What to Look for in an EBPP Partnership

Most banks, technology companies, and other types of channel partners already have an electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) partnership. But many channel partners will realize upon examination that they could be served better by switching to a new partner. If you’re considering the switch to a provider that gives you access to the most innovative payment services on the market and the ability to white-label those solutions for reselling, you may be curious about what your new partnership should entail. Here is what to look for in an EBPP partnership.

Flexibility

The best electronic bill presentment and payment partner will be flexible, both with the solutions they provide and with implementation. The partnership can change based on your needs. For example, you may only wish to have a referral partnership. Your partnership could also be all-encompassing with reselling, implementation, and continual support. Look for an EBPP partner that provides flexibility for reselling, referrals, and management. They should allow you to decide your own role in each of these functionalities.

You should be able to implement solutions for clients on your own, or rely on your partner to implement them for you. Their solutions should be customizable for any company or organization through branding and configuration.

Stickiness

Choose a partner that offers ‘sticky’ solutions that will be critical to your treasury clients.

Your partner should be able to offer you individual products for resale which make up a whole: a platform that surpasses anything else in the industry. When reselling this platform to clients, you should be able to offer additional services that can be added at the time of implementation or later, depending on the client’s preference.

Altogether, those services should do more than simply process your clients’ transactions. They should offer your clients lasting value, savings, and the ability to provide excellent service to their own customers. For example, a solution that enables a client to accept credit card transactions online could also include an opt-in for that client to implement an additional solution that saves them on credit card transaction costs.

Every solution that provided in your EBPP partnership should be designed to earn you more customers and provide additional value to existing ones, increasing your client retention. Your partner must provide you with services that can’t be found anywhere else in the market. If your current partner doesn’t do this, it may be time to consider a new partner.

Signature Benefits

An EBPP partnership that truly adds value should include signature benefits: rewards that few other partners would be able to offer. For example:

  • Business Debit Processing

Many small to mid-sized businesses are using debit cards to make important purchases and manage their everyday banking needs. As the most popular current payment method, your EBPP partnership needs to provide you with the benefit of debit processing for businesses.

  • Online Banking

Online banking has now become a norm for many U.S. consumers and businesses. If you are a bank or other financial institution, your EBPP partner should be able to provide you with solutions that facilitate online banking.

  • Rapid Onboarding

When one of your clients purchases a solution, you should be able to trust your EBPP partner to onboard that solution for you. You should also be able to onboard that new client quickly yourself if you choose to self-manage it.

  • Fast Speed to Market

Every solution provided by your EBPP partner should be customizable, but they should also be able to reach the market quickly. Fast speed to market ensures that clients receive the benefits they seek faster than they could with a competitor.

  • Real-Time Reports and Audits

Real-time reports and audits allow you and your clients to conduct transaction research quickly and effectively. These benefits are designed to reduce the time and costs necessary for managing payment exceptions and other abnormalities.

  • Transaction Support

Your EBPP partnership should be a mutual arrangement of support. You partner should be on-hand to help you research transactions and resolve payment issues.

  • A Referral Partnership

Your EBPP partner should do more than provide you with innovative solutions. They should also be dedicated to your success by providing you with referrals for leads. In a true EBPP partnership, both partners will benefit by providing each other with referrals.

  • Security and Compliance

EBPP transactions are dependent upon high-security processing environments. Your EBPP partner should exceed all government and industry compliance standards. They should also exceed standards set by the PCI Security Standards Council so you can rest assured that all payment information is hosted in a safe environment, even internationally.

  • Marketing Support

If you intend to white-label and resell the solutions that will come from your EBPP partnership, you should look for a partner who provides you with marketing support. Because they are the architects of those solutions, they will have insight into how to best position them in the market so you reach qualified buyers quickly and beat your competition.

Investment in Your Success

Not all solution providers keep track of their channel partners’ rates of success. In fact, 69% of channel managers don’t track their partners’ revenue or activities.

More than anything, your partner should be invested in your success. Look for an EBPP partner who reinvests in their own technology in an effort to provide their partners with innovative solutions in the future. Your partner should provide sustained support and an optimal system uptime so that your future success is always well-secured.

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