OUB To Act As Preferred Payment Gateway For Transactions On SESAMi.NET

National Computer Systems (NCS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore Telecom Group (SingTel) today entered into a multi-million dollar partnership with premier consumer bank, Overseas Union Bank (OUB). OUB will take a 25 per cent stake in the recently launched SESAMi.com Pte Ltd. The new company, wholly owned by NCS and fully backed by the Singapore Telecom Group, is a provider of end-to-end business-to-business (B-to-B) e-commerce solutions and is the owner of Asia's first full-service dynamic real-time trading commerce portal, SESAMi.NET.

SingTel President and Chief Executive Officer, BG Lee Hsien Yang and OUB President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Peter Seah, sealed the partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at a milestone ceremony today.

With this partnership, the SingTel Group, NCS and OUB will pool their strengths and expertise in e-commerce solutions and financial services to provide a comprehensive end-to-end B-to-B e-commerce service to the market.

Under the agreement, OUB will be the preferred payment and settlements gateway for transactions conducted on the SESAMi.NET marketplace. The bank will leverage on its experience in providing forward-looking and innovative financial solutions to meet a strategic need for settlement services in the e-commerce value chain.

Collectively, these services will reinforce the shared corporate vision and values of NCS and OUB - to anticipate and meet the needs of today's businesses in a rapidly changing environment driven by Internet economics - by providing timely and innovative products and solutions.

BG Lee said, "Business-to-business e-commerce is growing at a phenomenal rate with e-procurement as the key strategic application in the years to come. Corporations are leaning toward solutions that they know will give them an early return-on-investment, including shorter procurement cycles and lower operating costs."

"We are pleased to have OUB as a key partner in the business-to-business e-commerce arena. OUB will extend our reach in the market and provide SESAMi.com the added momentum needed to establish itself as the predominant business-to-business e-commerce service provider in the region and position SESAMi.NET as the leading trading portal in Asia," BG Lee added.

The SESAMi.NET portal is part of a global trading web linking into marketplaces in North America, Europe, and Japan. Today there are 5,000 suppliers and five million line items available through this web of commerce portals.

From small and medium enterprises to multi-national companies and government agencies, SESAMi.com provides both enterprise and hosted solutions that enable buyers to automate the entire purchasing cycle. With links to SESAMi.NET, buying organisations have the ability to transact on a real-time basis at the press of a button.

Mr Peter Seah said, "We are committed to harnessing technology for the benefit of customers. This alliance marks our first major foray into the global e-commerce marketplace and is yet another milestone in our OUB 2000 integrated technology plan which we recently unveiled. By leveraging on the wide reach of the SESAMi.NET portal, we want to be at the forefront of borderless commerce in the new millennium. Collectively, these initiatives reinforce OUB 2000 - our vision to redefine and set new benchmarks in the financial services arena."

OOUB will be an anchor tenant in SESAMi.NET

As an anchor tenant in SESAMi.NET, OUB will deploy SESAMi.com's enterprise applications to fully automate the procurement function throughout the bank. This represents a significant investment for OUB, aimed at streamlining the bank's procurement operations.

"We believe in electronic procurement as the strategic application that can help the bank achieve significant payback and a high return-on-investment. We will decentralise procurement to the desktop of our officers and leave our purchasing department to concentrate on higher value-added tasks, such as contract negotiation and sourcing for the best suppliers for the bank. Like the SingTel Group, we will increasingly move our bank-wide procurement activities online through SESAMi.NET," said Mr Peter Seah.

With the deployment of enterprise applications and e-commerce portal services in OUB, authorised users within the bank can check supplier product price and availability, as well as determine the status of any requisition, all in real-time. There will be full integration into OUB's existing system and the SESAMi.NET commerce portal.

SingTel has already attracted many of its suppliers to SESAMi.NET and more are expected to come on-board. OUB's presence as an anchor tenant will add to the dynamism of the portal as the bank will also bring to the marketplace a diverse network of its suppliers.

According to a recent Aberdeen Group survey, the benefits of such solutions are significant and early adopters have realised major cost and process benefits that more than justify their investments.

The SESAMi.NET marketplace portal will:

• Manage all business transactions between OUB and all suppliers e.g. purchase order, invoice, tracking and payment;
• Manage the electronic catalogue content of OUB's suppliers centrally to maintain consistent, up-to-date, high quality content suitable for use by OUB; and
• Provide integrated business and information services e.g. shipping, payment and taxation

"OUB has an outstanding track record and expertise that will bring us one step closer to realising our vision -- to provide value-added, one-stop, total e-commerce solutions to the industry. This is a business where speed means everything, where the early mover enjoys significant advantage in dominating the market. We welcome OUB as our strategic partner in the venture," said Mr KC Lee, Chief Executive Officer of NCS.

"This is a milestone partnership for SESAMi.com. With the backing of three of the best companies in the market, SESAMi.com is well-positioned to lead in this business," said Ms Poh Mui Hoon, Managing Director of SESAMi.com Pte Ltd.

About National Computer Systems

National Computer Systems Pte Ltd (NCS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore Telecom Group, is a leading IT service provider in Singapore. NCS serves the needs of the public and private sectors in Singapore, as well as the region. Its core competencies in information infrastructure development, systems integration, enterprise knowledge management, Internet commerce and IT outsourcing services are focused on these niche industries and business sectors: Government, Healthcare & Education; Construction, Transportation & Manufacturing; Justice & Security; Telecommunications industry; Financial Services. With more than 1,900 trained and experienced IT professionals in the region, NCS is well positioned to deliver projects of any size and scale.

For more information on NCS, please visit http://www.ncs.com.sg.

About Singapore Telecom (SingTel)

Singapore Telecom is a world-class provider of domestic, international and mobile telecommunications as well as postal services. Turnover and net profit for the Group in 1997/98 were S$4.9 billion and S$1.9 billion respectively. Privatised in October 1993, Singapore Telecom is Singapore's largest listed company in terms of market capitalisation.

The Singapore Telecom Group has invested more than S$2.3 billion in telecommunications-related projects around the world, especially in the Asia-Pacific. It owns interests in 54 ventures and operations in 19 countries including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, China and Belgium.

For more information on the company, please visit http://www.singtel.com