For the purposes of this analysis, we have made the following assumptions:

• Total number of customers: 1,4 million
• Number of customers using the Utilities online EBPP website: 7% (98 000)
• Number of emails that the Utility has in addition to their online users: 10% (140 000)
• Cost per paper bill sent - paper, envelope & postage: 50c
• Cost per secure email bill sent - design, development & delivery: 14c
• The Utility sends a secure email bill to all online EBPP website users, as well as all other email address they have in addition to their online users.
• The utility automatically turns off the paper bill, once a customer adopts the secure email bill

Cost / Benefit Analysis:

Total number of customers:	1,400,000
Customers using EBPP website:	98,000	7%
Additional email addresses in the Utility's database:	140,000
Total number of email bills to be delivered:	238,000	Per month
Number of bills / statements sent per month:	1	Per customer
Current all inclusive paper cost:	$0.50	Per piece posted
Current all inclusive secure email cost:	$0.14	Per piece emailed
Saving per customer:	$0.37	Per month
Total monthly saving:	$86,870
Email Billing other costs:
Once off professional services / implementation:	$70,000	Year 1 only
Service Level Agreement:	$46,267	12% per annum
Total annual savings:	$926,173

After all costs are taken into consideration, the Utility will save approximately $1-million in the first year of their secure eBilling program.

The savings in year two will increase by approximately $70 000, as there are no setup costs in year two.

Considering that 75% of Americans use email, this number can be used as the maximum possible adoption rate. Savings will be considerably higher should the Utility undertake to actively gather their customers' email addresses.

In our next NewsFlash, we will consider the ways in which a biller can gather a significant number of their customers' email addresses.