In the wake of Bill Express

The phones have rung hot since around 11am today when it became clear that Bill Express was starting to implode.  Newsagents suppliers and media outlets wanted to talk about what happened to Bill Express and what the next steps might be.  There are several parties I really feel for as a result of the shutdown of the Bill Express / Dialtime network today:

• Suppliers relying on the network for income.  Some of the phonecard companies and other electronic voucher products relied in the Bill Express / Dialtime network for significant revenue.  To have cashflow this cut off immediately will hurt until they make alternative retail network arrangements.
• Newsagents yet to make other arrangements.  Despite the warnings, more than 2,500 newsagents do not not have alternative arrangements in place.  This will cost between 5% and 15% of revenue depending on the business and will take several weeks to fully replace with alternative arrangements.
• Consumers who have relied in Bill Express / Dialtime outlets for mobile phone top up, convenient bill payment or even BOPO visa recharge are left hanging.  In rural areas this will, hit hard.

There is no doubt Bill Express and relates entities  OnQ and ETT will be in the news for a while to come as their future is finally resolved.  In the meantime, many small businesses and consumers will be affected in personal ways, beyond the shareholder and major supplier losses which will dominate the news stories.  The nature of the Bill Express business is such that there will be many personal stories emerge over the coming weeks.  These are stories I’d like to hear.