Reaching Out Computers Link Users To Many Consumer Services

September 16, 1985|By Selwyn Crawford of The Sentinel Staff

It wasn't long ago that the advancement of the computer was touted as the key to putting easy living as close to Americans as their telephones or televisions.

Want to pay your utility bill? Just dial a phone number. Want to buy groceries? Dial another number. Want to read the paper without having to go outside of your house? Simply turn on the television set. Want to do some work at home? Get a home computer.

While some of that high technology is being used, more of it remains on the shelf, waiting for consumer acceptance and lower costs.

Gail Withey, program director for videotex at the Gartner group, a marketing research firm in Stamford, Conn., is confident that acceptance will come.

''The development has been slower than many people predicted, but that doesn't mean it isn't coming,'' Withey said. ''I see banking as just one component of a whole variety of things that consumers can subscribe to at home. Transactional services like banking, shopping, reservations. Those type of things have been, and will continue to be, the most popular,'' Withey said. She said most of the obstacles to interactive computer services saturating the home market is cost. She said technology will have to improve so that obtaining and operating both the hardware and software is not cost prohibitive to most consumers.

The key to interactive services is a device called a modem, which translates computer signals into electronic impulses that can be carried across phone lines. Hilda Uribe, a senior analyst with Dallas-based Future Computing, a market research firm, said that modems range from about $60 for those used at home to between $2,000 and $3,000 for those used commercially.

Uribe said that by the end this year, 15 percent of all home computers would have modems, and by 1990 that figure would be at 45 percent. She attributed the jump to the increasing number of services that can be used with home computers.

That's why the Gartner Group's Withey said that companies such as the Bank of America and Chemical Bank in New York City ''have recognized that electronic banking alone is not enough to hold customers.''

In addition to providing banking, shopping and bill-paying services, however, many home computer systems were to have allowed people to work from their homes. Some people do use their computers to work at home, though just as with the other forms of home computer services, such use hasn't been widespread.

The concept is growing, though, as more families purchase computers. Future Computing estimated that 12.3 percent of all homes in the United States had personal computers at the end of 1984, and by the end of this year, it predicted a 15 percent saturation; by 1990, 32 percent.

The company polled 37,000 people with home computers and found that 39 percent of them use the computers to do some of their work.

One major company that allows employees to work at home is International Business Machines, which has a large plant in Boca Raton. It has a system called the Home Terminal Program for managers and programmers who are working on special projects.

Under the program, computer users can work at home during the night, but they still have to put in their regular hours at their offices.

Withey said that as home computers go into more households, ''more people will be able to work at home, therefore more people will work at home. A big worry . . . is that people will stay in their house,'' if computers are allowed to do too much.

One of the systems that offers several electronic options in the home is Viewtron, which is owned by Knight-Ridder Newspapers, publisher of the Miami Herald.

Viewtron was launched in 1983 and offers households a variety of services, including banking, shopping, receiving news and stock market reports and airline schedules on home television sets.

The system is available only in a few South Florida counties and has an estimated 3,000 customers. When Viewtron was launched, it cost the consumer $600 for the special AT&T computer, plus a $40 a month fee.

Now owners of Apple II, Commodore 64 or IBM personal computers -- and the correct software -- can hook up to Viewtron. The fee is $5 per hour of use in South Florida, but higher in other areas.

Bob Kneely, assistant vice president for corporate communications at Southeast Bank, said that for a $3 monthly fee, bank customers can use Viewtron to pay their bills.

''With Viewtron, we're captive to Viewtron's market, which is Monroe, Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties,'' Kneely said. ''Their original intention was to go statewide. Right now we've got about 10 percent of their market.''

In Central Florida, The First offers its own bill-paying system called Tel-Act, which doesn't require a home computer. It works similarly to the Southeast Bank system in that Tel-Act customers, who must be checking account customers of The First, are given merchant numbers when they sign up for the program.

When a customer wants to pay a bill -- anywhere in the world -- he calls a special number and a computer answers. The computer then asks a series of questions such as the user's account number, the merchant number and the amount to be paid. Customers can use either touch-tone or rotary-dial telephones.

Some people oppose paying their bills through a computer because they are not able to use the float, the time between when the check is written and when it is actually cashed by the person or company that received it.

With both Southeast Banks and The First, the money is immediately subtracted from the customer's account.

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