Billshark Selected to Finovate!

You already know that Billshark’s business model is innovative and cutting edge in the field of finance. NBC Nightly News recently agreed, when they devoted a lengthy segment on their evening news show to our successful enterprise. We’ve also been featured in The Washington Post, and on NBC’s Today show, Fox News, and C/Net.

Now we’ve been placed in the upper echelon of the financial industry. Following a stringently competitive application process, Billshark has been selected to present at FinovateFall, a demo-based conference for innovative startups and established companies in the fields of banking and financial technology. Slated to be held in New York from September 11-14, the event offers an insight-packed glimpse into the future of money via a fast-paced, intimate, and unique format.

This mark of distinction is bestowed on the leaders in the financial technology field who compete with others in their field to capture the attention of financial and banking executives, venture capitalists, financial technology entrepreneurs, and members of the press.

The Finovate Group was formed in 2007 to bring together the best creative minds in the financial technology field (or, “Fintech” as they refer to it) to synergize the most exciting ideas in the industry today. Since then, over 1,000 companies have taken the stage to present their ideas and products in New York City, London, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. Billshark is proud to be included among this elite group.

The demo that caught The Finovate Group’s attention is an application-programming interface (API) that Billshark created to enable partners to use Billshark services within their own platforms and user interfaces (UIs). This API affords external-platform consumers the ability to embed Billshark negotiation services with greater levels of flexibility and branding. By integrating into these services a partner will be able to:

1. enroll a customer in the Billshark services;
2. submit a customer’s bill for negotiation; and,
3. obtain the status of a customer’s bill negotiation.

Currently, there are three API methods available that provide the following capabilities:

• Create Customer Account: One-stop shot for creating the customer’s account and submitting the customer bill into the Billshark system. One request yields all pertinent customer and bill information.
• Submit Customer Bill: Used for submitting subsequent bills into the Billshark platform. There can be a many-to-one relationship between the customer’s bills and their account.
• Get Customer Bill Status: Used to obtain the current status of a customer’s bill negotiation.

Built into this unique API are three levels of security to ensure absolute protection when handling customers’ private information. Level 1 includes Security Tokens to verify that only authorized parties can access the API; Level 2’s IP restrictions further ensure we are getting data from the correct partner; and, Level 3 encompasses encryption on all communication to and from partner systems (https).

At FinovateFall, Billshark will demo this API, called Shark Connect, and show how easily third parties can integrate the API to bring bill-reduction solutions to their clients. We are very excited about this API, and the opportunity to share it with our potential partners in the financial services industry.

Greg Palmer, VP of Finovate, said of Billshark’s selection: “We were impressed with Billshark’s API, Shark Connect, and the way that it seamlessly integrates with third-party needs in bill reduction capability. We’re delighted that they will be one of the presenters at FinovateFall, and we’re confident that our audience will be very interested in seeing what Billshark can do.”

FinovateFall is organized by The Finovate Group. For more information on the event or to view videos of previous demos, please visit finovate.com.