Your Story Made Here: Allied Payment Network
Your Story Made Here: Allied Payment Network (VIDEO)
By Melissa Long- 21Alive
By Ian Hoover- 21Alive
June 3, 2014 Updated Jun 3, 2014 at 5:16 PM EDT
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (21Alive) -- It is often said that the most successful companies simply find a need…..and fill it. The more we do business electronically, the more need there is for companies who service that sector. Today's Your Story Made Here, focuses on one local company whose aim it is to make one of the most unpleasant of tasks more enjoyable. Here's a look at Allied Payment Network.
Ralph Marcucilli spent 20 years in the banking industry. During that time, he saw online banking explode. People were starting to pay their bills online….and banks were looking for a service they could offer to their customers that would make that process easier.
Ralph Marcucilli says: " About 2/3 of all payments are made through some electronic channel and only about 25% are made through banks and credit unions bill pay services. As mobile becomes more prevalent and more people are using tablets and smart phones I think that is probably going to double in the next 5 years."
So four years ago, Marcucilli started Allied Payment Network.
Ralph Marcucilli says: " When a bank or a credit union customers sign onto the website to make payments through their internet banking, we actually get those payments to the biller or the person they're asked to send the money to. It's really about the simplicity and making it easy for the customer."
One of the fastest growing markets was in mobile apps for smart phones and tablets, and Allied Payment Network has pioneered a process that makes bill paying a breeze.
Ralph Marcuccilli says: "We invented a new service which allows a customer to take a picture of a bill they want to pay and we process that so the user doesn't have to enter the information about the payee. The big hurdle is entering the information to pay it. Well with Picture Pay you don't have to do that. Now you just take a picture of your bill, put in the amount and you're done."
The company is the only one in the country to offer the service to community banks and credit unions such as 3 Rivers Federal Credit Union. And it has won several national banking industry awards.
The company operates operates out of the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center.
It started with just Ralph and one other person and now has 13 computer savvy employees with several interns from area colleges. Ralph hopes to have 20 employees by the end of the year.
With about 800 million bills to pay every month, Americans are looking for an easier way to do it and Allied Payment Network is standing by….with a picture perfect solution.
