With the rise and increase of high speed internet more people are learning the freedom of paying online. In fact 63% (2006 Survey by The Marketing Workshop) of those who have a connection to the internet will use that connection to pay bills! Whoa back the pay bill truck up and say howdy to increased business savings. I have found though in my general research that many businesses are slow to implement the e.bill savings opportunity for some of the following reasons:

1. Job security. Martha or John, Frank or Roberta, Niles or Sue, are in a comfortable position running the bill file, stuffing the envelopes, and sending the bills. They have been in that position for 20 years and are looking for the grand day of retirement when the years of hard work they have invested start paying them in return. Admirable is their goal and worthy is their cause; however, maybe they can get greater satisfaction from other opportunities.

No not in another company but in another cause that expands their horizons and challenges their capabilities. They move from paper bill specialists to electronic bill specialists whose responsibilities include preparation of the bill file as always, but now expands to electronic bill adoption specialists. They help customers migrate from one form of bill to another.

Or perhaps their talents can be used in another part of the company to help improve efficiencies and processes, after all they most likely know more about billing than the CFO, controller, or financial manager. Any of these managers could gain significant knowledge from any one of these individuals.

2. "We are just to small," says another potential customer. True, bill volumes do need to be at a point where you can save on postage print and mailing, but what is too small? Studies have shown that companies with bill volume of 5000 or more can benefit from the savings e.bill has to offer. These companies must go into e.bill with the intention of suppressing paper thus saving the money to print, mail and collect; however, even with an adoption rate as low as 10% this small company can save $16,000 in the first year of e.bill, now that is significant savings and the savings increase from there.

So before ruling out e.bill because you think you are too small or bill volumes are too low run the numbers you may be surprised that you can pay for an e.bill system and get the return on that investment in under a year.

3. "We all ready accept payment online," There is a huge difference between paying online and electronic billing. You are providing for your customers convenience which keeps them happy; however, you are missing a large savings opportunity.

Yes, I will admit that paying online does save you about $.13 per electronically paid bill; however, the larger savings is in postage paper and print of the bill itself, on that portion you could be saving as much as $.75 per electronically presented bill.

A full electronic bill which means presenting online and paying online will give you the total amount of savings. If you are concerned about suppressing paper there are several strategies that can calm your nerves; however, not enough room in this article to discuss them. Try searching for articles on paper suppression to learn the different strategies of turning off the paper.

4. "The cost of implementing an e.bill system is too much." If you are building your own solution or buying a previously built e.bill engine, you are right the cost is much too high. On the other hand investing in a hosted e.bill solution gives you the advantages of e.billing at a very low implementation investment which means your ROI is less than a year.

After considering the above concerns, reasons, rationalizations, the question for you to answer is "How can I afford not to implement an e.bill solution?" One other note that might be of interest to you, studies have shown that e.Bill customers are more loyal or as one utility manager put it, "e.bill reduces resentment." What ever the case may be your savings from e.bill is waiting reach out and embrace it.