The South African Post Office licenses RiposteTrEx

6 December 2013

Escher Group Holdings plc

The South African Post Office licenses digital mail offering, RiposteTrEx

Escher Group Holdings plc, (AIM: ESCH, "Escher" or "the Group"), a world-leading provider of outsourced, point of sale software to the postal industry, announces that the South African Post Office has selected the RiposteTrEx™ platform to deliver its eRegistered mail solution following a rigorous tender process. The South African Post Office will, through this platform, provide eRegistered mail services to the country's more than 51 million citizens.

Escher's solution, RiposteTrEx™ is a secure, scalable high preforming platform for "digital correspondence". The RiposteTrEx™ platform heralds a new phase in the evolution of secure e-services and digital communication.

Pauline Kenna, Director of Digital Services at Escher Group said:

"We at Escher have focused a lot of time and investment into understanding the rapidly changing communications landscape, and how citizens are looking to be connected in a secure and accessible manner. The whole Escher team is looking forward to delivering RiposteTrEx™ to the South African Post Office".

RiposteTrEx™ will allow South African Post users including, citizens, government, business and SME's to send eRegistered and confidential mail to secure digital mailboxes, or as registered hybrid letters.

Liam Church, Chief Executive of Escher Group said:

"Consistent with our goal to help Posts provide more services to Government, I am delighted that the South African Post Office has chosen Escher's RiposteTrEx™ platform to deliver digital services to the country's citizens.

"RiposteTrex™ is our solution for eGovernment, allowing citizens, governments and businesses to communicate and transact with each other anytime and from anywhere. This capability will be key as more governments evaluate their digital services provision."

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About Escher Group

Escher is a world leading developer and provider of outsourced, point of service software for use in the postal industry worldwide. Its core software, RiposteEssential, enables post offices to expand upon their traditional offering, providing additional new services, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Riposte is a messaging middleware that enables applications operating on different computers to communicate with each other. The Riposte software manages data, monitors the system status and communicates across the network. Escher operates across two divisions - its Retail Software Division and its Message Based Communications Division.

The Retail Software Solution (RiposteEssential) serves the postal and courier markets. Transactions include mail and financial services and the system is integrated with utilities and financial services companies, banks and central and local governments.

Escher's Message Based Communications Division (RiposteTrEx) is based on a digital post office box model and is designed to provide a national digital infrastructure linking governments, businesses and citizens via a secure platform.