Microgen Plc, a UK-based document management outsourcing services company, is to offer business-to-business electronic billing, an area it estimates can save firms between 20% and 35% of the cost of paper invoicing. Three-month pilots are already running with a utility company and a concrete manufacturer, although managing director Martyn Ratcliffe says there is no exclusive market where the billing can be used.
The e-billing product uses Microgen’s Axess software, containing the information about invoicing records, to alert a firm to send invoices out to its customers. Built into the invoice is software that funnels information on delivery ratification and how a customer reads its invoices back to the database for analysis. Axess stores invoices to provide audit trails, as well as records of the relationship between a firm and its customers.
The business-to-consumer market, however, is potentially far larger. Ratcliffe does not give market figures, but does say that there are 26 million households in the UK, each receiving an average of 10 bills a month. The savings, he says, are higher than the business-to-business model; it doesn’t require a degree in calculus to see that this is a lucrative prospect.
Microgen will set up pilot schemes for the business-to-consumer model this year, with services likely next year. Consumers tend to change their email addresses more often than businesses, which makes the transaction more difficult. And the question of payment is a consumer issue, which doesn’t occur in the long-lasting relationships inherent in business-to-business e-billing. Microgen will look to set up partnerships with banks for payment processing and channels to distribute the invoices.
Although big players such as the large consulting houses and banks have been eyeing e-billing, Microgen’s background in traditional mail and print-based marketing gives it an advantage. Ratcliffe reckons that these two conventional forms of invoicing and billing will still be used in ten years’ time, and the combination of mixed media is making the big fish hesitate before leaping into the new pool.
