Expanded Mellon TradeLinks Service Now Available - Three-tiered service offering targets invoice-to-cash cycle improvements - PITTSBURGH, July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mellon Global Cash Management (GCM) has improved its business-to-business comprehensive receivables solution with enhancements to Mellon TradeLinks, its Web-based payment and processing service, by offering several solutions designed to streamline the invoice-to-cash cycle by migrating traditional paper-based invoice presentment, approval and payment procedures to the Internet. The upgrades present customer invoices through the Internet using both interactive HTML or printable Adobe Acrobat PDF formats; enable better customer self- service by offering six months of online history and other tools that help customers quickly locate information; and enrich business intelligence through online queries of payer activity. "Manually printing and delivering traditional paper-based invoices is ineffective and cumbersome. This latest Mellon TradeLinks enhancement supports our goal to help our customers increase their overall productivity, efficiency and accuracy, as well as better manage and control payment processing," said Robert W. Stasik, executive vice president and head of Mellon GCM, a treasury services business of Mellon Financial Corporation. "In addition to enduring unnecessary costs related to processing paper transactions, organizations yet to grasp this technology are not effectively supporting their key business customers who already have embraced the benefits of Internet-based processing." The expanded Mellon TradeLinks service is composed of three core electronic solutions: - Electronic Invoice Presentment -- Allowing companies to present customers with electronic invoices through an interactive Web invoice minimizes printing costs and billing efforts; enhances customer service by enabling payers to research billing issues with their own browser; and improves billing accuracy and timeliness by ensuring invoices reach the right customers. - Electronic Invoice Presentment Plus Dispute Management -- By enabling companies to receive advance notification of customer payment disputes by e-mail before receiving payment, this function helps reduce exception processing for items not paid as billed and resolves disputes quicker. - Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment -- Permits the entire invoice-to-cash process to be completed online, including automated payments via the automated clearing house or credit card networks. Using electronic payments helps reduce payment float, which can improve days sales outstanding. Other benefits include improved cash forecasting ability through electronic collections reports and fewer data entry errors due to automated cash posting capabilities. As part of these three core solutions, Mellon TradeLinks also features a number of new components that maximize product value and give customers a greater rapid return on their investment. These include: - User registration that helps companies streamline the process their customers use to establish system access for themselves and others. - Invoice delivery and notification system in which invoice data are delivered to the Web in either HTML format for user manipulation of the data or Adobe Acrobat PDF format for printing and filing invoices. In addition, a proactive electronic notification alerts payers when invoices are posted to help ensure a more timely receipt. - The ability to collect electronic payments, which substantially simplifies processes and improves days sales outstanding. - Online invoice archiving, which decreases customer service costs due to self-service for historical invoice requests. - Management and control reports that track the status of electronic invoices and payments, facilitating more accurate cash flow forecasting. Mellon Global Cash Management, a payments industry leader synonymous with quality performance and known for its innovation and expertise, designs comprehensive solutions through its broad line of cash management services to meet the specialized treasury needs of corporations, nonprofit organizations and financial institutions. Recently, an independently-administered customer satisfaction survey revealed that Mellon GCM continues to distinguish itself from its competition in the areas of operating quality, commitment to cash management and customer service. In addition, Mellon GCM was one of only two providers to achieve an A+ average for product performance in the 2004 Phoenix-Hecht(R) Quality Index(TM) of 33 major cash management providers. Mellon GCM is the only electronic payments services provider in the U.S. to complete both a Level 3 Capability Maturity Model(R) (CMM(R)) assessment for its software engineering practices and achieve ISO 9001:2000 Registration. More information on Mellon GCM is available at http://www.mellon.com/gcm . Mellon Financial Corporation is a global financial services company. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is one of the world's leading providers of financial services for institutions, corporations and high net worth individuals, providing institutional asset management, mutual funds, private wealth management, asset servicing, human resources and investor solutions, and treasury services. Mellon has approximately $3.6 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including more than $675 billion under management. Its asset management companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and U.K.-based Newton Investment Management Limited. News and other information about Mellon is available at http://www.mellon.com/ . DATASOURCE: Mellon Financial Corporation CONTACT: Ron Sommer of Mellon Financial Corporation, +1-412-236-0082, or Web site: http://www.mellon.com/ http://www.mellon.com/gcm

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