Press Release

A Tale of 3 Cities

19 February 2004, Feltham.

The City Councils of Chester, Lancaster and Worcester have all chosen RadiusICON to meet their income management, cash receipting and e-payments needs.

Radius has added three more city councils to the 130 plus local authorities that already use its income management, cash receipting and e-payments system - RadiusICON. All three councils selected Radius as their supplier only after a thorough evaluation of the products available in the marketplace and in particular chose ICON because of its high level of sophistication, its extensive user base, and the fact that it enables them to achieve the Government’s target of 100% e-enablement of payment transactions.

All three authorities plan to have most of this functionality live in time for the new financial year on 1 April 2004. Once live, they expect RadiusICON to provide significant benefits, including:

	extending customer choice in terms of payment channel
	improving the front desk service
	streamlining and automating procedures to improve services
	and, by automating many of the current manual processes, reducing administration time and costs

About Chester City

The city of Chester is known as the Walled City because of its largely intact Roman Wall, which surrounds the inner city area. Its “medieval rows” with its wide range of modern shops, together with an imposing cathedral and many historic buildings, attracts many visitors from all over the world. The Council Offices are based in the Forum at the very heart of this historic city providing a full range of services. The Council is working closely with the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich in a strategic partnership aimed to further improve customer services and, by economies of scale and common infrastructures, to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

About Lancaster City - “City, Coast & Countryside”

The city of Lancaster is strategically based on the main route to Scotland. It covers the most northerly part of Lancashire, bounded on the west by Morecambe Bay, to the east and south by fells and by moorland and limestone crags and woodland to the north. Lancaster has an interesting past, originally as a Roman settlement based at the lowest crossing point of the tidal River Lune. Lancaster Castle, built in medieval times, was the scene of the infamous Lancashire witches trial and is still in use as a working prison today. Later on in Georgian times the city prospered through its shipping trade by importing American cotton for the Lancashire mills. Finally, many years after the River Lune silted up, Lancaster became the site of the world class Lancaster University. The city council provides a high level of service to its citizens and is committed to offering both choice and value.

About Worcester City - “Making Worcester a Great Place to Live, Work and Visit”

The city of Worcester has a wealth of history and an abundance of sites and buildings of interest to the visitor. Every third year, in conjunction with the cities of Hereford and Gloucester, Worcester’s ancient cathedral hosts the oldest music festival in Europe – the Three Choirs Festival. Worcester City Council is a district authority that is committed to providing the very best service to its citizens. It is determined to utilise the very latest technology to fully comply with the modernising government agenda, to improve efficiency and reduce internal costs.

About RadiusICON….

Radius is the acknowledged market leader in the supply of software to enable citizens and businesses to pay all their council bills (including council tax, NNDR, rents, service charges, parking fines, etc.). As with all our e-Government systems, Radius' unique e-Payments solution is delivered across multiple channels, i.e. not just the Internet, but also call centres, automated telephone systems (using IVR - Interactive Voice Response), and kiosks. With a high level of take up amongst their citizens, combined with an automated, seamless link to all back office systems, our customers are reporting cost savings and a rapid return on their investment in our e-payments solutions.

RadiusICON is a fully integrated system for cash receipting, income management and e-payments, and is currently installed at over 130 UK authorities. RadiusICON also includes modules for bank reconciliation, miscellaneous income, e-returns, on-line direct debits, and an e-payments portal.

For further information contact: