TPG E-Postbox service makes headway
Privver, the Royal TPG Post subsidiary in Holland, says its consumer-bent digital letterbox service is gaining momentum.
Privver executives say 13 billers and other mailers are currently sending out e-bills, statements and other documents through the PrivverConsolidator service, which debuted in December.
Some 100,000 consumers are reportedly registered for the service. "We're growing and growing," boasts Privver managing director Arthur van Veen.
Biller/senders should hit 15-18 by the end of the year. Privver's service is free to consumers but companies pay a fee to send their bills, statements, payment confirmations, newsletters and direct mail. Besides a monthly maintenance fee of 2,000 euros and a one-time set-up fee of about 50,000 euros, biller/mailers pay 30 euro cents to send out each document. The Privver system is permission-based; the consumer decides what mail he wants to get electronically and from whom.
Sender/billers using the Privver service include SNS Bank, KPN Telecom, cable services provider Casema, euroShell, Red Cross, Greenpeace, medical insurance firm VGZ and local utility Nuon.
Van Veen claims the post is on target signing up consumers, but what exactly that target is seems to be debatable. TPG executives previously said they wanted 200,000 users by August. Van Veen claimed the target was really 100,000 but, when pressed, acknowledged that there was another internal target that he declined to discuss. "We're very satisfied with our success," he said. By way of a plug, he added that market surveys suggest that mailers and consumers are happy with the service.
According to Van Veen, 80% of Privver's registered members actively use the service. Most of them have reportedly signed up to get at least one bill or statement. Bills supposedly account for 25% of the messages the service delivers.
Privver's goal is to involve the large senders in the banking, insurance, telco, utility and non-profit sectors. Its competition comes mainly from e-bill software vendors such as CheckFree, in-house implementations and other vendors focused on direct billing and archiving. Van Veen feels that Posten, the Swedish postal operator, and Finland Post have the potential to become key competitors if they extend their services to other countries.
Having made some headway in the domestic market, Van Veen is mulling extending Privver's service to Germany and the UK but international plans appear to be in the early stages. The idea seems to be to enter new geographies in partnerships with companies that have complementary strengths. Van Veen says he's had discussions with several parties in both Germany and the UK but admits the service is not close to launch in either place.
However, Van Veen is in no great rush. He argues that delivering bills and statements electronically is still an emerging market. "We're doing this step-by-step. If you want to go too fast, you have to sometimes disappoint people. You may have to make promises that you cannot live up to," he said.
Besides PrivverConsolidator, TPG Post also offers the PrivverProfessional and PrivverPostView services. PrivverProfessional is a sender-branded B2B invoice presentment scheme that can be integrated into a company's web site and adapted to its look-and-feel. PrivverPostView is directed at call centers and lets customer service reps access an exact digital replica of documents that have been delivered either electronically or physically.
Van Veen called their market performance "quite okay." He would not comment on revenues or profitability of the Privver services.
Privver has 30 employees and is headquartered at Leidschendam, close to The Hague.
