Dominion Selects Joint Accounts Receivable Conversion System from CheckFree and Unisys

ATLANTA – CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR) and Unisys (NYSE: UIS) today announced an agreement to provide CheckFree’s leading accounts receivable conversion (ARC) processing services to corporate users of Unisys Remittance Processing Solution (RPS) in the utility and communications industries. The two technologies are now certified by each company as an integrated platform for use by billing organizations. Dominion (NYSE: D), one of the nation’s largest producers of energy, is the first customer for this complete ARC combined solution and has already realized business-level benefits including reduced processing costs, reduction in return items and improved funds availability.

By implementing an ARC solution built upon CheckFree’s long history in electronic bill payment processing, customers of Unisys RPS system can deploy a comprehensive ARC system to convert consumer checks in Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. For Dominion, the combined products have delivered high ARC conversion rates, low administrative return and opt-out rates, and a significant return on its technology investment.

“We identified ARC as an essential remittance processing tool for our back office because of its benefits,” said Gwen Beadles, director — Customer Billing and Payment Services for Dominion. “We needed a system that could integrate into our existing infrastructure, while providing risk management and exception handling. Our metrics in all areas, including conversion, administrative returns and opt-out rates have been positive. The check electronification process has been well accepted by our customers.”

With Dominion’s selection of CheckFree’s ARC solution, CheckFree is enabling its billing customers to more effectively manage their revenue collection cycle — from the delivery and payment of bills to the back-office processing of consumer check payments. In addition to this implementation, Dominion also uses CheckFree i-Series software to deliver highly interactive electronic bills and statements to its residential and business customers through its own Web site and offers CheckFree e-Bill® to deliver bills electronically to consumers through CheckFree’s electronic billing and payment distribution network of banks, brokerages, credit unions and Internet portals. Dominion also provides in-person payment options to consumers using CheckFree’s network of retail outlets and Dominion bill payment centers.

“Unisys delivers leading back-office payment processing solutions that are used by some of the nation’s largest telecommunications and utilities companies,” said Matt Lewis, executive vice president of Client Development for CheckFree Services Corporation. “At CheckFree, we have developed a comprehensive infrastructure that supports a large volume of electronic bill payments from consumers to billers, and that processing now includes ARC transactions for billing organizations. As a result, we are uniquely positioned to deliver highly scalable systems to large billing organizations while maintaining superior conversion and low administrative return rates.”

“Organizations look to Unisys to deliver greater efficiencies in their payment processes, and the CheckFree ARC solution is an excellent offering in our portfolio of solutions to meet that demand for utilities and communications companies,” stated Michael V. Esposito, practice director for the Remittance Processing Solution at Unisys. “As a leader in electronic billing and payment and ACH software, CheckFree brings a high degree of quality, efficiency and expertise to the world of ARC transaction processing. We look forward to working with CheckFree to bring similar quality and efficiency levels to the lockbox remittance operations at utility and communications corporations throughout North America. At Unisys, we will continue to leverage our deep industry and domain expertise to expand our leadership position in the remittance and lockbox marketplace for various industries with world class solutions.”

Payments 2005 Conference Presentation
Dominion Director, Gwen Beadles, and CheckFree Director of Product Management, Chris Adkins, will be presenting a case study on back-office remittance processing, including details regarding the company’s use of CheckFree and Unisys’s ARC solution, on Tuesday, April 12 at the Payments 2005 conference in San Antonio. The case study is titled “Advanced ARC Operations: Challenges & Payoffs” and will be held in room 001B of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.