In theory, small- and micro-businesses represent one of the most lucrative, and relatively untapped, sources of incremental business. The reality is that businesses are difficult to reach unless you are competing for their loan business. As we outlined in previous posts, a product offering optimized for business will differ somewhat from one built for consumers. The following excerpt from our Microbusiness 2001 Special Report (available to subscribers for an additional fee at  www.onlinebankingreport.com/resources/microbiz.html  is a checklist to assist you in planning your service offering. The features are divided into 10 categories:

1.       Statement data: viewing and organizing balance

2.       Reporting: building financial reports from statement data

3.       Customer service: customer care delivered over the Internet

4.       Products: bank and non-bank financial products

5.       Accounting: financial management tools

6.       Payments: billing, e-checks, bill pay, email payments, ACH, wires, invoicing, card processing, credit cards

7.       Security/access: privacy, security, permissions, guarantees

8.       Other Web-based services: business tools, news, information

9.       Alerts: email, fax, telephone, and mail activity- and balance-level alerts

10.    Marketing: getting the word out to the difficult-to-find segment

Online Services for Microbusinesses

check = must have feature; R = recommended feature; O = optional feature