British Gas has begun e-mailing bills to customers in the
first stage of the company's ambitious plan to process one million
customers via online billing by 2005.
British Gas, which sends out more than 70 million paper bills every
year, will be able to boost customer service as well as cut costs
and increase internal efficiency by using e-billing, said Avivah
Litam, an analyst at Gartner.
"Internet billing and payment reduces costs and drives economies
and savings to a company's bottom line," she said. "By looking at
only cost savings, however, a biller can forget that e-billing
generates significant business value for a company by enabling it
to deliver superior and efficient customer service."
The move comes as utility companies are facing increasing pressure
from Ofgem to improve the efficiency of billing processes.
