CIT Builds OB10 Electronic Invoice Delivery Platform for Open Business Exchange

OBE estimates OB10 can reduce processing costs per invoice by over 80%; Leading-edge IST/Foundation from Oasis Technology Ltd. serves as technology foundation for innovative new service

Toronto, Canada August 14, 2001 CIT an international software development announced today that it has successfully completed the development, implementation and technical testing of the OB10 electronic invoice delivery platform for client Open Business Exchange (www.obexchange.com). OB10 addresses the emerging requirement for companies to receive electronic invoices from an unlimited number of suppliers directly into their accounting or ERP systems, thereby eliminating the expense, delay and inefficiencies associated with paper documents. The OB10 system was developed for OBE by a dedicated development team at CIT's offshore development center in Cairo, Egypt. Following initial development, CIT has also worked closely with OBE during the first half of 2001 to integrate and test OB10 with four major clients of OBE, including leading international company Fisher Scientific, the world's largest supplier of equipment to the scientific community.
The testing program was completed successfully with all the major deliverables achieved ahead of schedule, allowing OBE to launch the service commercially early gaining valuable time-tomarket advantage.
"Being first to market with an open electronic delivery service has given us a considerable competitive advantage," said Alain Falys, CEO of OBE. "We are extremely happy with the technology leadership and expertise that CIT's ePayment team has brought to the OB10 project. CIT has truly been a strategic partner for OBE designing and creating a powerful engine to support our vision for a global hub for electronic delivery of critical business documents."
The OB10 platform was custom-developed by CIT using a number of leading edge technologies. First, a web gateway was specially designed with the performance and scalability characteristics to meet the high volume of transactions expected as OBE quickly ramps up its business model. Second, CIT used Oasis Technology's IST/Foundation, a powerful transaction processing platform, which CIT ePayment specialists used to develop the software mechanisms that enable the electronic flow, delivery and control of invoices between businesses.

Based on the Company's OB10 project experience, CIT is able to apply its Oasis transaction technology expertise to other leading edge ePayment systems. Toronto-based Oasis Technology is a leading provider of software which enables payments any time, any place on any device. "With its innovative approach to electronic invoice delivery, OBE is leading the next wave in global electronic commerce," said Ashraf Zaki, President, CIT. "We are pleased to be part of the team making OB10 a reality."
In Europe and United States, over 15 billion invoices are manually processed each year at an estimated cost of nearly $14 per invoice to the supply chain according to Gartner Group. OB10 automates the back office functions of both buyers and suppliers. OBE's first service, OB10 is a universal, non-intrusive translation system that enables large buying companies to receive electronic invoices directly into their accounting systems from any of their suppliers, large or small. Subscribing does not require the installation of proprietary software, and the service accommodates any data formats. OBE estimates that for large buying organizations, OB10 can reduce the processing costs per invoice by over 80%. Now that OB10 is commercially available, CIT continues to work with OBE. The dedicated development team is responsible for maintaining the system and has an aggressive schedule of OB10 feature enhancements agreed with OBE. CIT will also continue to work with OBE to implement and integrate new customers into the OB10 system.