MasterCard Debuts e-Payment Service

e-P3 links electronic POs, invoices, receipts with p-card transactions

Purchase, NY — April 7, 2003 — MasterCard International today announced the immediate availability of e-P3, an electronic payment and information management service fully integrated with the MasterCard corporate purchasing card.

With MasterCard e-P3, buyers can automatically link electronic purchase orders, invoices, receipt of goods and other transaction documents with purchasing card transactions.

The first adopters of this new solution, implemented on the Xign platform, are Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with its JPMorgan Chase MasterCard corporate purchasing card, and Pantellos with its Citibank MasterCard corporate purchasing card programs.

MasterCard says that e-P3 allows buying organizations to maintain the integrity of the purchase order requisition, approval and matching process while receiving the full benefits of purchasing card settlement. The card company asserts that this innovation creates new opportunities for corporate purchasing card programs, opening new purchasing categories and enabling larger ticket transactions, while increasing accounting control.

With e-P3, line-item transaction detail, with Level III data, is exchanged electronically between buyers and suppliers with every transaction by using the MasterCard Global Data Repository. Online reporting of transaction data is available through such Web-based reporting tools as MasterCard Smart Data OnLine.

e-P3 supports various existing enterprise resource planning and accounting systems, including Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, J.D. Edwards, Microsoft Great Plains and GEAC.

Beth Robertson, senior analyst at the research and advisory firm TowerGroup, said that solutions like e-P3 enable buyers to fully e-enable the procure-to-pay process, maintain controls and enhance payment data, helping to build value for both buyer and supplier organizations. "e-P3 is also unique because it leverages and extends the functionality of existing tools, such as the purchasing card," Robertson added.

"MasterCard e-P3 represents the next level of purchasing, presentment and payment for business-to-business customers," said Philip Philliou, vice president for e-business and emerging technologies at MasterCard. "For the first time, MasterCard member financial institutions will see a true integration of purchasing, invoice presentment and payment, offering their corporate clients clear advantages over today's slow, labor-intensive, paper-based settlement processes."

Suppliers can enroll in e-P3 over the Internet with any Web browser. The solution gives suppliers the means to issue electronic invoices, view the status of those invoices at any time and accept immediate electronic payment, with the potential to improve cash forecasting and gain new levels of accounting control.

Commenting on the new MasterCard solution, Alan Y.C. Yong, director of financial value chain and analytics at technology consultancy Aberdeen Group, said: "A core belief at MasterCard is that the adoption of electronic B2B payment systems is largely dependent upon the automation of the broader financial supply chain, from invoicing through payment settlement through reconciliation. That's the vision behind MasterCard e-P3, a market-ready solution that is designed to be easily implemented by all parties in the supply chain."

e-P3 early adopter Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, based in New York, recently implemented Xign's ePayables solution to automate its accounts payable operation. Now, with e-P3, Memorial Sloan-Kettering is implementing the program to further streamline operations and optimize the value of its JPMorgan Chase MasterCard purchasing card program.

"Our purchasing card is a building block of our supply chain strategy, and MasterCard e-P3 powered by Xign will be an important component of our success," said Mark Svenningson, Memorial Sloan-Kettering controller. "MasterCard e-P3 will allow us to expand our card program to a wider range of purchases without compromising our requisition processes and control."

Elsewhere, Pantellos, the Woodlands, Texas-based supply chain services company for the utility and energy services industries, will offer MasterCard e-P3 to its customers. Used in conjunction with Pantellos' eSettlement Network and eProcurement services, e-P3 will enable utilities to broaden their use of MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card programs to settle larger value transactions for direct materials and services, according to MasterCard.
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