ACI Worldwide Introduces Payments Manager Software On The IBM eServer z900 Mainframe; Solution is Part of ACI's Commerce Framework Offering

Business Wire, Dec 3, 2001

Business Editors & Technology Writers

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2001

ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq:TSAI), a leading international provider of enterprise e-payment solutions, announces an integrated software product on IBM eServer z900 and S/390 mainframes that automates the day-to-day management of consumer e-payments.

ACI Payments Manager automates e-payment settlement functions and integrates transaction and customer account management to help users reduce costs and improve customer service. Financial institutions, e-payment processors and retailers can use the solution to integrate their customers' transaction and account data, automate manual settlement processes, and monitor transaction data in near real time. The system operates in virtually any e-payment environment, including traditional card-based, Internet and mobile commerce systems. It provides alarms to warn of user-defined alert conditions and offers executive analysis reporting to interpret and analyze transaction data.

"We've drawn on the experience of our customers--and the experience we've gained through 25 years of providing e-payments software--to introduce a new generation solution that can help our customers automate back office functions and improve their competitive position," said Mark Vipond, president of ACI Worldwide. "ACI Payments Manager offers the tools necessary to grow and manage e-payments processing and adapt to new market and revenue opportunities."

ACI Payments Manager operates on the IBM eServer z900's z/OS and S/390's OS/390 operating systems and takes full advantage of IBM's DB2 relational database architecture for enhanced data management and system scalability. ACI also supports the IBM Framework for e-business, a roadmap for integrating Internet technologies with traditional information technologies, and has embraced the Framework as its underlying technology for delivery of e-business solutions on IBM platforms.

"Our work with ACI has recently led to a number of ACI banking solutions for those banks running on our secure z900 and S/390 mainframe platforms," said Morten Nygaard, director, eServer Marketing, Global Financial Services at IBM. "ACI Payments Manager shows their continuing mainframe support and provides our customers with yet another state-of-the-art e-payment management tool."

Modular Design

ACI Payments Manager comprises four major modules:

-- Transaction warehouse is a central depository of e-payment transaction
information for the entire system. The information is updated in near real time
to provide up-to-date transaction detail.

-- Information management reviews and analyzes e-payment transaction data to
provide configurable transaction monitoring and analysis.

-- Settlement provides automated, continuous cycle pre-processing for
reconciliation, funds management, fee calculation and exceptions processing.

-- Account management offers a comprehensive view of a customer's relation to
their transaction instruments and funding accounts activity. It allows users to
link customers, issue traditional and emerging e-payment transaction
instruments, and maintain a comprehensive view of customers' transaction and
administrative activity.

The modules take full advantage of a relational database model and are configured in a hierarchical structure. This enables the user to configure their unique business structure for institutions, regions and branches to meet reporting, monitoring, settlement, funds movement, issuance and marketing program management needs. The database is designed to enhance the sharing of data tables so that common functions and access to data are not duplicated between applications.

All ACI Payments Manager modules are built from a global perspective, providing multicurrency, multilanguage and other international features. The modules are presented in a richly detailed, workflow-enabled graphical user interface (GUI) with both Web browser and desktop applications, and share common security and audit logging components.

Part of the ACI Commerce Framework

ACI Payments Manager is part of a broad suite of application software products developed by ACI. These products--extended to operate on IBM eServer zSeries, pSeries and xSeries hardware platforms--use IBM e-business infrastructure software such as WebSphere and the DB2 Universal Database to provide a common framework for managing all phases of a payment transaction lifecycle. ACI's commerce framework includes software to enable transaction initiation through Web and wireless channels, process transactions in real-time, and automate the back office functions associated with settlement, dispute processing, fraud detection and account service. Among application software providers, ACI is unique in its ability to act as the single-source provider of software that spans the length of the commerce value chain.

About ACI Worldwide

Every second of every day, consumers are initiating electronic payment transactions--getting cash at ATMs, using debit and credit cards to make purchases in stores and on the Internet, banking by phone and PC, paying bills online. Twenty billion times a year, ACI software is used to process these transactions, powering the world's online payment systems. ACI was founded in 1975 and pioneered the development of applications and networking software for online transaction processing. Today more than 530 customers in 79 countries use ACI supplied software. Visit ACI Worldwide on the Internet at www.aciworldwide.com.