Did you know that each Starbucks store offers almost 70 different types of beverages? Order a Blended Crème Frappucino at a Starbucks and don’t be surprised if they ask if you want to make that a Double Chocolate Chip, a Tazo Green Tea, a Strawberries-and-Crème, or one of five other types of Blended Crème Frappucino. It’s all about choices, and where there is consumer demand, there are bound to be options.

Consumers today are bombarded with numerous choices when shopping for, and we have to admit that it has become a way of life. It is not surprising, therefore, that consumers not only demand a range of products and services, but also a variety of options when it comes time to pay the bill. They are also looking for convenient options to make payments, as well as control over the frequency and timing of the transactions.

These three aspects – choice, convenience…

“Build and they will buy,” was Henry Ford’s mantra in the early 1900’s when he introduced his first horseless carriage, the Model T. He built, and consumers eagerly lapped up the cars as soon as they came off the assembly line. But today, more than a century later, the days of Ford’s Model T are long gone.

Biller organizations – utilities, telecom, credit cards, mortgage companies and others that bill consumers on a recurring basis – can no longer be confident that all they have to do is provide easy and convenient electronic options for bill payments and their customers will adopt them. Results of a Billing and Collections Survey by PayStream Advisors, a Charlotte, NC-based research and consulting company, validate this fact.

The survey revealed that biller organizations were forging ahead on the automation curve – with 74 percent of survey respondents offering an electronic option when it was time to…

The introduction of Mastercard’s Payment Gateway, coupled with JPMorgan/Xign’s AP Trac into the Accounts Payable and B2b world carries with it a striking promise, the promise of Buyer Initiated Payments (BIP).

In the traditional card transaction, the seller/vendor/supplier end is the initiating event that starts the payment process. In BIP, the transaction is initiated by the Buyer. Some in the industry call this Accounts Payable Purchasing Card or AP P-Card or Buyer Push Card. Let me give an extremely contrived example to illustrate the difference in a buyer initiated payment:

When you’re buying your triple Venti nonfat half-caff soy latte with 1 pump mocha, 1 pump caramel and 1 pump peppermint (if it’s the holiday season), low foam, non-fat whip, steamed milk at 185 degrees, 2 packets of Splenda (shaken, not stirred), 3 drops of half & half and an extra protective sleeve, coffee drink from Starbucks, the moment…

Have you noticed that the U.S. is a nation of contradictions? This country came up with electricity, the silicon chip, the personal computer, Amazon.com, the iPod, Google, and reality TV (OK, so that’s a bad example). We have very active capital markets. We launch businesses and have active venture capital to fund them. We have entrepreneurs everywhere.

And yet when it comes to financial transactions, we are in the dark ages. Take, for example, the use of debit cards. They are just starting to be prominent in the U.S. But I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Europe, and the dominance of debit cards and “smart cards” that keep account details on the card and ensure authentication - they’re everywhere! In fact, they were everywhere 5 years ago.

For B2B transactions, well, the situation is even worse than with B2C transactions. …

I recently spoke with Ed Katz, SVP Healthcare Solutions, about the acquisition of LASON by HOV Services and the positive impact it had on the HOV Services healthcare business.

HOV Services is among the top-tier business process outsourcing firms, of which I would also include Accenture and IBM. All three of these players have a strong presence in the healthcare industry.

In conversation with Ed, I learned that the new HOV Healthcare Advantage solution builds on the core revenue cycle management (RCM) offering that was developed and refined by the former LASON group. The biggest impact of the new offering was the addition of expanded capabilities in the area of accounts receivable collections. Whereas the legacy RCM solution identified where collections efforts were needed, it fell short in terms of providing the services to pursue those dollars. This former weakness has now become a notable strength for HOV Services, particularly in the…

Although I initially intended my first post to be a thought leading, insightful remark about electronic invoicing, the marketing guy in me couldn’t help but make a company announcement instead. I am pleased to report that last month the Transcepta Electronic Invoicing Community reached over 12,500 companies! Achieving this milestone in such a short time is further evidence that Transcepta is changing the landscape of electronic invocing. Customers finally can participate in sending and receiving invoices electronically without expensive, hassle ridden OCR, EDI, and eInvoicing networks. As the Community grows so does the value of the Community’s hosted, many to many architecture. For more information: Transcepta