US researchers predict e-billing could save billions

Companies that bill customers over the Internet could significantly shrink operating costs, according to a report published recently by US researchers Killen & Associates.

The group is predicting that companies which replace conventional billing systems with electronic versions could collectively be saving as much as $8bn annually by 2001. It based the figures on case studies of US companies that have already embraced e-billing, including American Express, AT&T and Bellsouth.

Jeoffrey Mann, ecommerce program director at Meta Group, welcomes to the move as a real application of ecommerce to current business practices.

But Mann warned that in Europe, e-billing adoption won't be as fast as the report predicts. Payment systems in the US are "incredibly archaic" which - together with the fact that customer numbers are so immense - means that it is crying out for billing reform, he said. Europe's systems are relatively advanced and highly variable across different countries which could hinder the adoption of e-billing.