Businesses benefiting from paperless billing

The convenience and savings provided by online and mobile banking have caused an increasing amount of enterprises to adopt paperless billing features. By deploying digital systems for financial information management, these firms can better service customers while saving costs, thus boosting the bottom line.

The Washington Post reported that Wells Fargo is one company that has leveraged paperless initiatives for considerable advantages. According to the source, Wells Fargo's newest branch in Northeast Washington D.C. enables employees to use tablets and smartphones to assist customers, and clients are able to have digital receipts for their transactions emailed or text messaged to them. This location is the first of its kind, but the firm believes that these features represent the future of banking. Jonathan Velline, executive vice president for ATM banking and store strategy at Wells Fargo, explained to The Washington Post that traditional branches typically require up to 40 percent of the space to be designated for back offices. However, the paperless transition has also enabled the firm to cut down on storage space: At approximately 1,000 square feet, the new branch is one-third the size of a typical bank.

"It's a very efficient use of space for us," he told the source. "In a 3,000 square-foot store, we would have an area for full-service banking, and a separate area for self-service banking. Here we fit it all in once place."

The Washington Post noted that the branch's new system better reflects changes in peoples' banking habits as the majority of customers now favor wireless and mobile applications.

Green billing
AccessNorthGa.com revealed that Sawnee Electric Membership Corporation (Sawnee EMC) in Cumming, Ga., recently promoted its paperless billing program for Earth Day{link isn't working}. As the company has embraced many electronic document management processes, officials say Sawnee has been able to save considerable time from administrative tasks and reducing paper and postage waste. Blake House, vice president of member service for the firm, commented on these paperless initiatives.

"We receive over 800 calls in our Call Center on a typical day and we mail out over 130,000 bills each month; if we can just get one third of those members to switch over to our paperless program and start using our electronic approaches, thousands of pounds of paper could be saved from landfills," House stated, according to the news source.

Switching to a digital system to manage billing and payments has immense potential benefits for both enterprises and customers that promote cost savings, employee productivity and better long-term client relationships.

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