World leader in post office automation participates as Post Offices go online in United Kingdom.

Boston, Mass. - November 13, 1996 - Escher Group Ltd announced today that its message-oriented middleware, Riposte along with the counter application, Benefit Encashment System (BES) is part of a pilot program which will eventually automate 40,000 post office counters positions throughout the United Kingdom.

Escher Group delivered the system to 10 Post Offices in Gloucestershire, only five months after being awarded a contract with ICL Pathway Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of ICL) to provide counter automation software to United Kingdom post offices. The pilot successfully completes the first phase of the largest IT PFI (private finance initiative) project ever undertaken in Europe. Escher and a consortium of companies including Microsoft, Oracle and An Post (Irish post office) have developed and delivered software which forms an integral part of the complete end-to-end service. The remaining applications will be phased in starting in mid-1997.

A spokesperson for the group said: "we are pleased to be part of this successful milestone with ICL Pathway. Riposte services provide a secure and reliable operating environment for all counter applications. And the Riposte Desktop rapid-application development approach gives developers the ability to deliver these applications on time and to specification."

John Bennett, Managing Director of ICL Pathway noted that "We are excited about what we have been able to accomplish using Riposte. The ICL Pathway team, including Escher and other suppliers, have delivered a better benefit payment service by evolving from paper to card technology intended to bring about reductions in encashment fraud and a safer and more secure service for benefit recipients".

This is one of the government's largest private finance initiative (PFI) projects involving the automation of 19,500 post offices in the UK. including the application for processing benefit payments through post offices for some 19 million recipients.

More than 6000 post office counters in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Singapore currently use the Escher Group's Riposte to provide automation of various financial, banking and retail applications.
 

About Escher Group, Limited

Escher Group Limited is a leading provider of distributed transaction processing and data management solutions and services. The company offers a business-to-business XML-based transaction management environment, used in thousands of locations worldwide. Since its introduction in 1993, Riposte®, Escher's flagship messaging solution, has grown to become the market leader in post office counter automation.

Trademarks: WebRiposte and Riposte are trademarks or registered trademarks of Escher Group, Limited in the United States and/or other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Information:

Escher Group Limited
information@eschergroup.com