Advanced Software Platform Addresses Internet Payment Goals of Spectrum
Consortium With Three of the Nation's Largest Banks
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sun-Netscape Alliance
(Alliance) today introduced an Internet bill presentment and payment solution
that will help make electronic billing a reality for every household in
America. Leveraging iPlanet(TM) BillerXpert Consolidator Edition software,
organizations such as banks across the country will, for the first time, be
able to offer a seamless electronic bill presentment and payment system so
that consumers only have to use one source to pay all of their bills.
Industry experts believe that a common standard for Internet bill
presentment and payment will help drive the mass adoption of electronic
billing by encouraging multiple billers, such as credit card companies,
retailers and utilities, to present bills via the banks' Web sites. As a
result, more consumers will take advantage of the opportunity to pay all of
their bills with just the click of the mouse. Three of the nation's
top 10 banks -- Chase Manhattan, First Union and Wells Fargo -- have formed a
consortium known as Spectrum to adopt a common approach to Internet bill
presentment and payment. Already in use by First Union, the Alliance's new
iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator Edition is one of the first software products
to support the Spectrum standard.
In addition to Spectrum, the Alliance's Internet bill presentment and
payment offering leverages industry-standard platform technologies, such as
Java, and relationships with leaders in the electronic billing market
including America Online (NYSE: AOL) and Intuit. "Intuit recognizes the
Sun-Netscape Alliance as a preferred provider of industry-leading enterprise
applications," said Eric Dunn, chief technology officer at Intuit. "As we
continue to enable billing service providers, we encourage these companies to
further strengthen their bill presentment and payment platforms with solutions
from premier software providers like the Sun-Netscape Alliance."
As part of its strategy to support leading industry standards and provide
a scalable application infrastructure, the Alliance's Internet bill
presentment and payment solutions will support Java(TM) 2 Platform, Enterprise
Edition. Because it is built on the Alliance application server and Java
technology, iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator Edition users can get their
electronic billing solution up and running in days, scale to meet the demand
of their customers and benefit from a Java-enabled environment for application
development.
iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator Edition can provide dramatic benefits for
the bank, the biller and the consumer. First, it enables the banks to present
its corporate customer's bills via the Web. Next, the consumer can log onto
their online banking site to view a summary of bills from their service
providers, such as the telephone company, and choose to simply pay the bill or
be linked to the provider for detailed information about that bill. The
billers benefit because they can reach customers more than just once a month,
and can leverage the bank's increased site traffic to attract more customers.
Currently, banks offer their consumers the ability to pay only a few of
their bills online. Some provide payment to the biller with an arduous "check
and list" method, so the biller gets one lump check with a list of paying
customers, requiring the biller to cross reference whom has paid and
contributed to the large sum.
"The Sun-Netscape Alliance's Internet billing application enables us to
continue our goal of providing cutting-edge technological solutions that make
it easier for our customers to do business," said Nina R. Archer, executive
vice president and Global Cash Management Division head at First Union. "This
innovative solution has helped make electronic bill presentment and payment a
simple reality for billers and their customers."
The Alliance's Internet bill presentment and payment offering is one of
the first end-to-end Spectrum compatible solutions available to the industry.
iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator Edition leverages Spectrum to enable the
banks to accept a customer's payment and distribute it to the biller via
Spectrum's secure infrastructure. Billers also can use Spectrum as a secure
medium to send detailed information about the customer's account to the bank's
site. This process is seamless to the consumer, who simply logs on to their
banking site and has detailed personalized information available at their
fingertips.
Spectrum provides the secure medium to streamline the presentment of bills
between billers and their customers and functions as a hub, allowing members
to route electronic bills through a single connection to other participating
vendors.
"BillerXpert and BillerXpert Consolidator Edition provide a dynamic
Internet billing solution that covers all the bases for our customers," said
James Shuder, senior director of customer relationship solutions for the
Sun-Netscape Alliance. "The Alliance has simplified the Internet bill
presentment and payment cycle so dramatically that consumers will never want
to lick another stamp again to pay a bill."
About the Sun-Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. formed the Sun-Netscape
Alliance to provide easy to deploy, comprehensive enterprise and e-commerce
solutions and services to business partners and other companies competing in
today's Net Economy. The Alliance product portfolio provides customers with
the industry's most scalable, integrated infrastructure software and a family
of production ready e-commerce applications. The products are offered on the
industry's most widely available product platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM,
Linux, SGI, Microsoft Windows, and Sun. The alliance software product
portfolio includes: messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application,
directory, and certificate servers. The Alliance also offers a family of
production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange,
procurement, selling, and billing.
About America Online, Inc.
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the
world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and
e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet
services, America Online, with more than 18 million members, and CompuServe,
with approximately two million members; several leading Internet brands
including ICQ and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM
portals; and the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers. Through its
strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and offers
easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies
operating in the Net Economy.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, The Network is The
Computer(TM), has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its
position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services
for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the
Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in
more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.
NOTE: Netscape and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks in the
United States and other countries of Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of
America Online, Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Java, iPlanet and
The Network Is The Computer are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the
United States and other countries.
SOURCE Sun-Netscape Alliance Corporation
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CONTACT:
Kristen Hyland of Sun-Netscape Alliance,
650-937-6053, or kristenh@netscape.com; or Caroline Campbell of
GCI Group, 404-989-1734, or ccampbell@gcigroup.com, for
Sun-Netscape Alliance
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