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Macalla Software Announces the Release of Version 3.5 of The Macalla Mobile e-Commerce Platform and its Associated Applications Which Underpin Europe's largest mobile e-Commerce deployment

28th January 2002, Dublin, Ireland. Macalla Software, a leading European provider of proven mobile e-Commerce platforms and solutions to mobile operators and enterprises, has announced the latest release of its solution set. Version 3.5 of The Macalla Mobile e-Commerce Platform, based upon the three core technologies of multi-device delivery, mobile payments and alerts, provides the following solutions out-of-the-box; top-up, shopping, banking, share dealing, peer-to-peer payments, premium content, gaming, ticketing, parking, and a complete integrated development environment. Macallas solutions will be showcased at GSM2002 in Cannes, February 9-22, and will demonstrate the companys ability to enable organisations increase customer profitability, reduce churn, create additional revenue sources and acquire new quality customers.

The latest version of Macallas solution set incorporates the functionality used to deliver Europes largest mobile e-Commerce deployment. This deployment, launched in August 2001 with Postbank Nederland (ING Group) and Telfort (MMO2), combines hot button SMS activated pre-paid top-up directly from the subscribers bank account with full function mobile banking. According to Ludo Wijngaardan, CEO Postbank, when delivering a speech at the BAI Conference in California in December 2001, the success of the uptake and usage of the service was way ahead of their expectations. There are currently 500,000 active users and this deployment was responsible for 58% of MMO2s customer growth for the third quarter of 2001*.

According to Edward Kountz, Senior Analyst, Mobile Financial Strategies at TowerGroup,Financial institutions (FSIs) and mobile operators increasingly see that, to gain a competitive edge in mobile financial services, they must begin investing now. And success does not come in a vacuum-the future of mobile financial services is increasingly being built upon symbiotic partnerships between leading financial firms and mobile carriers. These partnerships must address specific market opportunities with tools that reduce cost of service or generate new revenue streams for both groups. To successfully deploy and maintain these services and applications, FSIs and carriers must turn to robust, quick-to-deploy mobile infrastructure and content solutions, like those from Macalla Software and others.

According to Guido Heyns, Head of New Business Technology at Postbank, The Macalla Mobile e-Commerce Platform has enabled Postbank and Telfort launch a highly ambitious, large scale mobile banking and prepaid top-up initiative handling 500,000 customers from day 1 at 99+% service levels with a potential to roll out to 7m customers thereafter. He went on to say, The combination of Macalla Softwares market experience and technology development path has enabled us maintain our innovative reputation and customer loyalty as well as provide a platform for support of future innovative applications through the ING Group.

Drawing upon our extensive deployments within the mobile operator and financial services sectors, we have been able to focus our technology roadmap towards continuing to enable our mobile e-Commerce customers exploit growth opportunities and solve business problems. said Niall OCleirigh, CEO, Macalla Software. Version 3.5 of our solution set provides our customers with a robust, secure and proven technology capability to increase revenues and reduce operational costs.