#transparent billing

This company is my favorite of the new Tech Stars class:

Simple Energy is changing how millions of people save energy by changing how utilities engage their customers. Their web and mobile application uses game mechanics to compare real energy usage to friends and neighbors, making energy efficiency social, fun and simple while addressing an $11 billion-a-year problem for utilities.

I reference this company because I think there is a huge market opportunity to disrupt the wildly inefficient billing and collections industry for using the same methodology of incorporating social gaming elements and network integrated gestures into payment processes. To create a web based platform for billing and payment that better bridges businesses and their customers while showcasing, among other things, partially anonymous data for payee comparison with the focus on who pays the fastest with incentives towards the same. Imagine for a moment the equivalent of the "Foursquare Mayor" but among utility or healthcare customers. 

Right now, you have the company billing on one end of the spectrum and the customer at the other. In the middle, the collection industry taking upwards of 70% revenue as their fees for collection. As it stands the companies doing the services and subsequent billing have no other choice than to work with collection companies as making three cents on the dollar is better than making zero but by leveraging inherent social behaviors to get paid first, you reduce the need for collection companies by increasing the amount of revenue coming in the door.

One might disregard this concept as less than feasible because billing data is private but in fact it is not. The publishing of billing data is perfectly legal albeit utilized as of now only between collection companies and credit bureaus.