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May 2, 2005 |
Advertising Feature
As the world's first electronic post office, epost put Canada ahead of the Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (or EBPP) market by providing a free, universally available e-billing solution within a postal brand.
Now, after acquiring Canada’s other EBPP consolidator, epost has put Canada at the forefront of the market again, creating the most comprehensive consolidated EBPP service in the world.
The Internet’s ability to create environments where transactions occur in real time and where communication is direct and immediate has changed the way consumers and companies interact. That shift has led to services such as Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment or EBPP, which replaces paper mail with electronic documents.
Whether these “e-bills” are provided by a consolidator, offering documents from many different companies, or “biller direct,” offering documents from just one company, EBPP provides convenient access to important information via the Internet.
“EBPP is a strategic addition for companies that communicate regularly with customers and want to expand online customer care services,” said Roger Couldrey, president and CEO of epost, Canada Post’s online mail delivery service. “Canadians have proven to be particularly open to online services with more than 10 million Canadians banking online. We see EBPP as a natural fit with these online activities.”
As the world’s first electronic post office, epost has provided a secure and universally available EBPP solution to Canadians since 1999.
Previously, while EBPP showed great promise, Canada was divided between both epost and webdoxs, a second consolidator supported by numerous financial institutions. Industry analysts predicted that as long as the two continued to split Canada’s mailers between them, EBPP would not achieve the critical mass (five out of 10 household bills) needed to convince consumers to adopt the service.
In July of 2004 epost united Canada’s consolidators by acquiring the webdoxs service. Together, the services will provide Canadians with a single EBPP hub to access an unprecedented seven out of 10 household bills. Currently, epost is working with Canada’s major financial institutions to integrate the service so online banking customers can seamlessly receive, view, pay and store their epost mail from their online banking site. This is expected to be complete in Spring 2005.
“We see our partnership with Canada’s financial institutions as a real value for all epost partner mailers,” said Couldrey. “Research focused on people who bank online shows they are increasingly aluable, long-term bank customers who are more likely to invest more money and purchase additional services. These are the same customers that would be attracted to and benefit from EBPP. It’s our goal to have every Canadian banking online receiving all their critical mail online through epost.”
That critical mail doesn’t only include e-bills. Since its inception, epost has predicted a time when all types of mail could be delivered to Canadians through their secure epost mail box. Unlike its contemporaries south of the border, epost has already expanded its electronic document offerings to include paystubs, tax documents, trade confirmations and other investment statements. Another first for Canadians, courtesy of epost.
This year epost, the online mail delivery service for Canada Post, will become available through the online banking websites of BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Credit Union Central of British Columbia, Laurentian Bank, Desjardins, National Bank of Canada, RBC Financial Group, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust. As the only e-bill consolidator in Canada, epost has set its sights on wooing Canada’s vast online banking population. It’s a valuable consumer segment that could have a big impact for the company. Consider this:
More than 11 million Canadians go online to access financial sites (ComScore Media Metrics 2004).
Canadians are early adopters of Web-based financial services, particularly when compared with Americans. In 2003, 55 per cent of Canadian Internet users used the Web for banking vs. 37 per cent of American Internet users (Forrester Research).
Customers who use their bank’s online payment tend to keep twice as much money at the bank than those who simply check their accounts online, and are more open to branding and cross-selling offers (ComScore Media Metrics 2004).
For more information go to http://www.epost.ca
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