CheckFree i-Solutions Announces i-Series 4.0 with Enhanced Business-to-Business Capabilities.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 22, 2001

The pioneer of "e-bill" brings organizations the newest version of this flagship software platform, a single source for both B2B and B2C 

electronic bills, statements and invoices

CheckFree i-Solutions, the leading provider of e-billing and e-statement applications and part of CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ: CKFR), today announced the newest version of its flagship software platform, CheckFree i-Series 4.0.

Using the latest i-Series solution, organizations can deliver dynamic, interactive billing content to both corporations and consumers from a single, integrated platform. The new solution provides enhanced out-of-the-box features for handling large, complex bills and statements in a business-to-consumer (B2C) environment and invoices in a business-to-business (B2B) environment.

With i-Series 4.0, CheckFree i-Solutions delivers to billing organizations a full-scale platform and the ability to interface with Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning applications as well as an interface to Cognos(R)' Online Analytical Processing application, PowerPlay, for browser-based, detailed analysis of bills and statements. CheckFree i-Series also offers industry-specific snap-on modules enabling payers to intelligently review, adjust, restate charges, approve and pay bills and invoices online. Vertical-specific modules address the needs of utilities, telcos, insurance, and financial services, including banking and brokerage bills and statements.

As a result, billers are able to experience improved cash flow through timely processing of bills and invoices. Payers can benefit from a streamlined invoice and bill approval process, which in turn can help them seek more aggressive credit terms. Overall, this creates a stronger interactive relationship among billers and payer organizations.

According to a November 2000 GartnerGroup survey of more than 100 U.S. non-service enterprises with annual revenues ranging from $100 million to $5 billion, business process improvements such as reduced billing costs, faster cash flow and an improved bill review, dispute and payment processes are critical to the success of large-scale organizations' B2B initiatives. For instance, sellers expect to lower the typical cost of producing a paper bill or invoice from $5 to $1.65 by reducing labor, postage, paper and equipment expenses through implementing a B2B electronic billing and payment solution. In addition, these sellers also expect to cut in half the average fully loaded cost of manually resolving a bill or invoice dispute from $20 per live call to $10 for a bill dispute that is handled online. More than 10 percent of business bills or invoices are disputed today, according to a January 2001 Gartner report.

"The newest version of our robust i-Series engine will continue CheckFree's expansion into the business-to-business market. Today, more than one-third of our existing software customer base already uses CheckFree i-Solutions for some form of B2B application, whether it is in a pure B2B environment or a mixed B2B and B2C environment," noted Tom Stampiglia, president of CheckFree i-Solutions. "By providing off-the-shelf B2B functionality such as roles-based support and account hierarchy, line-item dispute, adjustment and restatement of discount terms, biller organizations will be able to more rapidly deploy these solutions in a cost-effective manner."

Some of the key enhancements included within i-Series 4.0 include the following:

-- Business Process Rules Support - A critical new component of the i-Series
platform is the ability for billers to leverage pre-defined dispute codes and
discount term utilization capabilities. In addition, payers can take advantage
of "roles-based" workflow support that allows personnel within
multiple departments to intelligently review, dispute and adjust charges at the
line item level.

-- ERP/CRM Integration - CheckFree i-Series 4.0 provides for integration with
leading Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management
applications with the ability to transfer at the file level back office data
among other legacy systems.

-- Online Analytical Processing Support - In response to strong customer
demand, CheckFree i-Solutions is providing intelligent, browser-based
analytical tools under which businesses can leverage an interface between
i-Series 4.0 and Cognos' Online Analytical Processing application,
PowerPlay. This tool will allow users (or payers) to drill down in a
multi-dimensional graphical "cube" environment to conduct more
detailed analysis of their bills and statements.

-- Fully Java-based Architecture - Version 4.0 was completely re-architected in
Java so that CheckFree can leverage the Web-based development
environment's portability to ensure that Web applications can be created
and deployed faster in the majority of production environments.

-- Payments - CheckFree offers multiple options for ACH payment by service
subscribers. The CheckFree payment options range from online payments and batch
transactions to completely integrated payment solutions.

-- Marketing - CheckFree intends to extend its one-to-one, highly targeted
messaging capabilities to the business-to-business environment through the
Market Direct 4.0 module. Businesses can leverage this functionality to send
customer/user-specific, operational-based messages regarding business
processing collaboration.

-- Additional Platform Support - In addition to the extensive list of Operating
Environments certified with the i-Series Engine, the new i-Series release
supports the following platforms: IBM DB2 7.1 Database, SQL Server 2000
Database and Microsoft IIS 5.0 Web/Application Server.

-- Increased Control and Flexibility for Storing Objects within the i-Series
Engine - Primarily intended for B2B applications, this advanced feature allows
for efficient handling of statements in excess of 10,000 pages while meeting
Web application performance needs. Regardless of statement size, users have the
flexibility to control where and how statement objects are stored within the
i-Series Engine for those clients with specialized needs to selectively access
statement objects.

-- Improved Operational Support - To better manage the rapid growth in the
number of billers, statements, and bills being presented by our clients,
Release 4.0 includes a new statement run audit and tracking feature along with
an enhanced log viewer. For those clients who also take advantage of
CheckFree's extensive distribution network, a new module, e-Bill Connect,
will seamlessly manage and control the flow of information among billers,
Biller Service Providers, CheckFree, and Financial Services Organizations and
portals.

About CheckFree i-Solutions

As a software group within CheckFree Corporation, CheckFree i-Solutions is the leading provider of software and services for business-to-consumer and business-to-business solutions for e-billing and payment and e-statement delivery. CheckFree i-Solutions offers CheckFree i-Series software for e-bill and e-statement creation; CheckFree i-Processing Services that include payment and distribution through nearly 300 financial services sites; and CheckFree i-Hosting Services that accommodate EBP self-hosting or outsourcing. CheckFree i-Solutions is committed to helping billers, Consumer Service Providers (CSPs) and Biller Service Providers (BSPs) leverage consumer and business bills as interactive conduits to customer relationship management, marketing and customer self service applications.

About CheckFree

CheckFree (www.checkfree.com) is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce software and services. Founded in 1981, CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. Today, CheckFree enables 4.8 million consumers to receive and pay bills electronically. The company has multi-year contracts with 245 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through nearly 300 consumer service providers (CSPs), including banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and content sites and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree's Software Services division provides solutions that are used to process more than two-thirds of the nation's six billion Automated Clearing House payments, and reconciliation products and services to 400 banks and businesses. Also within the Software Services division is CheckFree i-Solutions, which enables billers to create electronic billing and payment and statement delivery applications that transform bills and statements into interactive conduits for customer relationship management, marketing and customer self service. CheckFree's Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to thousands of financial institutions nationwide. The division's clients manage more than 1.1 million portfolios totaling more than $500 billion in assets.

Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2000 (filed September 26, 2000). One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect, the Company's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this document will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.