add up to one thing: captive audience.

You know the recipient is going to look at the eBill (there’s money involved, isn’t there?) so why not use the package as a means to excite and engage your customer? Get the content and navigation right, and you could turn your eBill into an interactive, measurable, sales machine.

Let’s talk practicalities. There are a number of locations on the eBill which offer a marketing opportunity.

The email to which the eBill is attached has one key task – to deliver the attachment. Why not put it to use to cross- or up-sell? Not only are you assured that your recipient will at least glance in that direction, but you can also measure your marketing efforts by tracking click-through rates to identify what works in that space.

I’m sure all marketing gurus wish they had that kind of feedback capability on outdoor advertising. Imagine we could measure how many eyeballs noticed a banner . . . oh but wait, you can’t interact with a banner!

Then there’s the eBill landing page: the first page the customer sees on opening the encrypted attachment. Its primary job is navigation, but there’s no reason it can’t be used to pull traffic to your latest website offering.

Standard web navigation rules apply: top right hand corner is most noticed and definitely don’t expect response to any marketing that is placed below the fold. Also don’t be tempted to make your marketing messages ‘optional’. Additional navigation choices in the eBill such as a ‘Promotions’ tab, will not pull traffic unless there is a hook, and a good one at that.

But wait, there’s more . . . remember this is a one-on-one communication so if you have the right information about your customer you can tailor the marketing messages in the eBill to promote what is relevant to that customer. Brainwave!

So what’s the drawback? Well . . . there isn’t one really. You’re already sending the eBill, adding marketing content is not going to increase the costs, and all your efforts are immediately measurable, so you can adjust your strategy as you go along.

Okay, there might be SOME people who are worried about direct marketing rules and whether the right to refuse marketing extends to the right to refuse marketing messages in an operational communication. But that’s a different discussion for another time.

Alison Treadaway
Managing Director, Striata Africa
www.striata.com

The eBill Knows No Limits

In Asia, eBilling is becoming increasingly popular, with more and more companies launching alternatives to paper bills. Often these are simple emails with a link to a website where the bill can be viewed after logging in. But due to the typically poor take-up of this type of website based “Pull” solution, billers are now adopting email based Push eBilling, with simple pdf or html representations of the paper bill being attached to a carrier email.

As an initial step this is a better solution, however, companies are missing out on some of the main benefits of eBilling by keeping things quite this simple. The fact is that what works on paper doesn’t necessarily work on computer screens.

We can start off with the fact that paper bills are always a “portrait” layout, whereas all computer screens are “landscape”. So there’s all that wasted space at the side of the screen, but still the requirement to scroll down to see the full page. That’s one of the reasons why media websites don’t look like magazines or newspapers that create them. Secondly, the way we read a computer screen is very different from how we read a piece of paper. That’s why Amazon’s Kindle doesn’t render the text in the same way as a book does.

Our expectations of what we will be able to do with an electronic document are also different, and are set by our online experiences. We expect to be able to navigate to where we want to go quickly and intuitively, and expect to drill down into the detail of a topic by clicking a hyperlink. If we’re attracted by a sidebar advert, we expect to be taken straight to the details without losing our place on the original page. Fundamentally, when working online, we expect sensitive personal information (“Just who did you take to Ristorante Romantica last month – it wasn’t me!”) to be securely delivered and password protected in a way that ensures only the intended recipient can access it.

These expectations and behavioural patterns offer companies a huge opportunity to engage their customers at a level never before possible, and to do this every month. Simple summary bills with drill-down capabilities should be the norm. Why not graph the details for more clarity and allow the customer to sort and categorise the transactions too? Navigation within the bill is surely a given (click here to return to the top). The inclusion of carefully targeted eMarketing banners with click-thru tracking goes without saying – transpromotional marketing is one of the most effective forms of cross-selling today. Forms to allow customers to update their details should be included. Of course a printer-friendly rendition of the bill has to be available – and this can be the carbon-copy of the paper bill. Even payment by credit-card or Internet banking from within the eBill itself, without having to log on to a separate website, should be available to all.

But what of the argument that we don’t want to confuse the customer with a new bill layout, so it’s better to give them what they’re used to…? The fact is that a well designed eBill should be easier to read and understand than a paper bill and if it isn’t, there’s a problem with the design that needs to be sorted. The benefits of implementing a comprehensive eBilling solution far outweighs the concerns of customer resistance, and indeed outweigh the cost of developing such a solution.

The bill, and hence the eBill, is often the only regular communication between a service provider and customer, and is certainly the most likely communication to be opened and read in detail. As long as the functionality of the eBill is limited to giving the basic details of the cost of the service provided to the customer, this is an opportunity lost.

Paper bills and the electronic rendition of paper bills have their roots firmly entrenched in the printing technology that became available in the 19th century, and these bills haven’t changed fundamentally for 50 years or more. With communications, energy and banking technologies changing beyond all recognition in the same period, isn’t it time that billing and customer communication strategies and solutions caught up again?

Keith Russell
Sales Director - Asia Pacific
www.striata.com

"I don’t want to receive eBills"

This statement was recently made by a friend of mine.

My response: I am an avid believer in convenience. I receive electronic notifications for the majority of my financial transactions, and would like to eventually change that to ‘all’. I find billing information more accessible if it is deposited, as an electronic document, into my inbox, as I can easily search for any transaction based on date, amount, from which account it was paid, or to whom it was paid; or any other bit of data included in the email.

If I received a paper Bill, firstly I would have to make sure that I don’t misplace it; and then,if it did make it to my home filing ‘system’ (which is a box), it is not readily available – the box is only processed every six months or so, often just before filing season…

So for me, email is the ideal channel through which I can receive important documentation. I use different categories within my email to file the emails that I get. This means that my bank account emails are in a different category to the insurance emails, and so on. The email client I use has significant search functionality, so even if I place a file in the wrong category, this search functionality allows me to find it. It also means that if a category contains a lot of emails and I can’t immediately find files within that category, the search functionality is used.

Furthermore, the key advantage (and benefit) of using electronic filing is the convenience of being able to back up your information. Creating a back up for paper storage is tricky – you essentially need to duplicate your filing cabinet. By creating a back up of your electronic filing cabinet, storing it appropriately and keeping it up to date, your information is protected from most disasters.

In light of this overwhelming evidence, I asked my friend: “Why not? Look how easy it is.”

His response: “I don’t have a computer.”

Why can't I opt out of getting a paper receipt?

The phenomenon known as eBilling, serves a certain sector within the Billing industry. Bills, accounts, statements and invoices are traditionally delivered to customers as and when they are required to action something, or following an action.

A gap in this market that has often irked me is the opportunity to tell the bank machine that I do not want a receipt. The bank sends me a statement, I can login to my internet banking as and when I like, and so I don't need to receive a silly little piece of paper that will only maximise the stretch capacity of my wallet and encourage me to investigate the purchase of a handbag. Next time you are at the ATM, have a look at the level of overflow from the disposal unit at the machine. How many ATM users have just thrown away their receipt?

Also, do I really need to get a receipt from the restaurant or shop when I swipe my credit card with the irritating pin? As the transaction goes through, and before it has been printed - I have already received an SMS with the transaction details. Is the slip really necessary? Can I not be given a choice before it is printed?

I do understand that there are people who do require those pieces of paper, and I do understand that some people need to be reminded of their balance at the end of the transaction. Is it not possible to have this information transfer digitised? Following a transaction, an ATM should prompt the user to select to have their receipt either printed, displayed or neither. Furthermore, following a transaction on an account, notification thereof could be delivered to the customer via email or SMS.

So while eBilling in the corporate world of billing is covered, the use of electronic notifications still has a way to go I think.

Rising postal costs result in increased online usage, which again causes rising postal costs.

The United Kingdom (Dec 2008) and the United States (May 2009) both 'suffered' at the hands of their national mail carriers, as costs of first class mail increased.

Why the increase? The National Carriers are suffering revenue losses, as a result of the increased use of email and social networking. The postcard is a quaint relic from the past; pen-pals from even further back in time; love letters have become text messages; event invitations have become the doyen of Facebook, Google forms and the like.

The recent global financial strains have also forced organizations that communicate with their customers via 'snail' mail to investigate alternative channels of communication

The Striata Solution set is ideal for the abovementioned scenarios.

The eMarketing Suite provides significant functionality, which effectively facilitates the distribution of various communications to the client database. Provision is made for the collection of data at each point of contact, while the email content can be tailored to the particular client’s profile. Furthermore, the Striata Application Platform provides significant deliverability features and benefits.

The eBilling Suite is usually used to attach an encrypted document to an email. The encryption is built by either the Striata Encryption Engine, which stores the designated file in the proprietary Striata Reader (a file with the following file extension: .emc); or the Striata PDF engine, resulting in an encrypted PDF.

While these solutions do not assist the mail carriers in limiting their price increase, they do provide organizations that distribute paper based communication with an alternate delivery channel – one which is cost efficient, immediate, trackable and environmentally friendly (green).

So, it is inevitable, the mail carriers will continue to increase the postal rates to mitigate their loss, resulting in more and more organizations turning to electronic communication and delivery as an alternative option – this enables them to manage their communication initiatives, more efficiently and cost effectively.

How can YOU benefit from eBilling?

The obvious winner in any eBilling scenario is the biller. Costs are reduced, days sales outstanding (DSO) is reduced, and their reputation is enhanced by their investment in the environment. All good reasons for the biller to go the eBilling root.

What about the end user? While organizations incentivize adoption of their eBilling initiatives, to maximize their benefits, their customers will continue to ask, “What’s in it for me? Why must I help you reduce your costs?” The examples below indicate how organizations believe they should reward the customer:

Go Green
By signing up for eBilling you are helping to save the environment for your children and their children. You are eliminating the need for paper and hence, the destruction of trees. By you turning off paper, you are ultimately assisting in the prevention of global warming.

This form of persuasion / marketing works. It works for those people who are aware of the effects of industry on the environment and who appreciate the arguments of the doomsayers. It won't work for those who don't care, or are yet to be persuaded.

Money
We will pay you to switch from paper to electronic bills. You will get a rebate, a discount but you will pay more if you don't!

Organizations provide a financial incentive or punishment to get their customers to convert to eBilling. This includes providing customers with a discount, when they sign up for eBilling, or charging them for still wanting paper bills.

Convenience
There is a third category! I sit in front of my computer all day everyday. I receive email, I read it, I process it, and I file it – delete it when necessary. I don't have to go to the mailbox; I don't need to open envelopes; I don’t need to punch paper; I don’t need lever arch files.

I can sort the data; I can export the data; I can manipulate the data to check the trends. It is so much easier!

Even within the realm of the convenient, there are two further distinctions. The somewhat confusing 'push' versus 'pull' debate. An eBill that is 'pushed' to you consists of an email with a secure attachment – the attachment is your eBill. A 'pull' eBill consists of an email notifying you that your eBill is ready for viewing at an online portal.

Which is more convenient? Well, as I have my inbox open all day everyday, I would say the ‘push’ eBill. It is available when I am not connected to the internet. It is storable. It is distributable. It is convenient. The ‘pull’ version requires authentication on a website. A username and password is required. I can download it and store it, but then it becomes vulnerable.

Convenience is the number one reason why people will change the way they do things. Fast food, email, aeroplanes, online shopping, convenience stores, cellular telephones. These things make it easier for people to do what they want to do. I think eBilling should be the same. So, if convenience is the primary advantage of eBilling then financial incentives and greener industry, as great as they are, are the side effects.

The advantages of eBilling are great – for the environment, the biller and the customer. They are more apparent for the biller, and obviously for the environment; but the customer still needs to be convinced.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of eStatements

For the purposes of this argument, the term 'eStatement' refers all documents sent by an organization to its customer base via email in lieu of a paper copy. This includes eBilling in all its variations: eBills, eInvoices, eDocuments, Pay Stubs, Electronic Notifications and Alerts. (Striata provides all of these electronic document solutions.)

We know that most organizations punt the use of electronic documentation, because it saves them money; and contributes towards their corporate social responsibility profile. But what are the benefits to the end user? What are the advantages? And what are the disadvantages?

I recently stumbled across this following post http://www.philforhumanity.com/eStatements.html. The issues raised by the author prompted me to react. The author suggests that eStatements are not a viable option for the end user. This is my response, which obviously suggests otherwise:

Firstly, I think it is important to note that the solution discussed by the author is that of ‘Pull’ eBilling. This means that the eStatement is made available through an online portal. While useful in many different ways, it is not necessarily the most convenient option. The Striata Push eBilling solution delivers the eStatement directly to the end user’s inbox. Our take on this is that this delivery mechanism is far more convenient for the end user. Please read this article on the Striata website: Push vs Pull.

Let’s return to the issue at hand. The advantages of eStatements are great - wouldn’t you say?
1. available instantly
2. accessible from any computer in the world
3. better for the environment
4. saves companies a lot of money
The advantages of Push eBilling differ slightly in that the eStatements are only available from any computer in the world if the end user has a webmail account. Typically this is Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or something similar. Generally, people who require their information when they are away from their computer will have a method of connecting to their email. This could be through either their mobile device or laptop.

Let’s look at the suggested disadvantages individually:
1. not as private as regular mail
o I disagree with this statement - for both Push and Pull eBilling solutions. For Pull eBilling, one is required to login – usually on a secure site. Push eBilling methodology delivers the encrypted email into the recipient’s inbox. The email, even if undelivered, is rarely compromised prior to reaching the end user’s inbox. However, regular mail is handled manually and thus at risk of being tampered with. My intention is not to be derogatory of anyone in the postal service however, I am merely stating that the potential for misdemeanor is present.

2. email accounts are sometimes locked or lost
o People move. I am still getting mail from the people who lived in my house prior to us. We moved in three years ago. While this is a downside of electronic delivery, it is no different from any other form of communication delivery. Furthermore, with the advent of webmail services, many people have a work email address and another permanent email address. Also, with email, it is easy to tell if the message is not delivered. If that does happen, then an alternate contact method can be used to update the end user’s details.

3. eStatements will eventually expire and thus become inaccessible
o This is obviously a disadvantage of Pull eBilling. However, both Push and Pull solutions give the end user the opportunity to save the document on their local machine. It is a matter of having good filing practices – the same as paper based communications.

4. the lack of not having physical records
o All that is required is to save the documents that you require for future use onto your computer. Furthermore, make sure that you have provided access to the computer to a relevant person. Perhaps even state this in your will. This way (to respond to the author) the information that is relevant to your estate is still available and accessible.

I believe that the end user benefits in the form of convenience. The disadvantages mentioned above are avoided if email deliverability best practices are used by the sender, and improved technical administration by the end user.

Is eBilling Really the Green Alternative?

Turn off the paper! Stop getting paper invoices! You’re killing the trees!

Arguments we, as end users, have heard a thousand times in an attempt to encourage us to switch to eBills. The Biller hopes that by appealing to our conscious’s we will assist them in their plight to save the environment, and to save them money.

eBilling definitely saves them money, but is eBilling a green alternative? This is an unscientific view of this argument.

Assumptions

1. The following process is outsourced by the biller in both cases:
• Billing data is collated and electronically delivered to the vendor
• The vendor compiles the invoice
• The vendor prepares the communication to the end user
• The vendor sends the communication to the end user
2. A simple process by any ones terms; here are the two vendor specific processes in order to compare their carbon emissions:

Step by Step process Comparison

1. The vendor receives the data from the biller
   
• Both vendors require the use of electronic systems to receive and process the information.


2. The vendor compiles the message
• Both vendors have systems that extract the correct information in the correct manner and create the invoice / statement in the prescribed manner. The output is a document that will be identical in all mediums.


3. The vendor completes the message
• Paper Vendor: The message is printed. The bill stuffers are printed.
• Electronic Vendor: An email is created. The cover letter is compiled.


4. The message is prepared for sending
• Paper Vendor: The invoice and bill stuffers are placed in an envelope and prepared for postage.
• Electronic Vendor: The invoice is attached to the email.


5. The message is sent
• Paper Vendor: The completed envelope is delivered to the postal service.
• Electronic Vendor: The email is sent.

Carbon Emission Comparison

Steps 1 and 2 will provide similar carbon emissions.

Steps 3 through 5 is where the difference occurs. Step 3 for the Print Vendor is where the carbon footprint really grows: the paper manufacture, the ink manufacture, the machines that are required to print the invoices, and the bill stuffers. Step 4 introduces a machine (I assume) that places all the printed material into an envelope. And finally, the not insignificant carbon cost of the postal system. While the Electronic Vendor still incurs carbon cost in the process of creating and sending the email and its attachment, there is no separate infrastructure required for this over an above that used for Steps 1 and 2. This means that there is marginal carbon cost added in steps 3, 4 and 5 for the Electronic Vendor.

I am inclined therefore, in this unscientific, gut feel analysis, to recommend that we – as end users – believe the billers and sign-up for eBilling, the green alternative.

Outlook 2007 a challenge for e-marketers

Electronic messaging specialist Striata is advising digital marketers to increase planning and testing of e-mail marketing campaigns, following the release of Outlook 2007. According to Mia Papanicolaou, head of e-marketing at Striata, the enhancements included in the new Outlook version do have an impact on e-mail marketing campaigns.

Papanicolaou stresses that marketers should be aware of the new requirements for successfully displaying their communications in Outlook 2007. She indicates as an example, that Outlook 2007 does not display forms such as surveys in the same way as previous versions, and that animated gifs (used for creative effect) will appear as static images.

"What appears in a customer's Outlook 2007 inbox could be different to what the marketer intended if not tested correctly, and therefore the anticipated response or participation levels may be skewed. The end result is that the e-mail campaign does not reach its targeted conversion levels."

Striata recommends conducting extensive testing of e-mails through Outlook 2007, using various coding practices in order to gain a fuller perspective of the impact the new software version has on e-mail presentation.

"Because digital marketing is such a dynamic environment, this kind of testing will be an ongoing exercise for marketers and their service providers," says Papanicolaou. "As an e-marketing agency, it is our responsibility to monitor the effects of new software versions and to manage the possible adverse impacts on the effectiveness of the campaign."

A digital marketing veteran, Papanicolaou adds that there are many tricks to control the execution of an e-mail campaign, even when the 'goalposts keep moving' at the technology level. "For example, to conduct a survey using e-mail, place a link above the form that directs Outlook 2007 users from the e-mail to an online version. You can also track this link in order to start quantifying the number of customers on your database that cannot see forms in their e-mail client."

Papanicolaou warns that as security controls get tighter, graphical images should not be used to convey the message, but rather to support the message. "Not only will new software versions introduce new challenges for e-mail marketers, but system administrators are also increasing their control over what is allowed into their employees' inbox. Embedded images are often the first to be blocked, therefore customers receiving e-mails must be able to read the message without having to see the images."



---------------------------------------------------------------

About Striata

Striata is the global leader in Secure eDocument Delivery.

Striata's Secure eDocument Delivery and Email Bill Presentment & Payment (EBPP) are solution sets - software applications and adoption methodologies - that deliver rapid reduction in operational costs, quicker payments and enhanced customer service by revolutionising the way bills, statements, contracts, policies, annual reports, payslips and other high volume system-generated documents are delivered and paid.

Unlike today's online presentment solutions, which insist on customers visiting and registering at a website, Striata’s complimentary solution (targeting customers still receiving paper) delivers feature-rich, registration-free, navigable and interactive secure email documents directly to their inbox and enables ‘one-click’ electronic payment without them having to visit a single web-page.

This innovative and strategic change from ‘pull’ to ‘push’ dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic communication, allowing Striata’s clients to achieve rapid ROI from their self-service and e-communication investments.

Visit Striata's Global Site.

Why eBilling?

Why is Electronic Billing (EBPP) all the rage? Is it to cut costs, grow revenue, reduce customer churn or something more? What are the compelling reasons to consider implementing Electronic Billing?

Top 5 Reasons to Implement eBilling

Reason 1: Cost Reduction
The biggest impact that electronic bill presentment has on any organisation is that of significant, instant and measurable cost reduction. Conservative hard cost take-out ranges from 60% to over 90%. These savings are derived from paper suppression and include: printing, insertion, folding, paper, envelopes, and postage.

Additional benefits can also be attributed to soft savings such as manpower, exception handling and general business process improvements. The business case is however so compelling that it is often unnecessary to measure or include these in ROI workings.

Reason 2: Receive Payments Faster
Billing electronically allows companies to receive payments faster and with lower processing costs. For example, in the U.S., first-class mailing rates recently jumped 2 cents but that increase translates into a 2.87 cent hike for business mailers. And mailing costs represent about 70 percent of the cost of invoicing.

In the U.K., postal deliveries have been severely disrupted by a series of strikes by Royal Mail workers.

Why not invoice electronically? It's more economical, you get paid faster and you save those trees.

Reason 3: Reducing Environmental Damage
The green angle of electronic notification and billing has started to resonate with many companies, and consumers themselves who are looking for small but meaningful ways in which they can save the planet.

If all U.S. households received and paid bills electronically, the country would save 16.5 million trees yearly, reduce toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion tons (equivalent to taking 355,015 cars off the road), and eliminate 1.6 billion pounds of solid waste, says a 2007 survey by Javelin Strategy and Research.

Reason 4: Improved Customer Relationships
Many executives see the flexibility associated with this new technology as a key to becoming more essential to their clients. The more channels of communication that can be supported, the more reliant an organisation's customers are on their relationship with them. It helps maintain client loyalty, and reduces customer churn. While print and mail will always be an important part of the way business is done,many companies are looking to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to communication with clients. Electronic billing achieves this, as well as providing an effective self-service platform, whereby clients can maintain account changes and updates without having to call into a call centre.


Reason 5: Business Growth
While most every potential user understands the implicit revenue benefit in improving customer convenience and satisfaction, many are realising that their electronic billing project assists in achieving incremental revenue goals.

EBPP can leverage the customer data contained in existing CRM systems to personalise bills with customer-specific content and targeted marketing. The more personalised the communication with the customer, the more likely the customer will stay with their biller.

Many providers have invested heavily in CRM in an attempt to learn more about their customers’ interests, desires, and habits. With that new knowledge, providers can leverage their CRM output to deliver efficient and cost-effective EBPP that’s clear, consistent, and personalised to reflect their customers’ preferences.

The bill and recurring account statements are the most frequent touch points between most companies and their customers. Bills and statements arrive month after month.
The bill and recurring account statements are how most companies communicate with their customers. A CRM solution that doesn’t include e-billing and e-statements is missing the mark.


---------------------------------------------------------------

About Striata

Striata is the global leader in Secure eDocument Delivery.

Striata's Secure eDocument Delivery and Email Bill Presentment & Payment (EBPP) are solution sets - software applications and adoption methodologies - that deliver rapid reduction in operational costs, quicker payments and enhanced customer service by revolutionising the way bills, statements, contracts, policies, annual reports, payslips and other high volume system-generated documents are delivered and paid.

Unlike today's online presentment solutions, which insist on customers visiting and registering at a website, Striata’s complimentary solution (targeting customers still receiving paper) delivers feature-rich, registration-free, navigable and interactive secure email documents directly to their inbox and enables ‘one-click’ electronic payment without them having to visit a single web-page.

This innovative and strategic change from ‘pull’ to ‘push’ dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic communication, allowing Striata’s clients to achieve rapid ROI from their self-service and e-communication investments.

Visit Striata's Global Site.

Electronic invoices could save €10bn a year

From DutchNews

Dutch companies could save €10bn a year if they stopped sending invoices on paper and just used electronic mail, the entrepreneurs organisations VNO-NCW and MKB told Monday's Financieele Dagblad.

At the moment 95% of Dutch companies still send paper invoices even though it costs €30 per invoice compared with €6 for an electronic bill.

According to the two organisations, however, the existing EDI standard for electronic billing is much too expensive and they support the European Commission's plan to develop a new one.

End

Striata has previously reported the following alluring statistics about electronic billing. The focus is mainly on the US market.

• eBilling adoption rates vary from 3 – 8% on average according to Chartwell’s 2005 report (Striata note: This is achieved after 2-3 years, using the traditional 'Pull' method of bringing consumers to a website).
• 90% of email users send and receive email every day, and 44% are on email constantly - DoubleClick’s 6^th Annual consumer Study, 2005
• 76% of consumers would prefer to receive bills via email than having to visit a website - Bank Technology News Research (04/2002)
• 69% of American households pay at least one bill online according to CheckFree in 2006
• 73% of Insurance customers are prepared to pay their bills electronically - MarketSearch Corporation, 2006 - Conducted for Computer Sciences Corporation

All the evidence points to the fact that organisations are slowly understanding the benefits to be achieved with electronic billing.

E-mail Faces Deletion

What follows is an excellent article in debate style from Business Week discussing whether email is doomed to die a slow and painful death.

Will Web 2.0 applications such as Twitter unseat simple electronic mail as the No. 1 business communications tool?

Pro: The New and Improved

by Robert Scoble, Scobleizer

E-mail carries many problems that new tools don’t. For example, e-mail isn’t a good way to share knowledge. When I left NEC (NIPNF), I had 1.5 gigabytes of e-mail, including a lot of valuable information that my replacement would have loved to have access to. But when I left, my e-mail account was turned off. I don’t have access to that knowledge now. Neither does NEC. Same thing when I left Microsoft (MSFT).

What’s more, spam continues to menace e-mail accounts in a big way. I have the best anti-spam technology, but it regularly puts important messages into my spam folder, and spam still gets through.

Finally, e-mail doesn’t work with groups very well. If I send a report to my boss, co-workers can’t listen in and add value. On blogs, on the other hand, that happens all the time. (The best ideas, I’ve found, come from people who aren’t directly involved in the project.) When I was writing a book, the audience made all sorts of improvements. If we had just e-mailed directly to the publisher, we would have lost all those group-work advantages.

So, let’s look at how I use Twitter and other Web 2.0 systems like Pownce and Jaiku.

With these applications, spam barely exists. If someone starts spamming the system, he or she gets “unfollowed” and the problem is solved. And everything gets a permalink and a URL. So if I want to link to it or pass it around or get it into search engines, problem solved. You can’t link to an e-mail.

Everyone has an identity on these applications—a picture. And you can see that people are online and answering stuff and what they are doing. Twitter has an API (Application Programming Interface), so messages can be used in new ways, like the display on twittervision.com.

Another advantage: With Twitter, I can watch the streams for things that interest me. For instance, I can have all messages that include the word BusinessWeek sent to me automatically. E-mail, because its main use-case is private, could never do that.

Furthermore, anything said on Twitter stays on the Web. So your knowledge doesn’t disappear; it stays there for your replacement at your employer to study and learn from.

Does that mean e-mail is going away entirely? No. E-mail is still useful for one-to-one messages that must remain private. But e-mail will find less and less utility inside corporations.

Con: A Solid Cyber-Friend

by Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget

I sometimes joke with friends from my Web 1.0 generation that I have a killer idea for a Web 2.0 application. This application will provide businesses with a communications epicenter that employees can use to send and receive any type of digital media, including text, documents, audio, and video—all for little or no cost. Always on, this application will be based on an open standard that allows all employees to connect with the members of their social network regardless of what network they belong to or what Internet-enabled device they use.

My killer Web 2.0 application is, of course, the e-mail in-box—the very place where the overwhelming majority of today’s workers begin and end their business day. Notably, e-mail is also the primary promotional medium for today’s Web 2.0 companies. Social media stalwarts such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace (NWS) rely on e-mail as their principal way to connect and gain new members. YouTube (GOOG) and Revver leverage e-mail as a viral engine to extend the reach of their video networks. Even Twitter requires an e-mail address during registration so it can send members critical account information.

Admittedly, e-mail users do have some legitimate gripes with the medium. They wrestle with e-mail etiquette. Their stress levels rise when their unread e-mail volume increases. Their blood boils when unsolicited commercial e-mails circumvent their spam filters and waste their time.

I share these frustrations, but I also realize that the solution for business is not more applications—it’s better applications. Accordingly, I firmly believe we should view e-mail and Web 2.0 technologies not as competitors but rather as evolutionary partners. Their mutual goal should be to establish a spam-free in-box in which e-mail, SMS, RSS, IM, voice, and video—even “tweets” if you like—can co-exist and increase employee productivity.

Need a buzzword for this future vision? Call it “Inbox 2.0,” if you must—a communication center that consolidates all messages in one location while tapping the collective knowledge of social networks to filter out illegitimate senders, organize conversations across media, and prioritize content for employee response.

As for e-mail’s place in Inbox 2.0, I submit that it will be front and center, as it is today. Businesses are, after all, creatures of profit, and e-mail still provides the greatest value for the lowest cost.

Could e-mail’s primacy ever be threatened? You know what they say—never say never. For the foreseeable future, however, Web 2.0 pundits would be wise not to confuse e-mail’s maturity with obsolescence. To do so might be to miss out on the Web 3.0 opportunity of a lifetime.

-------------------------
[Ed. This confirms Striata's belief that the Inbox is becoming the desktop of the future, where more and more time is spent during an online session. Microsoft's Outlook 2007 is already moving towards "Inbox 2.0", by providing in-application previews of any and all attachments, without having to start a separate application.

Virgin Media monthly 50p E-Billing Discount

Virgin Media recently announced a 50p per month saving for all customers signing up for Electronic Billing.

You can read about the offer here:
http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/yourchanges.php
(scroll down towards the bottom of the page)

and sign up for the service here:
https://ebill2.virginmedia.com/ebilling/Registration.jsp


This is another example of a large investment on a web portal that can process payments. However, according to Striata, most businesses, and even users, tend to avoid logging in to portals to pay one bill. It's just too complex to have to remember login information for every bill you have to pay, particularly for small and medium sized business.

E-mail continues to be the communication medium of choice, yet most billers only offer Internet website presentment. Enticing the customer to go online and register is expensive and generally yields poor results. In addition customers continually forget their usernames and passwords, resulting in expensive phone calls to customer service centres.

In many programmes it takes between 7 and 24 clicks for a customer to find and pay his bill far too many to make the experience worth repeating. And security fears such as Phishing and identity theft are still hindering online payment. Finally, marketers are having difficulty effectively communicating the benefits to the consumer.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SECURE EBPP

There are several ways for billers to ensure that a large percentage of customers migrate to e-Billing. There should be no upfront customer registration, and no need for a customer to visit a website. Customers should not require more than a dial-up connection, and should not have to remember a username and password. The e-Bill should look the same as the paper bill that customers are used to, and they should be able to view and pay it online in under 30 seconds, or save it and pay it later.

This can all be achieved through secure e-mail billing. The e-mail billing process starts when the biller gets a customer's e-mail address commonly at account activation, or when the customer contacts the call centre. Every contact is an opportunity to get this information. A shared secret is chosen that is known only to the biller and the customer. This can be a Social Security number, Zip Code (or postal code), account number or anything else that the customer nominates (and is easy to remember).

The biller then sends the customer his next bill via secure e-mail, and the customer uses the shared secret to decrypt and open his e-Bill. The e-Bill looks exactly the same as the paper bill, and the customer can print it out if required.

The customer enters his banking details and the amount he wishes to pay in the Payment Section at the top or the bottom of the e-Bill (the amount is defaulted to the total amount due), and clicks on PAY. The transaction has been completed with just two clicks.

The payment is then automatically submitted, without the need for the customer to visit a website, and he is sent a popup and an e-mail confirming the payment. The payment flows directly into the billers bank account, exactly like any other ACH payment.

Once one or two e-bills have been successfully received and paid by the customer, the biller automatically stops sending paper bills.

Striata has found that customer feedback has been extremely positive; many said that the email bill saved them time, because they no longer needed to visit a payment centre to settle their accounts. And because they were able to choose the shared secret password themselves, they felt the system was secure.

The answer appears to be to return to basics. Stop trying to change customer behaviour and start inserting your bill into your customers daily routine. As long as you are expecting your customers to do something to turn off paper, its simply not going to happen to any significant degree. Make participation easy and adoption rates will increase to the benefit of both utilities and their customers.



---------------------------------------------------------------

About Striata

Striata is the global leader in Secure eDocument Delivery.

Striata's Secure eDocument Delivery and Email Bill Presentment & Payment (EBPP) are solution sets - software applications and adoption methodologies - that deliver rapid reduction in operational costs, quicker payments and enhanced customer service by revolutionising the way bills, statements, contracts, policies, annual reports, payslips and other high volume system-generated documents are delivered and paid.

Unlike today's online presentment solutions, which insist on customers visiting and registering at a website, Striata’s complimentary solution (targeting customers still receiving paper) delivers feature-rich, registration-free, navigable and interactive secure email documents directly to their inbox and enables ‘one-click’ electronic payment without them having to visit a single web-page.

This innovative and strategic change from ‘pull’ to ‘push’ dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic communication, allowing Striata’s clients to achieve rapid ROI from their self-service and e-communication investments.

Visit Striata's Global Site.

Climate Change Concerns More Corporations - eBilling Can Help Your CSR

Climate change is increasingly topping the agenda in companies across the world. More and more businesses are searching for ways to protect the environment, and their profits.

The topic of climate change has also entered boardrooms. Top brass have warmed to the notion of cutting back on work-related flights, as well as driving cars which emit fewer emissions, and implementing green energy and electronic billing.

Susanna Monni is the Executive Director at Finnish Business and Society, a network which encourages corporations to embrace social responsibility. She said that Al Gore's Nobel and Oscar award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, delivered a powerful global message on climate change. The Stern Report, which put a price tag on the effects of climate change, also shook up the business world.

Image is also part of the bargain. Consumers in industrialised countries are increasingly selecting products with certifications of sustainability, or from companies with 'green' images.

Source: YLE News

Striata have calculated that for every 500,000 bills printed, the following environmental damage is done:

•

• 13 tons of paper is used
  
• 26 tons of trees are destroyed
  
• 214,000 gallons of water is used
  
• 25,233 pounds of solid waste is generated
  
• 780 pounds of air emissions are spewed out
  
• 65,754 pounds of greenhouse gases are emitted

(Using tools provided at papercalculator.org)

Implementing eBilling provides a powerful Corporate Social Responsibility message to your customers and shareholders.

How Does eBilling Work?

eBilling, or electronic billing, enables billers to create and distribute digital bills to their customers instead of printing and mailing out paper bills. The obvious advantage of e-bill from a biller perspective is related to cost, especially as postal delivery fees continue to rise.

For large, major billers, there are two predominant distribution methods for e-bill, biller-direct, and/or through a consumer service provider (CSP). Many billers choose to distribute e-bills via both channels, as opposed to just choosing one.

---------------------------------------------------------------

About Striata

Striata is the global leader in Secure eDocument Delivery.

Striata's Secure eDocument Delivery and Email Bill Presentment & Payment (EBPP) are solution sets - software applications and adoption methodologies - that deliver rapid reduction in operational costs, quicker payments and enhanced customer service by revolutionising the way bills, statements, contracts, policies, annual reports, payslips and other high volume system-generated documents are delivered and paid.

Unlike today's online presentment solutions, which insist on customers visiting and registering at a website, Striata’s complimentary solution (targeting customers still receiving paper) delivers feature-rich, registration-free, navigable and interactive secure email documents directly to their inbox and enables ‘one-click’ electronic payment without them having to visit a single web-page.

This innovative and strategic change from ‘pull’ to ‘push’ dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic communication, allowing Striata’s clients to achieve rapid ROI from their self-service and e-communication investments.

Visit Striata's Global Site.

Online Bill Payments Surpass Checks for the First Time Among Internet- Connected Households

ATLANTA - A new study reported today finds that for the first time, consumers in Internet-connected households are paying more of their household bills online than by check. The survey was conducted in January 2007 by Harris Interactive and The Marketing Workshop. (Source: CheckFree Corp.).

For the first time, consumers in Internet-connected households are paying more of their bills online than by paper check, according to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive and the Marketing Workshop.

The 2007 Consumer Bill Payment Survey showed that, for the first time, online bill payments exceeded bill payments made by paper check among online households.

Online payments made up 39% of the total volume of bill payments among online households, an increase of 4 percentage points over a December 2005 survey. In contrast, the volume of checks sent through the mail fell 4 percentage points to 34% of the overall volume.

Striata has found another study by Aite Group predicts that online payments will rise to 28% by 2010. At the same time, check usage for consumer bill payment is falling rapidly, from 50% in 2005 to 27% in 2008 (also predicted by the Aite Group).

The rush to accept electronic payments has been a major driver of Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) programs for many. The focus appears to be shifting. Electronic bill presentment is now being pushed more urgently, in the hopes of reducing printing and mailing costs, and saving a few trees.

eBilling Video Spoof

More great reasons to opt for electronic billing.
Found on YouTube - a spoof of the massive iPhone bill video.
Caution - contains strong language.