The move will provide BT with access to BACSTEL-IP, the new payment submission platform that replaces the existing BACSTEL service on 31st December 2005. BACSTEL-IP delivers faster payments, higher security and offers real-time online reporting. All organisations that submit Direct Debits and Direct Credits to BACS must migrate to BACSTEL-IP by the end of 2005.

The transition to BACSTEL-IP has enabled BT to re-assess its overall requirement for electronic payment collection and in turn adopt a single solution for submitting BACS' payments, consolidating the 10 systems that had been in use historically.

Richard Gous, the BACSTEL-IP Project Sponsor from BT Group Treasury, commented: "We process around 8,000,000 Direct Debits each month and on our busiest day alone submit up to 2,500,000 transactions. Because of this, it was imperative that any software supplier we chose would be physically capable of handling such high volumes. Benchmark testing conducted during the procurement cycle of the project assured us that EigerPAY Gateway would be more than able to meet our business requirements."

Furthermore, we were also determined to deploy an off-the-shelf solution as, although we needed technology that was capable of managing significant transaction volumes, functionally our requirements were straightforward. We realised that a bespoke solution could prove more complex to implement whilst bringing us no additional benefits."

Hiten Kantelia, Business Development Director of Eiger Systems, added: "As one of the largest submitters to BACS in the UK, BT's decision to select EigerPAY Gateway as their BACSTEL-IP software solution underlines Eiger Systems' position as a leader in the enterprise BACSTEL-IP market-place. BT joins other leading names, including Legal and General and The Bank of New York who have already selected EigerPAY Gateway as their BACSTEL-IP solution."

BT Retail is also an existing user of the BANK WIZARD® data validation solution from Eiger Systems.