Centricom appoints Macquarie Hosting to host POLi mission-critical system

Centricom gears up for projected growth of POLi payment service

Melbourne, 3 July 2007 – Centricom has awarded the contract for hosting POLi, its online payment system, including mission-critical transaction applications and data, to Macquarie Hosting, a division of Macquarie Telecom.

Following a thorough analysis of hosting providers, Macquarie Hosting was selected for its proven experience with 100 per cent web-facing companies and its ability to provide 24/7, secure availability of mission critical applications.

POLi will be hosted at Macquarie Hosting’s ISO and DSD Gateway certified data centre, the Intellicentre, in Sydney alongside sites for Federal and State government, national security agencies and major blue-chip businesses.

The flexibility and agility afforded to Centricom to cope with unpredictable peaks in consumer demand that are inherent in the online payment industry were key in the decision to partner with Macquarie Hosting. The ability to scale quickly to accommodate predicted growth in the business was also important.

“This deal is the outcome of a review of POLi’s future needs and its users’ expectations” said Simon Warner, managing director of Centricom. “Merchants and consumers quite rightly demand that an online payment system be hosted in the most secure of ways. And with the growth we expect from POLi, we will need ever greater flexibility, agility and scalability.”

Macquarie Hosting is the first telecommunications carrier and hosting provider to be certified to International Security Management Standard, ISO 27001 which provides a level of assurance that hosted databases, networks and operating systems meet global best-practice standards for risk assessment, policy, training, audits, controls, information and communication.

Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Hosting for Macquarie Telecom said: “For high-transaction websites such as POLi that deal with confidential customer information and hundreds of requests daily, security is critical.”

“By hosting with a local provider such as Macquarie Hosting, Centricom can be confident that all our solutions – from security through to network access – meet best-practice requirements for both local and international organisations.”

Commenting on the future of POLi, Mr Warner said “The new hosting arrangement is further evidence that Centricom is serious about being the major provider of online payments in Australia, New Zealand and beyond.”

POLi is a safe and smart method of payment. Most of the six million internet bank account holders in Australia can use the POLi payment option when they see the distinctive black, blue and white POLi logo on a website, without undertaking any registration process.

Using POLi to purchase online is simple. To make a purchase customers choose the POLi option at a merchant site and their standard internet banking site will come up in a new window. They then simply login as they normally do and a ‘Pay Anyone’ page shows the merchant’s bank details and the amount payable. Finally, the customer clicks to confirm and the bank session is closed and the purchase is confirmed with a printable receipt available on the merchant’s site. The customer’s purchase is finalised in real-time just like if they had used a card.

POLi is safe as neither the merchant nor POLi receive any of the customer’s private bank details; it is a secure transaction only between the customer and their bank’s Internet site.