-Australians do like services that add convenience, and I think it's the convenience factor more than the terrorist factor [that is contributing to an increase in demand for online bill facilities]," said Linda Hemstrom, the general manager of Australian e-payments provider Bpay.
The number of people using Bpay has doubled in the past year, with 12 percent of all Australian bill payments now facilitated by Bpay. Transactions worth AU$3 billion were carried out on its phone and Internet bill payment service in October, a 50 percent increase on last year's October result of $1.9 billion. Almost half of the payments are made online, with the remainder made by telephone.
A study by BPAY last year found that 30 percent of its customers were willing to receive bills online, rather than through the post. Rather than being driven by recent bioterrorism scares, demand for online bill delivery systems has been steadily growing in Australia for some time.
-An announcement will be made in the next few weeks about the introduction of an electronic bill delivery service some time early next year," said Hemstrom. -It was supposed to be introduced in the middle of this year but it was much more complex than we thought, so we are a couple of months behind. Bpay's strategy has been to introduce the best-possible EBP system, rather than trying to be the first to the market."
Others agree with Hemstrom's assessment. When questioned about the effect of the war on terrorism, the national marketing manager for the Australian arm of international bill payment facilitator Xpedite, Trevor Russel, said.
-The enquiries we've had may be on the increase, but I don't think [the anthrax scare] has created any sort of major panic that we've noticed," he said.
-Online Bill Presentation is definitely on the increase because the benefits are obvious. It's environmentally friendly, there are savings on postage and handling and it's time efficient," he added.
Australia Post has offered its Billpay service online since November 2000. It has entered into strategic partnerships with companies such as NineMSN and MYOB, whose Web sites allow customers to utilise the online bill payment service.
Tony Stevenson, the group marketing manager for MYOB, does not think Australians are being scared into doing business online. -I don't think that comes into it at all," he said. -A more gradual change is occurring. People are writing less paper cheques, and doing more transactions online."
Australia Post hasn't seen a sudden drop off in traditional post since the terrorist attacks. -We've revised our letter growth forecast for the year from two percent to one percent," said spokesperson Gary Highland. -However, that's based on the economy rather than any security issues from terrorism."
Despite more than 200 anthrax-related false alarms at Australian postal facilities, Highland reported there were no injuries and minimal disruptions to customer service. -We're in a heightened state of alert at the moment. We take these issues seriously and [are] reinforcing training procedures for suspect parcels," he said, adding -we haven't detected any change in consumer confidence."
The threat of bioterrorism has made the Internet a much more attractive medium for paying bills and checking account balances in America. A Gartner report released on Monday predicts that by the end of 2001, 32 million Americans will be viewing credit card and other statements online -- a 60 percent increase from the 20 million who did so at the end of 2000. A 20 percent increase in e-billing registration has already been observed since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September.
ZDNet UK reporter Wendy McAuliffe contributed to this report
