AUSTIN, Texas – FundsXpress Financial Network Inc. has just completed migrating clients to the newest version of CheckFree's bill pay platform. Other than a four-hour window of downtime for the conversion, the two-month process was invisible to end users, says Greg Constantine, executive vice president at FundsXpress, a provider of online banking services to about 550 clients, about 30% of them credit unions. "The only other thing members will be presented with is a disclosure, with standard verbiage, that they'll see the first time they use the new service," Constantine says. They'll also be presented with an easier-to-use interface, with terminology and functions that make it easier to set up recurring payments and bill presentments, for instance, Constantine says. "Simplifying the enrollment process and biller set up, along with providing same-day or next-day payments dramatically impact the end user experience by making it easy for the consumer to use and trust," he says. "The biggest thing about that may be the addition of what we call earliest available payment," Constantine says. "That allows the user to click on a calendar and choose to make it a next-day payment if that's available. For instance, I know CheckFree has an electronic relationship with American Express, so I can do that with my Amex bill." CheckFree Corp. has enough such relationships to cover more than two-thirds of the 10 billion ACH transactions in the United States each year. "With its move to the latest CheckFree Web platform, FundsXpress is strengthening its focus on adoption and activation rates by making it easier for consumers to enroll and begin using the service, and by offering features that appeal to more mainstream consumers," says Jeff Weikert, vice president and channel executive of the CSP Client Development Organization at CheckFree. Constantine at FundsXpress adds: "We've simplified the process and have it set up different ways depending on what the credit union wants. We can send the member an e-mail about it or we can have a targeted message up there when they log into Internet banking." Constantine says FundsXpress has seen activation rates increase an average of 17% over a 90-day period for its clients who use its targeted marketing program. The company also does automated enrollment, a method that Constantine says prompts up to 20% of people signed up that way to become active new users. FundsXpress doesn't charge the institution for the member who's been automatically enrolled for the first 90 days and then won't charge after that for "folks who don't log on. Only those who do become billable customers," Constantine says. "That way there's no risk to the client to at least try it." -

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