This white-label service gives consumer-focused companies a quick, low-capital investment approach to offering their customers the means to view statements, bills and other documents online as well as pay bills online. By offering their customers an alternative to receiving paper copies, organizations can reduce costs, improve customer care and drive increased traffic to their Websites.

The agreement with CheckFree marks the next phase in Symcor's vision to be the leading closed-loop statement-to-payment solution provider in Canada. "Organizations struggle with how to effectively manage the transition as customers move from a paper-based to electronic approach for the receipt and payment of statements, bills and other documents," explained Tim Relke, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Emerging Products, Symcor. "Our service provides an effective approach to managing this adoption lifecycle, facilitating paper suppression and containing costs." The introduction of this service positions Symcor as the only provider of integrated print and electronic statement and payments services in Canada with the capability to manage this transition.

Despite Canada's high Internet penetration and Canadians' higher propensity to pay bills online, Canada trails the United States and other countries in its adoption of electronic presentment. A study by Monitor Group shows that while Canadians are ready to view statements, bills and other documents online, they are either unaware or unsatisfied with available offerings in the market to actually pay their bills. "Canadian consumers are looking for a trusted provider to present their confidential information online and to accept payments on their behalf," explained John Mavriyannakis, Vice President, Emerging Products, Symcor. "Our simple-to-implement, customizable solution enables companies to deliver these new online services to their customers without the capital investment, time and risk associated with implementing it in-house. They can meet their customers' needs to view statements, bills and other documents online and pay bills online in record time."

The new service will be available later this year. As Mavriyannakis pointed out, "This solution represents a significant hard and soft dollar benefit for our customers. By presenting documents online, companies can drive traffic to their Websites, which represents an opportunity to increase cross- selling and up-selling while at the same time driving down the cost of servicing. And with Symcor's ability to manage the conversion of consumers from print to online, companies can finally take advantage of the cost and customer satisfaction benefits of moving their customers online."

Symcor selected CheckFree because as the industry leader in electronic billing and payment, CheckFree was able to provide an unparalleled depth of experience and breadth of functional capability. "CheckFree has deep payment knowledge and best-practice expertise with our implementation model. The CheckFree i-Series software, with its standards-based Web design, payment database, document management and configurability tools, gives us all the functionality, flexible architecture and proven usability required to take Canadian e-billing services to the next level," Mavriyannakis said.

"Symcor already has a leading position as a statement and payments processor in Canada," said Matt McKernan, Senior Vice President, Biller Business Unit, CheckFree. "This, combined with CheckFree's expertise in developing complex e-billing services, places Symcor in an extremely strong position within Canada's rapidly growing EDPP and document management markets."