IREA, Striata Reach Deal for E-Bill Product

IREA, one of the largest electric distribution cooperatives in the United States, has gone live with Striata's Secure E-mail Bill Presentment and Payment product.

 

Striata, a vendor of e-mail presentment and payment products, is helping IREA replace paper bills with electronic document delivery. IREA only recently added the ability for its members to make electronic payments online or by phone.

 
"The end goal is to go as electronic as we can while giving our consumers more options," said Mandi Lesher, IREA administrator of special projects, in a statement.

 

The eBill is a replica of the paper bill but with added interactive features such as personalized news and information and, for consumers whose account is in good standing, a one-click payment ability from within the electronic document itself.

 

"Electric billing and online payments complement each other," said Lesher. "With eBill, instead of checking your mailbox, you check your e-mail. With eBills, consumers have the option of making an electronic payment instead of writing a check."

 

Nearly 80 percent of the population now has internet access, yet only 30 percent use it to make online payments. Within the utilities industry, less than 10 percent of consumers make use of bill-paying Web sites to pay their bills. However, these numbers are significantly higher for IREA members, company officials say, adding that "of those enrolled in eBilling, more than 50 percent pay within a day or two of receiving the bill."

 

Garin Toren, COO for Striata North America, said IREA, "starting with no customer e-mail addresses at all, has enrolled 14 percent of their total members within the first month." IREA began training their Consumer Service Representatives to collect e-mail addresses at every customer touch point. Within a few months, they managed to collect 14 percent of their member's e-mail addresses.

 

Following an opt-out strategy, any customer with an associated e-mail address was automatically enrolled in the eBilling service. Since the idea behind the eBilling project was "to turn off as many paper bills as possible," company officials say, "the automatic enrollment included sending electronic statements to customers who pay via automatic bank debit as well."

 

The opt-out rate for this strategy was minimal because it didn't require customers to be proactive about retrieving their bills.

 

In April Striata partnered with Epostmarks to enhance security and authentication when delivering statements, bills, collection notices, policies and all other high volume, system generated documents via secure e-mail.

 

This offering "guarantees e-mail document delivery, increases inbox penetration, adds the legal protection of the United States Postal Service Electronic Postmark," company officials said.