NORCROSS, Ga. and CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Jan. 10, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- S1 Corporation (Nasdaq:SONE), a leading global provider of payments and financial services software solutions, today announced that PEP, one of the largest single-brand retailers in South Africa, has gone live with the S1 Retail Payments solution to process card payments at its retail stores.
To date, PEP has rolled out the S1 Retail Payments solution to over 5,150 points of sale (POS) at over 1,165 locations. In total, PEP operates more than 1,600 stores with over 15,000 employees. PEP traditionally operated solely on a cash basis but in response to growing customer demand to allow payment by bank card and other emerging payment instruments, PEP licensed the S1 Retail Payments solution to seamlessly integrate with its electronic POS terminals and information technology infrastructure. Card payment transactions originating from PEP stores are sent to their processor, eCentric Switch, which runs S1's Merchant Acquiring solution. Additionally, eCentric Switch has implemented the S1 active/active feature in order to provide PEP with resilience and high availability in the event of planned or unplanned downtime in communications, hardware, or software.
The roll-out of PEP is the first implementation as part of a broader agreement with Pepkor, a South African based investment holding company. Pepkor has retail interests in ten African countries as well as Australia and Poland. The group, established in 1965, manages a portfolio of retail chains focused on the value market and selling predominantly clothing, footwear, and textiles. Its primary operating subsidiaries are PEP and Ackermans in South Africa and Best & Less in Australia.
"We selected S1 based on their strong reputation among major financial institutions, retailers, and payment processors around the world and specifically in South Africa," said Louis Brand, Commercial Director for PEP. "The S1 Retail Payments solution will assist PEP in ensuring that its payments infrastructure operates as do the rest of its operations—at the highest level of quality and at the lowest overall cost. The S1 payments platform will also allow us to introduce new payment instruments and emerging value-added services when the business requires."
"PEP's implementation of the S1 Retail Payments solution reflects continued success in the retail payments market," said Francois van Schoor, Divisional President, S1 Corporation.
About PEP
PEP opened its first store 45 years ago and is now Southern Africa's biggest single-brand retailer and operates over 1,600 stores in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, and owns Powersales in Zimbabwe. More than 15,000 people are employed by PEP and the company will conduct over 220 million customer transactions this year.
About S1
Leading banks, credit unions, retailers, and processors need technology that adapts to the complex and challenging needs of their businesses. These organizations want solutions that can respond quickly to changes in the marketplace and help grow their businesses. For more than 20 years, S1 Corporation (Nasdaq:SONE) has been a leader in developing software products that offer flexibility and reliability. Over 3,000 organizations worldwide depend on S1 for payments, online banking, mobile banking, voice banking, and branch banking solutions that deliver a competitive advantage. More information is available at www.s1.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbor 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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