Joins growing number of international post offices that Streamline services with Riposte

Boston, Mass. - May 29, 1997 - Escher Group Ltd announced today that Slovenska Posta, the Slovakian Post Office, has signed a contract to acquire Riposte message-oriented middleware to implement electronic communications and automate counter services at 1,600 post offices nationwide.

Slovakia's contract will increase the number of postal counters licensed to use Riposte software to approximately 62,000 worldwide. Riposte is currently in use in Ireland at An Post, Ireland's postal service, in the United Kingdom and in Singapore. An Post is providing technical consulting, change management, and training to Slovenska Posta.

Riposte is a complete networking and application development system that provides an end-to-end solution for Post Office automation. Designed to use the advanced security and heterogeneous networking capabilities of Windows NT, Riposte offers both a message-based distribution infrastructure and an object-oriented application development environment. Built on Microsoft's COM and ActiveX architecture, Riposte enables robust rapid application development and release management across a distributed network.

Slovenska Post plans to roll out Riposte in two phases. The initial phase of the project will provide a communications infrastructure between the retail outlets and the district, regional, and headquarters locations. The second phase will introduce a series of counter applications and products to the retail network.

UNISYS is the prime contractor and systems integrator for Slovenska Post. "Riposte is a unique solution which has given us a clear advantage in Slovakia," stated Simon Joles, Programme Director, Public Sector, Central and Eastern Europe. "Being already in operation in Ireland, the UK, and elsewhere was important to the customer. And the low operational cost features, such as low training, automatic backup, automatic recovery, and tolerance of communications failures are extremely important for the success of the project in Slovakia." Riposte uses widely available hardware and software to provide a system that is easy and inexpensive to own and operate.

Slovenska Post will develop native language counter applications. "Riposte's highly graphical, touch-screen user interface is not only simple to use and to learn, it is very easy to adapt to support a new language," explained a spokesperson for Escher Group. "Support for multi-lingual systems was a key design goal for Riposte from the start."

"Escher Group is extremely pleased that Slovakia has selected Riposte," he continued. "As more Post Offices adopt Riposte as their solution for post office automation, they will begin to see key strategic advantages emerge. Post Offices using Riposte technology will be able to seamlessly and securely automate postal services across international boundaries and provide important customer services that were previously difficult or impossible due to hardware and software incompatibilities."

About Escher Group, Limited

Escher Group Limited is a leading provider of distributed transaction processing and data management solutions and services. The company offers a business-to-business XML-based transaction management environment, used in thousands of locations worldwide. Since its introduction in 1993, Riposte®, Escher's flagship messaging solution, has grown to become the market leader in post office counter automation.

Trademarks: WebRiposte and Riposte are trademarks or registered trademarks of Escher Group, Limited in the United States and/or other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Information:

Escher Group Limited
information@eschergroup.com