eBILLING FOR UTILITIESSolving the adoption challenges of

electronic bill presentment and payment

Delivery & Payment of Bills via Secure Email

Presented by : Garin Toren

Chief Operating Officer

Case Stu

dy

Agenda

• eBilling Adoption Challenges

• eMail Bill Presentment & Payment

• NSTAR Case Study

• Payment & Demos

EBPP adoption

• Utility EBPP adoption figures between 2% and 11%

• Yet 73% of Americans are actively using email. (Neilson)

• The major barriers to EBPP adoption are:

– The need for the customer to ‘do’ something. I.E.: register

– Slow connections (dialup) make online EBPP a challenge.

– Many customers have security fears around online transactions

– A large percentage of customers are not web ‘savvy’. (Especially the

older customer segments)

– 96% of customer’s time spent connected to the Internet, is in their

INBOX. (Jupiter)

• Email EBPP eliminates all of these barriers

Bill Presentment & Payment via Secure eMail.

• Use encryption & advanced messaging technology to deliver

bills, statements, invoices, pay-stubs via secure EMAIL

instead of paper and postage.

• This enables Banks & Billers to:

– Deliver secure electronic documents by email.

– Enable payment linking directly from document.

– Provide consolidated account bills on multiple levels.

– Provide navigable billing reports and customer self-service

functionality within a secure email.

EBPP Adoption

• Bill Presentment and Payment strategies drive significant customer adoption:

1. Remove the need for the customer to register

2. Deliver the statement directly into the customer’s inbox

3. New customers ~ never send paper at all

4. Existing customers ~ encourage paper truncation

1. Opt-out (strongly recommended)

2. Opt-in

5. Personalize all aspects of the bill & associated marketing material

6. Leverage direct customer service functionality

7. Take payment instantly

Driving adoption

• Adoption:– New customers:

• NO paper ever: 20% to 30% of your total base in 12 months?

– Existing customers:• Contact centre: 25% of your total base in 12 months?• Website• Bill stuffers• Incentives ~ SMS email address

• Churn:– Total customers with email – 75% to 80%– Undeliverable email addresses: 8% to 12%

• Paper bill• Email clean

– Paper requests (opt-out): 2% to 7%

The goals of an eMail EBPP Project:

• Maximum customer adoption: – Total customer base: 10 to 20% in 24 months

– New customers: 30%

– Existing customers: 10%

• Over 60% paper truncation on adopted customers

• Over 60% electronic payment on adopted customers

• Reduced DSO

• Other:– Reduced billing call centre enquiries

– Updated customer information

– Increased web self service

EBPP via eMail is not new, its just new in North America

Gartner Research - 2004

Research 2004 / 2005

Gartner believes that, by 2006, “e-mail will become the dominant delivery mechanism for e-bills, as more consumers discover the convenience of the e-mail box as an e-bill aggregator (0.7 probability)”Avivah Litan, Research VP, Information Security & Risk, Gartner, Jan 2004

"There are several advantages to a corporation in “pushing” sensitive information to a customer rather than having them go pull the information, and one of the biggest advantages is that's the preference of the customer.” Avivah Litan, Research VP, Information Security & Risk, Gartner, Jan 2004

“It is imperative that billers maximize cost saving opportunities. Vendors like Striata are allowing for bill payment directly from within email, limiting the involvement of banks, but also eliminating the need for the consumer to visit a website to pay a bill. This “push” of (email) bills to consumers allows for expanded self-service, and hence reduced call center volume, as well as outstanding bills being paid more quickly.” Bruce Cundiff, Lead Analyst, Jupiter Research, Jan 2005

Excerpt from a 2003 TowerGroup Report

Case Study – NSTAR Gas & Electric

• NSTAR, a major electric utility in New England, recently undertook

a pilot initiative to deliver its electric bills to residential customers

via secure email, and to introduce a revolutionary new ability to

take check payment directly from within the email bill.

• This case study covers:

– The nature of the pilot project

– Samples of the secure email bills

– The payment solution incorporated

– Results to date of the pilot project

Pilot Details:

• Small pilot group– 1 letter with the bill

– 5% adoption (10 days)

• Opt-in web page registration– Account number

– Email address

• Automatic paper truncation

• 31 bill variations

• Zip code challenge

• ACH check payment functionality

Pilot Objectives:

• To test and prove that required formats can be delivered - HTML

• To measure the speed of delivery

• To test select pilot customers responses

• To refine the data delivery process

• To refine the unsubscribe process

• To gain internal business approval

• To fully close the in-email payment process and test customer

acceptance and usage of this payment option

The Payment Solution

• Check payment directly from within the eMail Bill

• No pre-registration

• 1 click payment

• Confirmation screen

• 2 confirmation emails

Results:

• Less than 9% unsubscription

– Therefore over 90% successful paper truncation

• Successful payments – majority of recipients

• Over 98% email deliverability

• Customer survey: (via email)

– 22% survey response in 4 days

– 77% “Overall, how would you rate NSTAR's Email Bill? “ – Good

& Excellent

– 78% “The bill was easy to pay” Yes

– 92% “Would you like NSTAR to offer Email Bill on a permanent

basis?” Yes

Payment results:

• Ave Days to Payment: 7.8

• Same Day Payments: 19%

• % <10 days till payment: 68%

• % >10 days till payment: 32%

With almost 70% paying in less than 10 days and a whopping 20%

paying on the same day of receipt, this has to have an incredible

impact on cash flow, in particular days receivables. 

Basically, the vast majority (over 50%) have to be paying this bill

before the paper could even hit their mail box.

Actual customer feedback:

• “Excellent idea - I wish you offered permanently! Bring it back!”

• “Nor receiving a paper statement is the best way to do things. People do not want to have a paper statement.”

• “It is more convenient and I am less likely to lose the bill and not pay on time”

• “I don't want to go back to paper. Please continue.”

• “Your pay service was excellent. Very convenient and easy to navigate! I hope you continue with this service”

• I hate all the paper bills I get. I would much rather get the email bill.”

• “This program is a great way to save time and paper. Hope you bring it back.”

• “Please keep this active!!!”• “Loved Email Bill. It was quick and

easy. I'm disappointed to see it end.”

• “Very practical, user friendly, good idea. Being in Massachusetts or in Florida, don't matter anymore. My electric bill is always at my finger tips.”

• “Email Bill worked fine for me. I work nights and paying by email bill was great. Instead of taking my lunch hour to run to the post office I can just send my payment through email bill paying system.”

NSTAR Demo

Double click on the secure HTML attachment to view the eBill

Email is digitally signed to authenticate the sender

NSTAR Demo

Enter password

Marketing opportunity

NSTAR Demo

Billing information

Link to online copy of back page of bill

Payment from within the email just 1 click required

NSTAR Demo

Online, full back page details as per the printed bill

Payment Options & Demos

• Paying the secure email bill

can be achieved through

three different options:

– Payment directly from

within the email.

– Secure linking to an

Internet payments page.

– Secure linking to the billers

online bill pay.

AMEX Demo

Double click on the secure HTML attachment to view the eBill

Email is digitally signed to authenticate the sender

AMEX Demo

Enter login details

Marketing opportunity

AMEX Demo

Billing information

Link to online version of back page of bill and a form to update details

Payment from within the email just 1 click required

Online link to CSV bill data download

AMEX Demo

Online version of full back page details as per the printed bill

Online self service form to update details

Your own eMail Billing Pilot

• Choose a customer segment whose email addresses

you already have

• Start gathering email addresses across all customer

touch points

• Send introductory email

• Choose ‘Opt-out’ vs. ‘Opt-in’

• Send secure eMail Bill with the paper bill

• Truncate everybody who opens the eMail Bill

• Track the measures carefully