LOS ANGELES - North Communications, Inc., a leading provider of interactive software for the financial industry, today announced the availability of AURORA™ the next generation of online banking software. This enhanced real-time Internet banking software application gives banks, credit unions and other financial institutions the ability to offer their customers convenient, anytime/anywhere Internet banking services. A wide array of banking services can be accessed from multiple channels including desktop PCs, laptops, cell phones, PDAs and kiosks.

"We have taken our 12 years of experience with financial transactional software and applied the latest Internet and back-end technologies to create a solid, multiplatform solution," said Victoria L. Overton, President and CEO of North Communications, Inc. "AURORA provides financial institutions with the optimal solution to meet the challenges of competing in the online universe: future-proof architecture and an application that enables 24/7 customer service at reduced processing costs. AURORA has been designed to meet the needs of the present and anticipate the demands of the future."

"A distinguishing feature of AURORA is that it has been designed from the user's perspective," said Dave Lyons, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for North. "Today's consumer demands quality, speed and reliability along with 24/7 convenience. AURORA provides full featured online banking services with an attractive, user-friendly interface."

AURORA delivers a broad array of online banking features that enable the consumer to perform all standard banking services and transactions available via a remote access terminal. The new platform is a Web-based application written in Java that utilizes IBM's WebSphere* application server software. WebSphere software platform supports business applications from simple Web publishing through enterprise-scale transaction processing. Using AURORA, the consumer can also easily and efficiently process loan and credit card applications and open a new account. AURORA provides bank branded integrated links to additional services such as electronic bill presentment, payment processing, and personal financial software. These features enable consumers to arrange automatic payment of monthly bills and to easily manage bill payment activities, including viewing actual bills, scheduling payments, and tracking payment histories. IBM's WebSphere application server provides a high level of security, optimized performance, load balancing, and a number of other features that result in a secure, robust hardware/software application platform required in such a high traffic and sensitive environment. User support is readily accessible through a help directory, online financial calculators, and e-mail requests to the financial institution.

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AURORA is hardware independent and can be deployed on a number of different server platforms including Windows NT, Windows 2000, Solaris, AIX, AS/400* and HP-UX among others. It has been qualified on Windows NT 4.0 SPS.

"The integration of North's AURORA software and IBM's WebSphere Application Server provides an extremely functional and readily accessible solution for Internet banking services," said Paraic Sweeney, vice president, Business Transformation, IBM. "With this offering, Internet banking customers can access vital information from almost any Internet channel with rapid information transfer speeds."

"With AURORA software and North Communications hosting services, financial institutions have access to not only the most innovative Internet banking solution, but also the most secure and robust application hosting environment," said Enrique Santos, Chief Technology Officer at North.

About IBM's WebSphere Software Platform For e-business

IBM (NYSE: IBM) WebSphere's customizable family of products provides the industry's most scalable e-business software foundation and application services, and delivers a flexible and open platform on which to build next-generation e-business applications. Based on WebSphere Application Servers, which deliver common, best-of-breed, standards-based platform services, and MQSeries to integrate core business processes, data and applications, the WebSphere software platform supports business applications from simple Web publishing through enterprise-scale transaction processing. Through modular, integrated application services, such as Lotus Domino for rich collaboration capabilities and WebSphere Commerce Suite for high-performance, scalable commerce sites, the WebSphere platform transforms the way businesses manage customer, partner and employee relationships. Tightly integrated business and web content development tools and Web site management capabilities deliver the most advanced and productive end-to-end application development, deployment and integration for sophisticated e-business solutions. Information about the complete WebSphere software platform is on the Web at http://www.software.ibm.com/websphere.

About North Communications

North Communications provides innovative, consumer-friendly, interactive, transactional software applications for financial institutions. Since 1987, North has been designing secure transactional public access kiosk applications for financial and government institutions. Every day, around the world, people use North Communications software to access information, conduct financial transactions, and complete online forms. North Communications knows how consumers interact with software technology and leverages that knowledge in all of its software solutions. Two core competencies are demonstrated in all North Communications financial software solutions: a unique combination of expertise in user interface design and Internet technologies, and superior technical competence in interfacing to legacy systems.

For more information, visit North at www.infonorth.com.

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