From Bricks to Clicks: ACI Worldwide Launches E-series Initiative for Secure Commerce in the Virtual World

Business Wire, March 26, 2001

Business Editors & Technology Writers

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 2001

More than 50 customers in 23 countries are early

adopters of multi-channel e-series solutions

ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq:TSAI), a leading international provider of enterprise e-payment solutions, today announced its e-series initiative to provide software and services for secure commerce in the virtual world. E-series solutions help financial institutions, retailers, telecommunications companies and processors manage e-commerce using a variety of new delivery channels including e-mail and mobile phones.

"The payments landscape is changing, fueled by rising consumer expectations and technology advances," said ACI President Mark Vipond. "Our customers understand that both physical and virtual channels are important to their future growth, and they're looking for ways to use new economy technologies to expand their business from `bricks' to `clicks.' We're helping customers leverage these new channels to differentiate their business."

ACI is best known for high-volume, 24/7 software systems that process electronic payments from traditional channels such as brick-and-mortar merchants and ATMs. More than 340 customers used these software engines to process more than 20 billion transactions last year. To help customers extend their capabilities, ACI offers e-series solutions--a broad suite of technologies that integrate with existing payment systems and allow consumers to transact business in new ways.

E-series products and services are designed for the following delivery channels, and can be mixed and matched according to customer needs:

-- Electronic Statement Delivery and Bill Payment

-- Secure Internet payments

-- Wireless/mobile commerce

-- Smart card-based services

Electronic statement delivery and bill payment. ACI's M-Bill(TM) and M-Statement(TM) products enable businesses to deliver digitally signed, secure documents directly to consumers' desktops using standard e-mail--the delivery method expected to drive the highest adoption rates. The products also support electronic document delivery via the Web and mobile devices. Consumers can receive summary information or images of entire bills or statements, complete with interactive links to information on new product and service offerings. M-Bill includes a robust payment manager that formats transactions when consumers press "pay biller," sending instructions to direct-debit or card-based payment networks. The ACI solutions help businesses reduce paper costs, enhance cross selling and improve customer satisfaction.

Secure Internet Payments. ACI's e24(R) software products address the needs of merchants, merchant acquirers, and debit and credit card issuers. These products include a solution for hosting server-side wallets that securely store consumers' payment information and automate secure interaction with merchant Web sites. Wallets can be issuer-branded and displayed on PCs, PDAs, phones and other devices. Also included are solutions that format and securely route payment transactions to merchant acquiring systems and monitor transaction patterns for potentially fraudulent activity.

Mobile Commerce. ACI's mobile commerce solutions leverage the substantial worldwide growth in mobile phones, establishing the phone as an e-commerce platform linked to ACI's robust payment engines for transaction processing. ACI solutions enable consumers to send and receive messages between their bank and mobile phone, recharge prepaid phone accounts at convenient ATMs, and use mobile phones to authenticate consumers and complete purchase transactions at the point of sale.

Smart Card Services. ACI provides a variety of solutions to help customers use smart (chip-based) cards. The company's expertise is unique in the industry and ranges from enabling e-purse schemes and management of multifunction cards to supporting transactions initiated with EMV-compliant smart debit and credit cards. ACI's experience includes several large-scale deployments, particularly in Europe.

Early Adopters

More than 50 customers in 23 countries have licensed ACI e-series solutions to enable commerce in the virtual world. These customers come from a variety of industries and include the following examples.

Yorkton Securities, a Canadian brokerage firm, is implementing M-Statement to create and deliver monthly electronic statements for its investment customers. The software will also securely deliver transaction confirmations to approximately 60,000 accounts within 24 hours of initiating a transaction. Yorkton will realize a significant return on their investment, expecting to achieve substantial cost savings as a result of eliminating paper statements.

Deutsche Bank Italy is using e24 software to issue secure wallets, accept SET transactions from Internet merchants and interface with existing payment infrastructures for e-payment processing.

MovilPago Internacional is launching an innovative mobile payment system that allows consumers to use their wireless telephones to initiate payments at the point of sale. Phones are scanned to identify the customer, who is prompted to enter a PIN through the phone to confirm their identity and approve the payment against their debit or credit account. ACI software is used to authenticate, route and authorize the payment transactions.