Comparative study of internet bill presentment and payment systems

Abstract

The Internet, as a simple delivery channel can simplify life of common person in many ways. Internet Bill Presentment and Payment (IBPP) is one such benefit. This is a new service offered by various companies and banks to common users. People can make payment for their purchases, utility bills, credit card bills and the like on the Internet. IBPP is quite a recent phenomenon that has assumed the proportions of a big industry. This has also opened up a new fee based revenue source for banks. This project is the effort to understand and analyse various IBPP models, technologies, payment instruments, product vendors and the growing importance of IBPP. The project also studies the contemporary literature on IBPP and incorporates the opinion of industry experts. The models discussed are the Direct Billing model and the Consolidator model. Payment instruments discusses are non-card instruments like electronic cheques & electronic cash and card instruments like credit & debit cards. Various products discussed are BillerXpert from iPlanet, iPayment from Oracle, Teleprodigy from Wipro and PayAway from Infosys. A comparison of these products is done subsequent to the detailed study of each of these products. The project concludes with notes on growing importance of IBPP in digital marketplaces and mobile commerce era