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NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
Palo Alto, CA, United States, 2009/02/11 - Aricent™, announced its role in the joint development of a new mobile banking application for Pocit, a subsidiary of major information technology company, Tradebridge, backed by Capitec Bank, the fastest growing bank in South Africa.
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Aricent™, a global innovation, technology and services company focused exclusively on communications, today announced its role in the joint development of a new mobile banking application for Pocit, a subsidiary of major information technology company, Tradebridge, backed by Capitec Bank, the fastest growing bank in South Africa.
Pocit, a sister division of healthbridge, was formed as a spinoff from healthbridge's payment solution for healthcare providers. Pocit's personal mobile payment tool was launched recently and is promoted as being the simplest, most convenient and secure way to pay anyone, anytime, anywhere through a cell phone number.
Developed by Aricent, the mobile component of the Pocit application, allows anyone with a credit card or bank account to make payments directly from the mobile application via a cell phone without having to know the recipient's specific banking details. Once registered with Pocit, a user can receive, send, request and store money."We are excited to be at the forefront of banking and mobile industry convergence by bringing to market Pocit's personal mobile banking tool," said David Reynders, Managing Director of Pocit. "Aricent's deep domain expertise in mobile applications, networks and operating systems made them the ideal partner for us in this bold endeavor."
The handset application was developed on an open source framework J4ME, which was greatly enhanced by Aricent's development team over the life of the project, resulting in a flexible framework upon which more complex functionality could be added in subsequent phases. "
Mobilizing Pocit's secure, innovative banking application across hundreds of legacy and newly released phones presented a number of technical hurdles. For example, we had to optimize the processing and memory limitations of older devices while maximizing the features of new devices such as touch screens," said Elsje de Wit, Managing Director of Aricent South Africa. "Banking and mobile networking are a natural fit, and we are very please to co-create this compelling application with Pocit."
Pocit is already attracting positive attention around the globe, from as far afield as the United States and other parts of Africa. In December 2008 the company launched Pocit Money which is similar to a shopping voucher; it allows money to be stored in the phone for multiple uses. As an example, parents can send money to a child at university in another town, who can then use that money to pay for a variety of services. Pocit Elect is a world first for elections, based on the model used by Barack Obama and his team, Pocit Elect takes the idea of cellphone fundraising for political parties further by giving a single SMS number for donating to any one of multiple political parties.
About Pocit
Pocit (Pocit.co.za) is a subsidiary of major information technology company, Tradebridge and is backed by Capitec Bank, the fastest growing bank in South Africa. Payments by Pocit are just 30c each compared to a minimum of R2 for internet banking and at least R5 to draw cash from an ATM or around R7 to draw cash from a teller in a bank. Pocit can be used on any cell phone with a colour screen on any network. Pocit can send or receive money from any bank, all the payer needs is your cell phone number.
About Aricent
Aricent (aricent.com) is a global innovation, technology and services company focused exclusively on communications. Aricent combines the leading innovation capabilities of frog design with unparalleled domain expertise in communications as a strategic supplier to the world's foremost infrastructure, application and service providers. The company's investors include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital, The Family Office and Flextronics International Ltd.
For further information, contact
Chris Lalli, Americas: Cohn & Wolfe
T: +1 415 365 8540 - E: chris.lalli[.]cohnwolfe.com.
Paula Muezerie, Europe: AxiCom Cohn&Wolfe
T: +44 208 392 4081 - E: aricent[.]axicom.com.
Shikha Singh Sehrawat, India: Text 100
T: +91 981 175 7369 - E: shikhas@text100.co.in.
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steven.manuel[.]aricent.com 
