A Look Back at 2019 and What’s Ahead: Orbipay EBPP

Alacriti Senior Vice President of Product, Stuart Bain, reviewed 2019 accomplishments, improvements, and upgrades related to our flagship electronic bill presentment and payment solution Orbipay^® EBPP during a recent webinar hosted for our client and partner communities. He also gave an overview of Orbipay EBPP’s product roadmap for 2020.

Here are 10 key webinar highlights:

1. The number of Orbipay EBPP payment transactions, payment volume, and processing entities increased at double-digit rates.

In 2019, 23.6 million payments were processed through Orbipay EBPP, up 11 percent over the previous year with payment volume skyrocketing to $75.9 billion, up 20 percent over 2018. The number of processing entities grew 19 percent to 816.

2. Orbipay EBPP flawlessly executed throughout the entire year. 

Impeccable system reliability was achieved in 2019. Orbipay EBPP clocked in at 100 percent uptime with no unscheduled outages. Complementing perfect uptime was an average system response time of 117 milliseconds on the busiest days of each month, which is comfortably inside the five-second target response time.  

3. Rigorous disaster recovery testing proved seamless for customers.

Disaster recovery (DR) testing validating our business continuity plan guarantees operations can be quickly restored following an outage. In 2019, we raised the stakes by conducting a DR exercise over the course of seven full days as opposed to 24-hours in previous years. The DR environment behaved precisely the same as Orbipay EBPP’s primary environment with no material issues. Magically, most Orbipay EBPP customers didn’t even notice the move to the DR environment for the testing process.

4. New Card Account Updater capabilities were rolled out.

Keeping payment information up to date is complex, costly, and time-consuming. Orbipay EBPP’s new Card Account Updater functionality automatically submits expiring cards to merchant processors to automatically obtain new payment card information. This prevents interruption of the payment relationship while increasing authorization approvals. Because Card Account Updater gets new card information automatically, individual cardholders no longer need to be contacted, reducing client costs substantially.  

5. Guest Web, Simple Web, and Donations Web user interfaces were redesigned. 

Guest Web, Simple Web, and Donations Web are used to make one-time payments. User interfaces for all three channels were redesigned in 2019 using the AngularJS framework. Enhancements include:

• Page layout changes to improve mobile usability
• New step tracker technology that makes users aware of where they are in the process of making a payment
• The use of modal windows to keep user activity on a single pane, rather than endless scrolling when users are adding funding sources 

6. Payment Center user interface was completely refreshed.

The Payment Center user interface was refreshed, making the look and feel more consistent following Orbipay EBPP’s  2018 rollout of new Online Reporting and User Management capabilities. Main changes include moving primary navigation to the left side of the screen to free up real estate, increasing page width for more visibility on modern screens and monitors, and increasing font size for easier readability.

7. New Simple Single Sign-On enables seamless customer access. 

Simple Single Sign-On (SSO) enables customers to have seamless access to Guest Web and Enrolled Web channels for both online activity and fixed communications while bypassing the authentication step. A customer’s account number, zip code, and signature key are appended to an email URL link or statement QR code. When they arrive at a hosted page, we recognized enrollment and authentication, so username and password entry are not required to make a payment. Seamless Simple SSO is a very powerful tool that is especially helpful in reaching out to customers and encouraging them to make payments. 

8. Enrolled Web user interface will be completely redesigned in 2020.

Key changes to Enrolled Web’s user interface in 2020 will encompass:

• Modern, responsive design with single page common function modal windows for mobile optimization
• Easier navigation and functions
• Simpler enrollment process 
• Dedicated client-specific advertising space
• Client-brandable look and feel

9. Ella Artificial Intelligence Direct Chatbot capabilities coming in 2020.

Ella is Orbipay EBPP’s conversational bot powered by artificial intelligence. In 2020, you will be able to launch Ella from your own home page 24/7, as well as from Facebook and Alexa. Ella will be able to answer general informational queries and customer account specific questions requiring authentication, plus accept payments. Ella’s user interface will have a client-brandable look and feel.  

10. Reseller Client Onboarding and Maintenance available in 2020. 

New bank reseller Client Onboarding and Maintenance capabilities being rolled out in 2020 will enable resellers to onboard new Orbipay EBPP clients, test, and then promote them into production. Resellers will have direct access to user-friendly functionality, including brandable look and feel customer site editing and dual control for promoting changes. Initially, Orbipay EBPP Starter versions will be supported with these new bank reseller capabilities, with Orbipay EBPP Professional and Enterprise version support to follow. 

The Bottom Line: Orbipay EBPP is a robust, flexible, cloud-based solution that is constantly evolving.  A lot of new features and functionality were rolled out in 2019, with more planned for 2020. Stay tuned…