Water company is first to sign with OneVu

LONDON (22 March, 2005) – Sutton & East Surrey Water (SESW) is the first organisation to sign up to the OneVu solution in a move designed to improve customer service and boost efficiency. OneVu is the UK’s first consolidated electronic bill presentment and payment service which lets people see, track and pay all their bills from the familiar, secure environment of their online bank.

SESW has offered their 270,000 customers the facility to log onto their website and pay their bills online since 1997 but has seen just 1% choose to do so.

Michael Cock, IT Manager at SESW, explains:

“We believe that the ‘biller direct’ model that we have offered so far is just not attractive enough for our customers who are not prepared to take the time to log in to a large number of websites to pay each of their bills individually. We have always believed that a consolidated approach is by far the best and have waited until a good strong option entered the UK marketplace. OneVu will enable our customers to access and pay not only their water bill but eventually nearly all their bills through a single interface via their bank.”

SESW currently estimates that it costs them 50p to generate a paper bill which are issued twice a year for each customer, and believes savings can be made with the OneVu solution through a reduction in the processing and posting of paper bills and lower communications costs. Environmental benefits were also a key driver.

SESW’s existing billing software has been designed by DST International who will undertake the integration with the OneVu system and it is estimated that this will take just 3 weeks and will cost less than £20k. A pilot programme will commence in April 2005 and go live in the Autumn. It will allow customers to ‘drill down’ to the detail of every bill and is free to use.

Martin Kearsley, CEO at OneVu, said: “The OneVu solution offers companies the ability to improve their efficiency by integrating their billing, accounts receivable and consumer care systems, improving communications and reconciliation, and shortening the bills-to-payments cycle. Other tangible savings can be made with a reduction in postage, packaging and customer enquiries. SESW has proven once again that it is at the forefront of IT development and customer service and I am confident that other organisations will be quick to follow.”

Editor's note:

• OneVu is the UK’s first consolidated electronic bill presentment and payment service which lets people see, track and pay all their bills from the familiar, secure environment of their online bank.
• Using proven technology, the OneVu solution has been designed to encourage discussion with, and incorporate input from, the banking and billing communities. Invisible to online consumers who will only see their recognised billers’ and bankers’ brands, the OneVu solution encourages participation from the widest range of partners.
• OneVu is a joint venture between Voca (formerly BACS Ltd), which processes over 4 billion financial transactions each year, and CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ: CKFR), a global leader in financial electronic commerce services.

For further information please contact:

Lizzie Woolley, The Weston Partnership,
Tel: 020 8671 9031
07881 923 530
Lizzie@westonpartnership.co.uk