ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 28, 2000 — TransPoint LLC today announced that six new companies have committed to offering the TransPoint TM online payment service. Customers of Boston Edison, ConEdison Solutions and Nevada Power Co. can now receive and pay their bills via the Internet through TransPoint. Meanwhile, Cable One Inc. and Puget Sound Energy have signed contracts to distribute e-bills through TransPoint, and they are expected to go live in the next several months. In addition, Chevron Corp. has signed a contract with billserv.com Inc., a leading electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) service bureau, to present its Chevron e-bill through TransPoint. The Chevron e-bill is expected to go live with TransPoint this summer.
This announcement comes shortly after TransPoint launched a new version of its service that includes the Pay Anyone feature. Through TransPoint’s online payment service, consumers can view and pay bills that arrive electronically through TransPoint or the U.S. Postal Service, and pay nearly anyone else they want.
With one fully integrated and convenient service, consumers with Internet access can pay all their bills with a few clicks of a mouse. Companies that deliver bills electronically through TransPoint benefit from targeted marketing, greater control over the billing process, and personalized customer care. Their customers benefit from an easy, convenient service that is fast, flexible and secure.
“Having these companies sign on with TransPoint demonstrates the tremendous momentum that e-billing is experiencing,”
said Lewis Levin, president and CEO of TransPoint.
“More and more companies are realizing the convenience that e-bills can bring to their customers, and they are making the service a key part of their customer care program.”
The e-bills industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. According to recent statistics from Forrester Research Inc., a Boston-based research firm, 33 percent of wired households will pay bills online in five years. By 2004, Forrester expects that 2 billion consumer bills — 13 percent of the U.S. total — will be presented and paid electronically.
“Customers are looking for convenience. Chevron’s service-oriented strategy involves delivering statements to customers at the Internet Web site of their choosing,”
said Mike Colvin, project manager for EBPP at Chevron.
“We see distribution of bills through TransPoint as a key component of our strategy.”
“The ability to deliver great customer service is so closely tied to a company’s success, especially in the cable industry,”
said Steve Fox, vice president of digital services and IT for Cable One.
“TransPoint will allow us to offer our customers the ease and convenience of receiving and paying their bills online and will open a more direct line of communication with our company.”
Customers can check the status of their e-bills and pending payments via their computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If more help is needed, the TransPoint EBPP service includes Web site support and a fully staffed customer-service team. The costs of customer inquiries are also dramatically reduced with EBPP, because much of the user interface offers self-help options.
Currently, the TransPoint e-bills service is available to consumers through the MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance service at http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/ , the TransPoint Web site at http://www.transpoint.com/ , the Compass Bank Web site at http://www.compassweb.com/ , and the InterWest Bank Web site at http://www.interwestbank.com/ . Several other popular Internet destination sites and consumer service providers have committed to go live with TransPoint in the next few months.
About TransPoint
TransPoint, established in June 1997, is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and First Data Corp., with Citibank as a minority equity investor. Englewood, Colo.-based TransPoint is a leader in the emerging electronic bill presentment and payment industry with a seamless e-bills service built from the ground up. The TransPoint system uses innovative technology and integrates easily with billers’ and banks’ existing payment systems. The TransPoint service is designed to be the fast, easy way for consumers with Internet access to make all of their payments online from a single, secure Web site. Consumers can pay their bills at multiple Internet locations, including the MSN MoneyCentral personal finance online service, the TransPoint Web site, and at the Web sites of participating financial institutions.
On Feb. 15, TransPoint entered into a definitive merger agreement with CheckFree Corp., a leader in electronic billing and payment. The combined technologies and relationships of the two entities are expected to accelerate moving the billing and payment process from paper to the Internet and to advance the rate at which consumers sign up for electronic billing. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase by CheckFree and is expected to be final in four to six months. More information about TransPoint is available at http://www.transpoint.com/ .
TransPoint is an exclusive U.S. trademark of TransPoint LLC. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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