BCE Emergis Launches Electronic Premium Presentment and Management Solution: The Principal Financial Group is First Customer; Agreement Builds On Existing Customer Relationship.

Business Editors

MONTREAL and DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2001

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BCE Emergis Inc. (TSE: IFM), a leading provider of B2B e-business solutions, announced today that it launched a new electronic premium presentment and management solution for the health and life insurance industry and has signed the Principal Financial Group(R) (The Principal(R)) as its first customer. Through a five-year, multi-million dollar transaction-based agreement, BCE Emergis will provide the Group Life and Health business unit of The Principal with a unique service: a new solution to generate and present its corporate customers with an electronic premium statement derived from a current enrollment data base. This solution will allow the premium statement to reflect statutory and other changes made by the customer to its member's profile coverage, as well as facilitate the electronic payment of the consolidated premium statement.

BCE Emergis' new service complements the online services offered by The Principal to its customer base of more than 80,000 employers in the United States who have the company's group medical, dental, vision, life and disability products. The new electronic premium statement service is part of Emergis' order-to-pay technology that generates and processes electronic transactions between trading partners, from electronic invoicing and presentment of orders through to electronic payments.

"The Principal has been one of our large and more innovative customers over the years, and we're pleased to have them play a key role in helping us define the solution," stated Faye Baggiano, president, BCE Emergis eHealth Solutions Group. "This agreement also builds on our company's strategy to further leverage our existing relationships with our health insurance customers and to take a leadership role in the delivery of e-business solutions to this industry."

"We always strive to provide our customers the best, proven technology available, so we've partnered with a vendor who has an invoicing solution that meets our evolving needs and allows us to offer that solution to our customers," said Gary Cain, senior vice president, the Principal Financial Group. "Emergis was a compelling choice because it allows us to offer our customers 'real-time' invoicing featuring the latest census data for approval and payment over the Internet. This solution will also streamline the labor-intensive paperwork processes of our industry by offering customers on-line self-service tools at their fingertips," added Cain.

The new service called Emergis(R) e-Premiums builds on the company's deep expertise in the health insurance and financial services industries, its proven ability to deliver payor-centric e-business solutions, as well as the company's leading-edge proprietary technology in the area of electronic invoice presentment and payment. Through this service an insurance company can, for example, electronically invoice a corporate customer for its group health plan coverage by linking its accounts receivable systems to the customer's plan enrollment database, thus working from the most recent data.

The Principal Financial Group (www.principal.com) is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance and mortgage banking through its diverse family of financial services companies. More employers choose the Principal Financial Group for their 401(k) plans than any other bank, mutual fund, or insurance company in the United States(1). Its flagship and largest member, Principal Life Insurance Company (The Principal (R))(2), was founded in 1879. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $116.9 billion in assets under management(3) and serves some 13 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

BCE Emergis is a premiere B2B e-commerce infrastructure provider focused on market leadership in the transaction-intensive e-health and financial services sectors. It offers its customers increasing value by simplifying administrative processes, decreasing costs and delivery times and providing better customer service. Its scalable solutions electronically transform business process, such as health insurance claims processing. Through BCE Emergis eHealth Solutions Group, BCE Emergis is leveraging its experience and strengths in the health insurance industry to solidify its leadership position and broaden its scope of services to insurance companies, third party administrators, governments, workers' compensation boards and large provider organizations. BCE Emergis shares (TSE:IFM) are included in the Toronto Stock Exchange 100 composite index.

Please visit BCE Emergis at www.emergis.com for more information on the company.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of BCE Emergis with respect to its performance, business and future events. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results and events may vary significantly.

(1) CFO Magazine, April/May 2001, based on total plans served in 2000 by insurance companies, banks and investment firms.

(2) "The Principal" is a registered trademark referring to Principal Life Insurance Company, a member of the Principal Financial Group.

(3) As of June 30, 2001.