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Backplane
www.backplane.com

ATLANTA, GA and EMERYVILLE, CA., February 12, 2001 - Derivion, the leading provider of e-billing enablement solutions for B2C, B2B, and small business applications, and Backplane, Inc., a provider of hosted billing infrastructure for providers of recurring services, announced today a strategic partnership to include Derivion inetBiller as a value-add e-billing service of Backplane's hosted billing system.

"By partnering with Derivion, Backplane fulfills its mission to Offer robust, cutting-edge EBPP solutions as a value-add service, a powerful fit for our end-to-end, hosted billing system," said Ben Dillon, CEO, Backplane. "together, Backplane and Derivion offer a complete billing system and EBPP solution to our customers."

With Derivion's technology linked to Backplane's billing system, Backplane will provide customers with e-bill parsing and presentment capabilities, and connect them to aggregation and distribution channels, such as Paytrust and Intuit, along with traditional paper bills, email, and website invoices. Billers will not be required to make costly IT investments or to participate in a lengthy installation process, enabling them to Offer their customers e-bill view and pay options quickly and without disrupting existing processes.

"Strategic alliances pave the way for companies to mutually focus on core expertise while advancing adoption of superior technologies," said David Fiacco, president and COO, Derivion. "Our partnership with Backplane is one that will meet the demand for the stable delivery of increasingly complex and multifaceted technologies. Because our solutions are Internet-pure, we seamlessly snap onto Backplane's platform to Enhance their suite of value-add services, providing a powerful alternative to costly in-house e-billing solutions that are complicated and require lengthy implementation schedules."

Industry projections estimate that by 2005, 40 percent of recurring bills will be paid online. Derivion and Backplane are committed to establishing a framework that will enable billers to meet the ever-increasing demand for the flexibility and convenience of online transactions.

About Backplane
Backplane, Inc. is dedicated to making companies of all sizes more successful by providing business solutions that enable and support rapid growth. By offering software as a service over the Internet - which greatly decreases the administrative overhead and expense of traditional "insourced" software installations - Backplane helps companies thrive while keeping costs under control. Backplane's premiere service, Backplane Billing, is the first hosted billing and customer care system of its kind. Developed for providers of recurring services with offerings that range from applications to content to managed services - Backplane Billing makes it possible to quickly improve the bottom line, introduce new services, focus valuable IT resources on core competencies, and strengthen customer service. Backplane, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more company information, visit www.backplane.com.

About Derivion
Derivion is the leading e-billing solutions company that delivers comprehensive B2C, B2B, and small business applications to automate and streamline bill delivery, payment, and customer care processes. Derivion enables billers of all sizes with three core e-billing solutions: inetBillerSM, inetBiller B2BSM, and a small business e-billing solution. Derivion has an extensive network of 26 partnerships in electronic bill distribution and payment processing and leads the industry with pioneering technology and multi-layered services, currently working with 83 billers to annually digitize over 234 million bills. Founded in 1998, Derivion is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and maintains research, development, and additional sales offices in Toronto, Canada.

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