ACI Worldwide, a global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, has announced an alliance with Dallas-based Solutions by Text to provide organisations the ability to receive payments via SMS.
Integrating solutions by text software with ACI’s UP bill payments aims to provide customers with “simple pay-by-text options, increasing on-time payments and reducing collection costs”.
More than 3,600 organisations run through ACI Worldwide and the firm stated that organisations that are currently utilising ACI’s current version of UP Bill Payments will benefit from this integration.
“The vast majority of Americans (95%) own a cell phone of some kind, according to Pew Research data. As consumers continue to rely more heavily on smartphones for just about everything, it is quickly becoming the device of choice for digital payments,” said Andrew Sajeski, business leader, biller solutions, ACI Worldwide.
Sajeski continued by saying creating the option to pay bills via SMS will “drive on-time payments and improve collections”.
Organisations in the consumer finance, healthcare, higher education, government and insurance industries can use the SMS solution and the company are also incorporating a text payment reminders to further improve UX.
“Text messages have up to a 98 percent open rate and text billing reminders have an overwhelmingly positive customer response, which can’t be said about paper billing statements,” said Danny Cantrell, founder and CEO, Solutions by Text.
“As smartphone use continues to advance, offering customers the option to pay-by-text is quickly becoming a necessity as it improves the payment experience through payment reminders and mobile-enabled payment systems.
“We are happy to join a market leader like ACI Worldwide in improving the overall digital payment experience.”
In the announcement, ACI also referred to its recent announcement of its intent to acquire Western Union’s U.S. domestic bill pay business – Speedpay.
