VillageLedger Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:
info@villagemall.com.au

VILLAGEMALL^®
DELIVERS AUSTRALIA'S FIRST
COMMERCIAL DIGITAL SIGNATURE
TO SMALL BUSINESS
"V-SIGN ^TM"

Web-based Signatures Gives Small Businesses Easy-to-use,
Reliable and Secure digital-signatures, Anywhere, Anytime

Brisbane, Australia,- June 2001 - VillageMall^®, the premier provider of Web-based applications for small business, today launched the its first digital signature service "V-Sign". V-Sign™ provides Australia's first electronic signature service based on industry standard XML signatures.

"Small businesses can for the first time have access to technology capabilities before the "big end of town". A web-based application like this allows business to conduct electronic business in exactly the same manner as the paper world, using existing business processes. As an example, a signed purchase order, which reflects the authorisation and control measures of each businesses, is the basis for trust between business for as long as most of us can remember. Technology has tried to replace this with shopping carts, and passwords, but the resultant inherent lack of "trust" has been a limiting factors for its usage. VillageMall puts "trust" back into business transactions by using technology to support 'tried and proven' business processes,” said Charles Moore, managing Director of VillageMall. “We are re-enforcing the ceremony associated with signatures; it is common practice for all cheques to be signed by two or more officers of the company, with V-Sign multiple signatures can be performed electronically". "Our focus is not on technology, but how to exploit the technology to assist the bottom line -cash flow; as only a small business owner would understand."

Established in May 1999, VillageMall will become a leader in the outsourced small business application space with its release of WebLedger and now V-Sign.

About V-Sign

Business transactions, legally binding agreements or contracts, direct financial transactions, among other things, need to be signed and authenticated, as they have been for centuries using pen and paper. Our XML based V-Sign™ replaces the paper with XML technologies and the pen with Digital signatures. It uses VillageMall Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and hardware certificate-based digital signatures, including signature verification over the Internet to ensure the integrity of the digital signatures.

V-Sign™ provides excellent integrity, signer authentication, and will help support non-repudiation using existing case law for all your business transactions, unlike message based (SMIME) or link based security (SSL) products V-Sign™ security services are bound to your business transactions. Electronic versions of Purchase Orders, and quotations are some of the most essential applications of digital signatures today. Digital XML-signatures can be easily located within digital versions of your existing forms, so that the person filling in-the form can easily see the connection with the signature and the signed information. This ability for the exact information on the screen to be signed is essential for establishment of trust between trading parties, this is what makes V-Sign different from existing security services.

VillageMall V-Sign is based on the upcoming standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Price and Availability

V-Sign™ is an integral part of VillageMall WebLedger, and is available to all WebLedger customers at no additional price.

WebLedger is available to small businesses, only through accounting professionals. The largest benefit of an application like WebLedger is the increased opportunities for an accountant and business owner to communicate. Interaction, within the WebLedger system, with real-time data access, allows for valuable business advice and consultation to occur, thus helping businesses succeed.

Contact your local accountant and ask about how VillageMall WebLedger and V-Sign can help your business today.

About VillageMall

VillageMall is a pioneer, in developing secure next generation Internet applications for small business.
VillageMall is a privately held company, founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.
For more information please email info@villagemall.com.au or visit the company Web site at www.Villagemall.com.au.