Avolent Announces BillCast 3.0: Market-Leading and Most Comprehensive EBPP Platform

Business Wire, Dec 18, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2000

-- New version boasts most comprehensive feature set, speeds

deployment, maximizes revenue generation opportunities and minimizes

customer care costs --

Avolent, Inc. (formerly Just in Time Solutions, Inc.), the leading vendor of Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP), Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) and Interactive Customer Care (ICC) solutions, today announced general availability of BillCast(TM) 3.0. The latest version of the company's market-leading EBPP and ICC software suite provides billers and service providers with a complete, end-to-end solution for e-bill creation, distribution, presentment, payment and advanced customer care. With BillCast 3.0, Avolent also introduces additional modules to the BillCast suite. BillCast Personalize allows billers and service providers to easily deliver personalized content to customers, and BillCast Industry Applications allow them to quickly and easily deploy branded applications for specific vertical markets, including communications, credit card, utility and loans.

DotsConnect, the wholly owned Internet products and services subsidiary of Total System Services, Inc.(R) (TSYS(R)), has licensed BillCast 3.0 to power its new online bill publishing service for billers. "The decision to license Avolent's BillCast 3.0 software was the entry point for DotsConnect as a Bill Service Provider in the EBPP market. BillCast 3.0 software will allow us to provide billers with a complete EBPP solution, including online bill presentment, distribution and payment services," said Gaylon Jowers, chief executive officer of DotsConnect.

"In selecting an EBPP partner, DotsConnect looked for an industry-leading platform with a comprehensive feature set and the ability to implement billers quickly. After evaluating the options, we concluded that Avolent's BillCast 3.0 is the best EBPP application on the market. Its credit card application represents leading functionality and enables fast deployment," added Jowers.

"With each new generation of the BillCast product suite, we're enabling billers and bill service providers to transform the electronic bill into an ever more powerful platform for e-commerce," noted Douglas S. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer of Avolent. "With the advanced features and capabilities of BillCast 3.0, we've once again raised the bar for the entire industry. BillCast is the only solution offering both complete functionality for the entire lifecycle of the electronic bill and packaged applications for vertical markets."

"As the first licensed software product to offer vertical market-oriented electronic billing and real personalization functionality in a single package, BillCast 3.0 is an important milestone for the EBPP and ICC market," said Paul Hughes, director of Yankee Group's Billing and Payment Applications Strategies. "Billers and service providers looking to develop an in-house EBPP strategy can implement a very sophisticated solution with the out-of-the box functionality found in BillCast."

What's New in BillCast 3.0

BillCast Personalize: BillCast Personalize provides an easy-to-use, point-and-click GUI solution for marketing analysts to create timely one-to-one marketing campaigns and targeted messages, and tailor customer self-care to end customers. With BillCast Personalize, billers can maximize the opportunity for revenue generation by incorporating personalization into cross-selling and up-selling within EBPP deployments. Graphical tools make it easy to create, update and delete business rules. In addition, the BillCast Personalization Center enables service providers to give billers remote access to content, so that billers can ensure their personalized content is timely, accurate and consistent with marketing campaigns delivered via other channels (such as direct mail or print). The open adapter approach of BillCast Personalize allows it to work with existing content management systems, including Documentum, Interwoven and OpenText.

BillCast Industry Applications: BillCast Industry Applications provide the framework for billers and service providers to quickly deploy rich, industry-specific EBPP and ICC applications. Modules for communications, credit card, utility and loan-based billers minimize the need for customization by including industry-specific features and functionality. BillCast Industry Applications take full advantage of BillCast Personalize (see above) and benefit service providers by allowing multiple instances of each application to be run in a service bureau environment.

All of the BillCast Industry Applications provide a host of advanced features that benefit billers, service providers and bill payers, including:

- Enhanced presentment capabilities -- BillCast 3.0 enables customers to view
year-to-date summary information in a single location. In addition, a bill
reimbursement view allows payers to separate business and personal expenses and
print information for use in expense reports.

- Unprecedented payment options -- Building on the industry-leading payment
module, split payment support allows consumers to use multiple methods to pay a
single bill and/or pay individual amounts on separate dates. BillCast 3.0 also
supports interim payments, which enables consumers to, for example, make
additional credit card payments even if they've already made a payment during
the current billing period.

- Notification pages -- BillCast 3.0 allows billers to provide consumers with
important or warning messages about their account. Once a customer clicks
through the notification page, his or her account profile is updated.

- Advanced customer care -- BillCast 3.0 allows customers to contact customer
service with questions about their bill, and automatically fills inquiry forms
with pertinent account-related information, such as names and account numbers.
Customers can also re-set their own passwords, avoiding a time-consuming and
(for billers) costly call to a customer service representative.

- Service agreement versioning -- BillCast 3.0 enables billers to associate
different service agreements with different customers.