Note 57: Distribution Operations

Posted: 23 November 2008

Common Data Source: To reduce confusion for both the customer and the biller's staff, the information for each billing channel must be drawn from a common consistent data source and be reconcilable if presented in different formats. If consistent information is not used, customers can receive conflicting details when two distribution channels are compared and/or the biller's staff may view different information to that seen by customers. A similar observation applies where subsections of the primary bill are sent to secondary recipients (e.g. by product offering, service list, role, branch office).

Bill Cycle Planning: The completion of billing cycles and the subsequent distribution of bills should be planned ahead of time and managed to completion to ensure that the expected workload through the billing system and related groups aligns with the resources available and business priorities.

For example, the biller may establish a timetable with their printing vendor as to when specific billing cycles will arrive and their expected bill volumes. This helps the print vendor plan the workload through their printers and then onward to the postal cutoff timetable required for posting the bills. If billing cycles are delayed, or multiple cycles arrive at once, the print vendor must manage (with the biller) the priority in which cycles are printed to ensure their posting deadlines are met.

Another example involves the biller's call centres (whether internal or outsourced). Once bills have been sent, customers will contact the biller to inquire about and dispute their charges. To avoid overloading the call centres, the workload management of the biller's call centres may necessitate that bill cycles are distributed (posted, emailed) in a staggered manner (e.g. on subsequent days) rather than all at once. Often the peak calling (contact) days are when the bill first arrives in the customer's hands, and the days close to the bill's due date.

Holiday periods such as Christmas/New Year may also require special planning to address the availability of staff and altered postal cutoff and delivery times. The biller's and print vendor's staff may not be available over the same timeframes, the postal cutoffs may be different, and the excessive mail volumes associated with Christmas may cause delivery times to be delayed.

Bill Reproductions: Once the bill has been produced and distributed there may be situations when additional copies are required. For example, mail may be lost, the 'dog' may have eaten the bill, or the biller's staff may require a copy for internal use. To support this, the billing cycle's processed data may be stored in a location and format which supports its easy retrieval and reproduction.

Supporting this functionality poses problems for large billers that produce many bills per customer per year. Due to the volume of data involved, the biller may need to store this information off-line. To minimise the costs of retrieval an automated mechanism may be required that collates the reproductions required and automates their retrieval and distribution. Bills may need to be retrievable for periods measured in years.

Reproduced bills may need to be sent to a different customer address, or to an internal address for the biller's staff, and may need to be differentiated from the original to comply with regulation (e.g. tax regulations that require a differentiation between original invoices and subsequent copies).

Tags: Billing, Distribution, Operations, Postal, Call Centre, Paper Bill