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BTI'S
NEXTBILL ALLOWS BANKS TO COMPETE IN THE ELECTRONIC BILLING ARENA
DALLAS (January 24, 1999)... Brinkman Technologies Inc. (BTI) today announces the release of NextBill , an electronic billing system that will enable banks to compete for a share of the lucrative electronic bill presentment, bill payment industry. The new system can be utilized by any financial institution that wants to offer electronic bill payment services to commercial customers. With lower front-end costs, no ongoing transaction fees, and complete in-house control over the bill presentment and bill payment process, this new model allows banks to compete with CheckFree, Intuit, Microsoft, etc. for a share of the lucrative electronic billing industry. Also, banks can use the technology in-house for their loan and mortgage billing. The lower costs-per-bill can be passed along to the consumer, resulting in a less expensive yet more powerful billing process. "For banks, NextBill offers an entirely new revenue opportunity," said Mark Brinkman, BTI president. "Until now, they've had no option other than the third-party models in which they were offered minimal opportunity to capture revenue and no control over the bill payment process. With NextBill, banks can use existing in-house technology to recapture those fees and take in-house control over the bill payment process. They'll also be able to attract new commercial customers by competing in the market as a service bureau." The NextBill system will be installed on a Web Server at the bank's data center or hosting service organization. The system will collect billing information from a company's accounts receivable or billing system and will generate billing information in HTML format, which is sent to the customers by e-mail. Company information and advertisements can also be included on the billing statements. Customers who choose to receive their billing statements by e-mail will use their current Internet access services to receive bills and authorize payments with no requirement for bill payment software. To pay the bill, a customer will simply click on a "Pay Bill" hyperlink listed on the e-mail statement, linking the customer to a payment screen on the company's Web site. The NextBill system gives consumers greater control over the billing process by allowing them to select the format of their bills, the payment method and the ability to set the payment amount and effective date. Once the payment information has been received by the NextBill system, the transaction is either warehoused or processed, depending on the effective date. During processing, the system will create an ACH transaction to debit the customer's financial institution account and send the payment data to the company's billing system to credit the account. Transactions for each day are placed into an ACH batch that is processed by the bank through the Federal Reserve System.
About NextBill.com, Inc.NextBill.com, Inc., a pioneer in the direct EBPP model, is a Biller Service Provider that links billers directly to their customers while providing enhanced customer care, one-to-one marketing opportunities, cost savings and improved cash forecasting capabilities. The NextBill model uses two trusted technologies: e-mail to deliver bills to customers and the Federal Reserve for online payments. After receiving an e-mailed bill, customers make payments by clicking on a "Pay Bill" hyperlink to an online payment screen at the biller's Web site. The payment is then processed via the Federal Reserve's Automated Clearinghouse system. Brinkman Technologies, Inc. (BTI) utilized its existing ACH software, CAP 2000, as the foundation for NextBill and contributed the technology to a newly formed company in February 2000. In April 2000, Eagle Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: EBSI) acquired 60% ownership in the company after its largest subsidiary, Tucker Federal Bank, successfully piloted the NextBill system. For more information, visit NextBill.com's virtual press room at www.nextbill.com/vpr . |
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