Yodlee Inc. says its new bill-pay product will help with its strategy of winning customers one feature at a time.
The Redwood City, Calif., company announced its PostcardCheck module Tuesday.
Joseph Polverari, Yodlee's senior vice president of strategy and development, said the company prefers to sell its bill-pay service as a complete package but has won over on-the-fence prospects by selling its features piecemeal. Many customers who begin using a single module convert to Yodlee entirely within two years, he said.
Banks use these modules "as a stepping stone to get into full Yodlee Bill Pay," he said.
This is particularly true for smaller financial companies that typically get all of their technology from a single provider and have less flexibility to undertake big upgrades, he said.
"Outside the top 200, they are on a supplier that gives them most everything," Polverari said. "For them to change out, they have to basically change that whole platform, so it's easier just to take the Yodlee module."
In addition to PostcardCheck the company has the bill-pay modules PayToday, its expedited system that is offered through a deal with Western Union Co., and DirectPay, which lets users charge payments to credit or debit cards.
PostcardCheck was designed to address the cost of mailing individual paper checks originated through its online bill-pay system.
"The highest per-item cost, if you will, has been the cost of a paper payment," Polverari said, and these still account for about 20% of online payments. About half of these are sent individually rather than bundled with several other payments intended for the same recipient, he said, and PostcardCheck was designed to address such one-off payments.
PostcardChecks are folded in half and sealed, meeting the Postal Service's definition of a postcard and making them less costly to send.
The backs of PostcardCheck items include information on how to get payments electronically, which could encourage some payees to agree to receive future payments electronically, he said.
Besides bill-pay software, Yodlee also sells account aggregation and personal financial management software. Polverari said that some PFM clients graduate to its bill-pay service but that the module strategy is more effective.
