|
Strategic partnership designed
to accelerate
revenue-based transactions
on ATMs and Kiosks
|
 |
San Diego, CA and Edinburgh, UK (February 3, 2004) --
EWI Prepaid, a leading global provider of advanced prepaid
services and technologies, today formally announced a strategic
partnership with KAL, the world's foremost independent supplier
of ATM and kiosk software solutions. By integrating EWI's
PinXpress™ technology platform with KAL's Kalignite Software
Platform, any self-service device from the extensive range
supported will be able to process banking transactions plus
prepaid transactions including prepaid wireless, prepaid long
distance, prepaid utilities, local phone service, prepaid
Internet/Wi-Fi, movie tickets, and many more.
Prepaid services are a rapidly emerging retail category,
and important profit generator, with sales expected to reach
$18 billion in the U.S. this year. Based on industry data
and EWI's own proprietary consumer research, self-service
devices, including ATMs and Kiosks, will become a primary
delivery channel for prepaid products and services. Providing
access to these vast services via self-service devices responds
to consumers' expressed needs and preferences including convenience,
no lines, no-hassle, easy, secure and impersonal. The financial
services industry is especially well positioned to begin offering
prepaid services since ATMs have broad distribution and consumer
trust.
"The addition of the EWI module to KAL's Kalignite Software
Platform demonstrates the flexibility of KAL's open architecture,
hardware-independent platform, and opens the door to the lucrative
prepaid market for the banking world," said Steve Hensley,
EVP Worldwide Sales, KAL. "Many of our customers are beginning
to respond to the prepaid market demand, and we wanted to
partner with a leading-edge technology company like EWI to
provide speed to market." Kalignite is fully integrated and
tested on hardware from 23 ATM vendors worldwide.
"KAL's extensive experience and sector focus were extremely
appealing to EWI when we evaluated partnerships to help us
enter the emerging self-service prepaid distribution channel",
remarked Michael Struttmann, Director of National Sales, EWI
Prepaid. "KAL has integrated with every major ATM manufacturer
in the world, and that made our decision very easy".
Designed and built for a wide variety of retail environments
and uses, including ATMs, networked point of sales systems,
credit card terminals and Web services, the PinXpress transaction
platform from EWI is the standard for the real-time delivery
of PIN codes in the prepaid environment. PinXpress processes
an unlimited array of products and services for a diverse
client base including banks, credit unions, major retailers,
distributors, merchant acquirers and resellers both in the
U.S. and abroad.
About EWI Prepaid
EWI is a leading global provider of advanced payment processing
technologies to the prepaid and cash payments sectors. With
EWI's patented systems, the delivery of prepaid services such
as prepaid wireless, utilities, long distance and wireless
content can now be transacted and settled in real-time, a
vast improvement over prior manual processes. Based in San
Diego, California, EWI is a privately held company. For more
information, visit www.ewiprepaid.com.
About KAL
KAL is the world-leading provider of open software for Automated
Teller Machines (ATMs) and self-service systems. KAL's flagship
product suite is Kalignite. Kalignite enables the creation
of web-enabled, hardware independent self-service and branch-banking
applications built upon open standards such as XFS. KAL software
solutions provide unparalleled functionality, maximum flexibility,
mission critical robustness, and security. For more information,
visit www.kal.com.
Press Contacts:
EWI
Patrick K. Hazel, CEO
+1 (858) 200-9440
phazel@ewiprepaid.com
KAL
Steve Hensley, EVP Worldwide Sales
+1 (937) 748-0599
steve@kal.com
|
