Will Mobile Phones Become the Dominant Channel for Bill Delivery?

There are now a multitude of channels available to customers to pay their bills. These channels include:

1. Print and mail (paper-based)
2. Fax
3. Email with embedded data
4. Data interchange (system-to-system)
5. Email with PDF and/or link to on-line
6. Customer Web Portal
7. Mobile (MMS; HTML; WAP; USSD)
8. Mobile via App
9. Mobile Tablet
10. Emergent technology (via cable TV etc)

Only print and mail on the above list existed as an option until around 30 years ago when fax arrived and 25 years ago when email came along (both of which still have quite a strong following today). Data interchange options were mainly evolved and used in the B2B rather than direct Business to customer or B2C space but again are still around today as a strong channel, supported in the main by large international software companies, who have sufficiently large installed volumes to want to protect their position in the billing market.

Web based technology has driven the greatest change in the billing space in the last 10 years or so and seen the emergence of both consumer and merchant portals (for presentment and payment) and the use of mobile technology as 3G and 4G have made the internet available to mobile phones.

Even though each of these channels presents a new and perhaps better and more convenient choice to a given customer (and are often presented as the channel to replace earlier channel choices) in reality, they are often just additional options. In other words, consumers have shown time and time again that they like the extra choice but do not necessarily want to be driven too quickly to only one channel (however “efficient and effective” it is presented to be).

The implication of customers wanting lots of channel choice to both view and pay their bills is that the same bill may need to be presented and rendered possible to pay in several channels, at least for now.

 
Today’s challenges
Some technology experts are starting to say that customers will be move rapidly away from e-billing to m-billing (m for mobile of course) in the next few years. Modern mobiles can certainly handle very complex tasks today - just look at the hundred of thousands of Apps available for all different platforms. These Apps can do complex tasks, even generating bills “on-the-fly”. A mobile can also handle a simple task such as bill presentment with ease today – in some cases on quite a detailed basis (even though reading it may present quite a challenge!). However, viewing a PDF bill attachment on a mobile (as opposed to a tablet) is often a long scrolling exercise, making it impractical in most cases. There is a solution to this but it needs the biller to solve the problem of displaying their bills in more flexible ways according to the kind of mobile platform to which it is being delivered. In this way, a customer can see a simple version of the way and then “drill into the detail” as they wish when they want to see itemization. 

However, perhaps all of this is a false dilemma. In the final analysis, customers do not care if a bill is delivered to their computer, their tablet or their mobile (or even all three). In fact, many want to see it delivered in as many ways as possible to allow maximum flexibility, including by email or by PDF attachment and even in the physical mail or fax on some occasions. This multi-channel approach is therefore a customer centric approach. The challenge for billers then is how to provide as many of these channels as possible at the lowest cost possible. In the end there is only one solution to this –use a full digital bill presentment and payment portal, such as PaySwyft for example. This not only means that a bill can be sent in all 9 of the current channels above (and can be paid at the same portal) but means that a biller would be well-placed to take advantage of the new emergent technologies that will come along as in the near future.

Embracing E-Invoicing -The Barriers vs. Benefits

Two recent surveys (one in the US and one in Europe) have confirmed that 20% of survey  population respondents (on average) were already using a form of e-invoicing, with a further 50% actively evaluating adopting it in the near future.

These two surveys ultimately conclude that the benefits of embracing e-invoicing outweigh the barriers, for most organizations, but suggest that particular barriers will inhibit the time taken to adopt the technology or the time taken for it to become fully utilized. Let’s therefore look at these barriers and benefits in more detail:

The Barriers

The greatest perceived barriers to adopting e-invoicing is current work processes or existing process design around issuing an invoice and getting paid (and the inability to change these processes quickly or effectively). Close behind is the lack of budget to develop or purchase new e-invoicing software, or pay any incremental, up-front costs, even if this led to significant medium to long-term savings. A lack of executive sponsorship is also cited as a commonplace barrier, with the CEO or CFO most commonly expected to be a major driver of adoption in most cases.

Other commonly cited barriers are having insufficient resources to bring in a new approach (mainly people) and the associated lack of time and resources to integrate e-invoicing with current systems or software (especially on the accounting side of things). In addition, lack of awareness about available forward options and possible supplier resistance were also cited as being significant factors.

The Benefits

The greatest perceived benefits to adopting e-invoicing is its capacity to better control the whole billing process much more effectively (at every level and from bill or invoice issue to ultimate payment). This includes the capacity to ensure that invoices were less frequently lost, missing or duplicated. E-invoicing is also expected to reduce billing and payment processing costs significantly and also to decrease payment cycle times. The capacity to also dramatically reduce errors and exceptions is also seen as a significant benefit.

Another major cited benefit of e-invoicing is the capacity for e-invoicing to increase on-time payments (and even accelerate cash-flow) and to increase choice when it comes to invoice payment options and potentially when an invoice can be paid.

What does this mean to those organizations thinking about e-invoicing?

Any organization interested in saving expenses and accelerating cash-flow would be wise to research the e-invoicing options available to them (of which there are several, including cloud-based and “pay-as-you-go” systems (which avoid capital outlays and long integration effort) such as Payswyft, which immediately solve other barriers such as lack of budget and resources and the need for integration time and effort. In addition, the CEO or CFO of an enterprise should ideally act as a project champion, helping his or her organization to evaluate specific options and how particular barriers need to be overcome. In taking these two steps alone, most organizations would smooth the path to embracing e-invoicing and be able to realize the substantial benefits much more quickly (in terms of lowering their own costs and giving their customers a much better payment experience).