Launch of Payment System
Auxinet PLC
9 April 2001
auxinet launches Platima
with mondus as first customer
auxinet plc has today announced the launch of Platima, a new
Business-to-Business (B2B) payment system. We are also delighted to announce
that mondus is the first European customer. mondus (www.mondus.co.uk) is the
leading online Business-to-Business marketplace for small and medium-sized
businesses.
The Platima service is a unique account management and payment system that
simplifies the invoicing and payment processes between companies. The service is
delivered through the Internet and can be easily integrated by customers to
provide a completely automated and secure way of making payments. The Platima
service guarantees that payments are made to mutually agreed terms between two
parties. The service is universal facilitating international payments and
settlements.
Platima is a fundamental part of auxinet's strategic plan to develop a range of
payment services utilising Internet Protocol (IP). The service complements the
DataCash (B2C) e-commerce payments solution and consolidates the Company's
position as the pre-eminent Payment Solutions Provider (PSP) in Europe.
mondus has over 165,000 European businesses registered, which will immediately
be able to benefit from the Platima service. Platima will be a key component in
the mondus business proposition.
The Platima service will become an important element in large-scale
e-procurement and e-commerce businesses. In addition, it can be capitalised upon
by existing businesses to reduce costs and streamline inter-business payments.
AIM listed auxinet plc will be releasing its 2000 trading results on 17 April.
Marc Wood, Managing Director of auxinet Payment Solutions, said: 'The B2B market
has been inhibited by the lack of an integrated and fully automated payment
service. We believe that Platima is the world's first operational service,
delivering a revolutionary mechanism for making payments and settlements through
the Internet. Additionally, Platima can deliver significant cost savings to
businesses, especially when trading internationally. The Platima service
complements DataCash, broadening our portfolio of payment services offerings to
a wider market. Our partnership with mondus represents a significant milestone
for us in that we have taken our unique online payment system to market with one
of the foremost and well respected B2B companies in Europe.'
Rouzbeh Pirouz, Managing Director of mondus said: 'Our relationship with auxinet
and the Platima payment system gives us a unique edge in our chosen marketplace
and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership.'
For further information, please contact:
David Bailey, Chairman 07050 328 200
auxinet plc
Marc Wood, Managing Director 07050 328 200
auxinet Payment Solutions
John Coyle 0207 713 0900
Clerkenwell Communications 07770 687 370
07699 727 796 (pager)
Further information on Platima
The Platima B2B service is a unique e-commerce account payment and management
system and is the first e-commerce non-bank payment system designed and built
for the B2B e-commerce market. Platima is an additional capability that will be
available directly and through auxinet's Payment Gateway solution, DataCash, and
complements DataCash's B2C e-commerce payments solution.
The essence of the Platima-B2B proposition is that it enables a payment system
to be customised for the unique requirements of individual business' models,
market and countries and its customers. Currently available payment systems in
the e-commerce environment are primarily B2C designed or bricks and mortar
systems that have been in many cases adapted to work within an e-commerce
environment. The B2B market has completely different requirements and
expectations from a payment system.
A Platima 'Scheme owner' (e.g. a trading exchange or e-procurement operation)
will, in association with Platima design its own payment scheme and range of
'payment products', defining through this process such items as:
* Branding, look and feel of the payment scheme
* Payment cycles for buyer and seller accounts (i.e. 7, 14, 30, 60 day etc),
* Credit limit requirements for trading within the exchange
* Definition of the Scheme Rules
* Qualification and to become and stay a member of the exchange payment scheme
* Terms, conditions and liabilities
* Merchant service charge levies
* Account management fees
* Exception and dispute resolution management
* Universality or closed loop scheme
* Loyalty and Discount Schemes
* Currency and Language Options
A Platima-B2B account is a fully automated, electronic payment system enabling
guaranteed and secure e-trading between two entities and consists of two
components, a 'Buying' account and a 'Selling' account.
A 'Master' Buying account is set up for each Platima user via the provision of
standard company information into an online or batch application process which
will assess the credit-worthiness of the applicant. Subsidiary accounts may
also be established beneath the Master account to facilitate several authorised
users having access to the Platima-B2B account albeit with different and user
defined credit limits etc.
Having made the assessment a credit line is then associated with the account and
a PIN and password provided back to the applicant for account and trading access
within a secure web based environment. The account is then available for
trading.
A Selling account is also set up at the same time as the Buyer account to enable
funds to be deposited from the proceeds of the trades from the Buyers within the
network. The Scheme owner may elect to enable the Selling accounts for all of
its scheme members, facilitating intra-trade between the members of the Scheme
directly (in exchange for an annual account management fee) or it may choose
only to enable the Buyers accounts. Both the Buyer and Selling accounts will be
associated with the users' bank account and a direct debit mandate established
to facilitate settlement of the accounts on the Scheme within a defined
settlement period (e.g. 30 days).
The Platima Service will be integrated into a Scheme owner's website as an
alternate payment 'button'. When a transaction is concluded to purchase goods or
services by a Buyer the Platima-B2B system will initiate an authorisation
request to the Buyeraccount system to validate that sufficient credit line is
available to pay for the goods or services. If sufficient credit is available a
response will be sent back to the Sellers' website to confirm the transaction
with an Authorisation Code. The Buyer's 'Open to Buy' limit will then be reduced
by the transaction amount in real-time. Various alternatives exist for the
treatment of insufficient funds within the Scheme set up rules.
Buyer account transactions will be posted and debited to their account on a
daily basis and similarly the Selling account of the Seller will be posted with
the associated credit for the transaction with the associated transaction
detail.
Buying and selling activities will continue on all accounts until the settlement
period has expired when all Buyer and Selling accounts will have generated
automatically the appropriate direct debit or direct credit instruction to
users' nominated bank accounts and funds transferred.
Both Buying and Selling accounts transaction history (posted and settled and
pre-posted) will be able to be viewed online from the Platima-B2B website with
associated security access controls (pin, password, shared secrets etc). A
number of additional online functions and information can also be enabled at the
Scheme owner's discretion.
Transaction level history files will be kept within the Platima-B2B system
within an Oracle relational database for downloading to the Scheme owner's
Customer Relationship Management and analysis system.
Additional options can be enabled within any Platima-B2B Scheme such as:
* Digital Certificates
* Anonymity between Buyer and Seller
* Multicurrency/Multilingual Option for all account types
* Digital Rights Management
* CRM
* Smart Card Based Account Access
Further information on mondus
Mondus is a privately owned company backed by Eden Capital, 3i, Zouk Ventures
and in which SEAT Pagine Gialle, the European publisher of telephone and
business directories has a 40% interest.
mondus has international sites in the UK (London & Oxford), France (Paris),
Germany (Hamburg), Sweden (Stockholm) and Italy (Milan) and now employs over 123
people worldwide. There are six dedicated web sites: mondus.co.uk, mondus.fr,
mondus.de, mondus.se, mondus.fi and mondus.it.
In December 2000, SEAT Pagine Gialle acquired a 40.7% fully diluted stake in
mondus, with the aim of establishing the two companies as the key market drivers
in the European B2B e-commerce space, by enabling mondus to deliver its range of
services to the 5.9m businesses currently listed in SEAT's European directories,
as well as those on Pagine Gialle, which includes the recently acquired Thomson
Directories and Europages.
SEAT Pagine Gialle also recently acquired TDL Infomedia Ltd., publisher of
Thomson Directories, the second largest publisher of local directories in the UK
and a significant shareholder in TDL Belgium, the second largest publisher of
directories in the country.
The combination of mondus' technology and e-commerce experience, with Thomson
and SEAT's European directories, client base and expertise in the SME area, is
expected to position the group as a major force in the European B2B market.
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