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Woolworths issues a million gift cards with Postilion

Leading South African retailer's adoption of new card technologies and creative application of Postilion Card Management solution sets example for other retailers
By S1
Johannesburg, 02 Apr 2008

Postilion, a leading provider of software solutions for self-service banking and payments and a division of S1 Corporation, today announced that Woolworths, one of South Africa's leading retailers, has issued its millionth in-house gift card since the launch of these cards in 300 outlets seven months ago.

Woolworths uses Postilion's Card Management solution to manage gift cards, which are gaining in popularity in South Africa in line with global trends.

Woolworths required a highly flexible solution that could handle gift cards while mitigating the fraud and security risks associated with paper-based vouchers. Another requirement of the retailer was for bulk-activated gift cards that corporations can distribute as incentives to their employees.

Woolworths chose to issue and process its gift card offering in-house, rather than turning to an outsourced gift card supplier. In this way, the retailer is able to respond quickly to issues at hand, have a tight control over costs, and launch new services to provide a competitive advantage and improve their customer proposition.

Having decided on the in-house option, Woolworths looked for a card management solution with global credentials. Postilion was a strong contender as the technology partner for the new gift card product, especially as the retailer has been a satisfied user of Postilion's payment solutions for the past six years.

The Postilion Card Management solution - with its versatile card production, transaction validation, authorisation and reporting capabilities - matched all the requirements and specifications of Woolworths and seamlessly extended their existing payment platform to issue and process gift cards and acquire new transaction types.

Glynn Zeederberg, Systems Manager Sale Data at Woolworths, commented as follows: "Given the uptime statistics of our Postilion installation over a six-year period, we knew exactly where to turn. We added the Postilion Card Management solution to our existing Postilion installation and, with only minor customisations to the system, we were good to go. Reaching the million mark in just seven months proves the quality of the choice we made when deploying the Postilion Card Management solution."

"Our partnership with Woolworths has been reinforced by their selection of Postilion Card Management, confirming their trust in our solutions and in our client service. We would like to congratulate Woolworths on this milestone and are proud to be part of an offering that is an example of South African retailers adopting new card technologies. This raises the bar for retailers in other countries," commented Deon van Biljon, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Postilion Africa.

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Woolworths

Founded in Cape Town in 1931, Woolworths, today recognised as South Africa's leading retail brand, marked its 75th birthday in October 2006. A household name throughout southern Africa, Woolworths sells a wide range of products including food, clothing, beauty, homeware and more under its own label in some 300 stores nationwide as well as through franchise partners in Africa and the Middle East.

As it has grown, evolved and adapted to the changing world around it, Woolworths has always remained true to its core values of quality, integrity, value and innovation and has continually strived to make a difference in the lives of its customers. Known by generations of South Africans simply as "Woolies", it has grown to become part of the very fabric of South African society, a benchmark for excellence and an icon of quality.

Our ingrained culture of professionalism and tradition of integrity ensures that we act responsibly with regard to all stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and the community. Woolworths applies the principles and recommendations of the Code of Corporate Practices and Conduct as set out in the second King Report. www.woolworths.co.za

Postilion

Postilion, a division of S1 Corporation, is a leading provider of integrated solutions for self-service banking and payment processing. Our offices, on five continents, serve over 1 500 customers in more than 50 countries. Postilion solutions drive self-service financial transactions and payments, including advanced transactions such as prepay, through Internet access points, ATMs, POS terminals, and phones.

More than 100 000 ATMs and 500 000 POS terminals worldwide run on Postilion solutions. In the United States, over 1 250 credit unions and community financial institutions use Postilion solutions. Built on open systems, Postilion solutions provide consolidated management information, card management, 3DES and EMV enablement, and loyalty management. At the forefront of compliance with new regulations and security enhancements, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and Visa's Payment Application Best Practices, Postilion can help customers achieve compliance with the latest data security standards developed by the payment card industry. More information is available at www.postilion.com.

S1 Corporation

S1 Corporation delivers customer interaction software for financial and payment services and offers unique solution sets for financial institutions, retailers, and processors under three brand names: Postilion, S1 Enterprise and FSB Solutions. Additional information about S1 solutions is available at www.s1.com, www.postilion.com, www.S1enterprise.com, and www.fsb-solutions.com.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements include statements with respect to our financial condition, results of operations and business. The words "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should," "projects," "contemplates," "anticipates," "forecasts," "intends" or similar terminology identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our beliefs as well as assumptions made using information currently available to us. Because these statements reflect our current views concerning future events, they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Therefore, actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The risk factors included in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (and available on our web site at www.s1.com or the SEC's Web site at www.sec.gov) provide examples of risks, uncertainties and events that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements. Except as provided by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

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