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• An e-mail or text message that alerts the customer that their bill is ready for viewing • A link in that message that does not require a sign on and password in order to view their bill • A link in that message to pay the bill now or set up a future payment • E-mail or text reminders near the bill due date • E-mail or text reminders that a bill is past due • E-mail or text reminders that the bill is now past due and the customer is subject to disconnect In addition to providing better customer service via the items listed above, IRCDUS also expects to reap several benefits by switching to Invoice Cloud. We expect to reduce the number of printed or paper bills thereby reducing printing and postage costs. Second, we expect the number of disconnects to be reduced. With the multiple reminders that are sent via Invoice Cloud, a customer should not accidently miss making their payment. Third, we expect the success with the a-bill customers to improve. Currently, a customer signs up for a-bill using their preferred e-mail address. However, there are no alerts letting us know when someone's e-mail address is no longer valid. Therefore, it is assumed that the customer remembered to update their e-mail using the current online module. However, Invoice Cloud has a tracking system in place that alerts them that an e-mail did not successfully go through. They in turn notify our third party utility bill printer to mail a hard copy of the bill to that customer. This ensures the-customer still receives their bill. They also provide this data to IRCDUS so that we can follow up with the customer to remind them to update their e-mail information. Invoice Cloud's SaaS platform is funded strictly through user fees they earn by providing merchant services. Staff has compared their user rates with the current rates being paid and concluded that their fees will be $800 to $1,000 higher per month. However, considering the services provided, staff feels that this is actually less expensive than other similar and less impressive products. Other providers will charge a one-time set up fee. These fees are typically $20,000 or more. Secondly, other providers charge an annual maintenance fee, typically $12,000 or more. Third, all version upgrades, maintenance and testing of the upgrades become the responsibility of IRCDUS and not the vendor. Therefore, staff has concluded that despite the higher monthly merchant's fees, the cost of using Invoice Cloud as our E-payment service provider will be less than that of other companies. The only other fees affiliated with this service are credit card readers. Seven credit card readers with chip reader capability will be provided and serviced by Invoice Cloud for a fee $15 per month or $1,260 per year. Although staff will work behind the scenes to ready the system for the roll out of Invoice Cloud, we do not plan to go live with this product until the fall of 2016. FUNDING: Funds for these services are available in the Credit Card Fees in the operating fund. Operating funds are generated from water and sewer sales. F:\Utilities\00_UTILITY-AGENDA TEMPLATE&GUIDELINES\2016 Agenda Items\Agenda-Invoice Cloud.doc 139