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December 06, 1999
First Union to Host Internet Billing Services with Sun - Netscape Alliance's New Spectrum-compatible iPlanetTM BillerXpert Solution
The Alliance Is First to Market With Spectrum-Compatible Solution
Mountain View, CA, December 6, 1999 - Continuing to drive industry-adoption of Internet billing, the Sun - Netscape Alliance today announced that its iPlanet(TM) BillerXpert solution will be compatible with Spectrum, enabling communication of bills through Spectrum to points of bill consolidation. Furthermore, First Union will leverage the Spectrum-compatible iPlanet BillerXpert solution and iPlanet ECXpert to host Internet bill presentment and payment (IBPP) services for its corporate customers.
Spectrum is a corporate entity formed by Chase Manhattan, First Union and Wells Fargo. Spectrum provides a secure infrastructure 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. A goal of the organization is to provide an open, interoperable mechanism for exchanging online bills, regardless of the technology employed by the individual members.
The Alliance billing solutions' compatibility with Spectrum dramatically increases the possible points of distribution for corporate customers and enhances their ability to become an application service provider. First Union will be one of the first financial institutions to leverage this compatible iPlanet BillerXpert solution. It also will leverage iPlanet ECXpert in the parsing phase of the billing process.
"Our corporate customers are looking for options to simplify their billing experience, and we chose iPlanet BillerXpert not only for its scalability and scope of product capabilities but for its practical usability," said Nina R. Archer, executive vice president and Global Cash Management Division head at First Union. "Leveraging the Alliance's iPlanet BillerXpert application, First Union will be able to provide hosted Internet billing solutions to help customers better realize the benefits of electronic bill presentment and payment, and increase the value-proposition of their e-commerce business model."
"The Sun - Netscape Alliance is playing a critical role in helping to shape the Internet bill presentment and payment market, providing real business solutions that can easily be adopted by companies and consumers today," said James Shuder, senior director of customer relationship management solutions for the Sun - Netscape Alliance e-commerce division. "This announcement, which makes the Alliance one of the first vendors to offer a Spectrum-compatible Internet billing solution, will help customers expand their IBPP model."
Currently, the Alliance offers iPlanet BillerXpert and iPlanet ECXpert as part of its portfolio of production-ready e-commerce applications. iPlanet BillerXpert is a comprehensive IBPP solution that allows personalized statement presentation and set notifications of new bills, captures customer information and conducts interactive marketing campaigns through event-based relationship management, user-activity tracking and targeted email. The application also supports multiple payment types including credit cards and checks. iPlanet ECXpert is an Internet commerce exchange application that enables an enterprise to automate and manage the processes that occur between organizations over the Internet and existing private networks.
About First Union Corporation
First Union Corporation (NYSE: FTU) is a leading provider of financial services to more than 16 million retail and commercial customers throughout the East Coast and the nation. At September 30, 1999, First Union had assets of $235 billion and total stockholders' equity of $16 billion. The company operates full-service banking offices in Connecticut, Deleware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
About the Sun - Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) 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 2 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. 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 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, iPlanet and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
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