CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

CheckFree Corporation Utilizes eFORCE Quality Management Assessment for Improved Quality Assurance Financial e-Commerce Leader Employs System Integrator's Quality Management Service to Identify Optimal Global Quality Assurance Process HAYWARD, Calif., Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- eFORCE (http://www.eforceglobal.com/), a leading provider of full lifecycle IT solutions leveraging the Global Delivery Model, has announced a new client relationship under its Quality Management Practice. CheckFree (NASDAQ:CKFR), a leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and products, selected eFORCE to audit the company's division-wide Software Quality Assurance (SQA) capabilities. The audit will leverage the eFORCE proprietary SQA Assessment Framework(TM) to optimize software engineering processes used by CheckFree's SQA Department, consistent with the department's interaction with the company's extended software development organization. CheckFree provides comprehensive electronic billing and payment solutions that enable over 15 million consumers to receive and pay bills online. CheckFree is the service provider behind the electronic billing and payment services of more than 1,400 banks, credit unions, brokerage sites and financial portals including Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, SouthTrust, NetBank, Charles Schwab, Yahoo! and MSN. "CheckFree has applied Sigma quality methodology to financial services since 1999, with a company-wide commitment to operational efficiency and a high quality customer experience, so the opportunity to further enhance our software development and quality assurance processes was very attractive to us," said Van Williams, senior vice president of Product Development, CheckFree. "Our close collaboration with eFORCE, an expert in application development, migration, integration and quality management, gives CheckFree access to key advisory and auditing services, particularly in the area of quality best practices." eFORCE's SQA Assessment Framework, based on the industry standard TMM (Testing Maturity Model) assessment methodology, will be used to audit CheckFree's current SQA capabilities. Focused on streamlining the company's testing and quality assurance systems, CheckFree and eFORCE personnel will work closely to review high-end technology architecture/strategy, business analysis and program management office (PMO) components, as well as specialized performance engineering and quality engineering services. The eFORCE Quality Management Practice provides clients with advisory and support services that help them implement proactive quality initiatives, reduce the cost of achieving quality, and remediate products/solutions with quality issues. "For over 20 years, CheckFree has set the standard for leadership, innovation and quality in the financial electronic commerce industry," said Nat Natraj, president and chief executive officer, eFORCE. "Our role as a quality advisor to CheckFree is based on a mutual commitment to the highest quality standards and cost containment." In addition to its Quality Management Practice, eFORCE offers related services such as its Software Product Engineering and Quality Assurance Service (SPEQS). The multi-discipline, standards-based SPEQS practice enables organizations to reap the benefits of offshore application development without compromising quality or schedules. Consisting of development centers in the U.S., U.K., and India, SPEQS supports research & development, prototyping, technology evaluation and benchmarking; full lifecycle product development; porting/sustenance engineering; release management; integrated software quality assurance model; product support; and documentation. SPEQS has grown rapidly with new clients such as WorldGroup and Annexient. About CheckFree (http://www.checkfreecorp.com/) Founded in 1981, CheckFree Corporation provides financial electronic commerce services and products to organizations around the world. CheckFree Electronic Commerce solutions enable thousands of financial services providers and billers to offer their customers the convenience of receiving and paying their household bills online or in person through retail outlets. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management solutions and outsourced services to thousands of financial services organizations, which manage more than $1 trillion in assets. CheckFree Software develops, markets and supports software applications that are used by financial institutions to process more than two-thirds of the 10 billion Automated Clearing House transactions in the United States. The division also provides reconciliation, financial messaging, compliance and electronic billing and statement software to hundreds of organizations across the globe. About eFORCE (http://www.eforceglobal.com/) eFORCE specializes in the Design, Development, Migration/Modernization, Maintenance and Support of IT products and solutions in the areas of Enterprise Portals, Digital Information Management, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Application Integration, Business Intelligence and Enterprise Infrastructure. Combining expertise in business architecture, technical architecture, design, deployment and maintenance, eFORCE delivers production-scale products/solutions that result in measurable ROI. eFORCE customers include leading Global 1000 end-users such as Alcatel, AT&T, Avaya, Baker Hughes, Bank of America, DHL, Fleet Bank, France Telecom, GE Capital, Hilton, HP, Janssen, Janus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Novartis, Viacom, and Visa; and innovative Software Product companies such as Annexient, BEA Systems, CheckFree, GMS360, eTeam, Infonet, Matrics, MatrixOne, Netbrowser, Reuters and WorldGroup. eFORCE delivers solutions based on best-in-class enabling technologies such as ATG, BEA Systems, BroadVision, E.piphany, HP, IBM, Interwoven, Mercury, Netegrity, Savvion, Siebel Systems, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Oracle, Stellent, TIBCO, Verity and webMethods. eFORCE (http://www.eforceglobal.com/) is headquartered in Silicon Valley, has Development Centers in North America, Europe and India, and, through its Global Delivery Model(TM), provides both onshore and offshore design and development as well as full lifecycle deployment, maintenance and support. DATASOURCE: eFORCE CONTACT: Nat D. Natraj, +1-510-265-5800, for eFORCE Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ Web site: http://www.eforceglobal.com/

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