Although it's taken a lot longer than some financial industry experts expected, many companies and banking institutions are finally rolling out electronic bill presentment and payment, or EBPP, platforms this quarter. Their goal: to develop software that lets businesses and consumers see current and past bills and transact payments online, as well as dramatically lower bill processing costs. Research from Giga Information Group estimates that such technology can reduce bill-paying costs by 50 percent to 90 percent.
The list of companies ready to introduce EBPP systems as the year opens includes many household names.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. will roll out EBPP to its customer base this month. Also this month, Texaco will offer to its 14,000 retailers across the United States a Texaco-hosted EBPP system. Xerox plans to implement EBPP this quarter in three of its customer billing systems, thereby reaching the majority of its commercial customer base.
One of the largest printers of invoices and bills, Xerox has also developed a product that it plans to sell to companies wanting to do EBPP in-house. Bill Xchange sits between a legacy system and EBPP applications and turns printed bills into e-bills. That service was released this fall.
