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Exstream Solution for 'First and Fast' Bill Payment

January 2008
With an imminent credit crunch dominating headlines both in the UK and US, prompt payment of bills will become even more of a priority, and the Holy Grail for every organisation will be to get their bills paid ‘first and fast'.

Is every business going to suffer from the United States' sub-prime lending crisis, or is there a solution?

It's clear that when it comes to payment, bill design is extremely important. A bill that's confusing or hard to understand is likely to be put on the consumer's ‘too difficult' pile, where it will probably stay until you've sent a further costly reminder.

The necessity to maintain cash flow has resulted in billing moving beyond the accounts department into general management and marketing, and for bills themselves to be viewed as interactive documents between an enterprise and its customers.

Bill design isn't, of course, like designing a marketing mailshot. The raft of regulations surrounding billing means that the designer doesn't have free rein for imagination or creativity. However, there are ways that a bill can be made easier to understand, to arrive promptly, and even engage the customer in a positive response – all whilst maintaining the highest levels of accuracy and security.

OTM, best-known for its work at the leading edge of billing technology and with clients that include npower and Avis, has invested in Exstream Software's Dialogue Live product in order to enhance the billing services it offers its customers.

The installation of Dialogue, which will go live mid-February 2008, will increase the speeds at which OTM can accept data and the ease with which it can build documents from customer supplied files.

Linda Scott at OTM, says: "The software will also have an impact on design, enabling the customer's raw billing data to be formatted into a traditional bill, mailshot or letter. Changes can be made more quickly and easily, which is particularly important when extra information needs to be included in response to regulations".

"Dialogue formats a template which can be used on a daily, weekly or even hourly basis, whenever the customer wants to send through data. The whole document is then printed and mailed out. It's a seamless conversion of data into documentation."

Variable information is the key factor that turns a standard bill into an interactive customer communication, and Dialogue provides the option to add messages in the bill's ‘white space'. These can be segmented by whatever rules the billing organisation wants to impose, based on the information it holds, for example: messages can be added by postcode, name, or even propensity to buy similar products or services.

Online proofing enables the speedup of workflow, with customers able to view the layout on-screen and make the project go live by clicking their approval.

"In essence, this investment allows organisations to outsource their transactional print and mailing to us while retaining full control of data, design and the timing of all communications," says Linda Scott.