January 10, 2003

WearLogic Awarded Retail Smart Card Solution Program for Six State New England Consortium

WearLogic, Inc., of Wakefield, Massachusetts announced today that, as a bid partner of Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) it has been awarded a contract by the New England Partners (NEP) to provide hardware and software to implement a comprehensive smart card retail solution for the New England region.   The goal of the program is to improve and streamline the delivery of a variety of government healthcare programs for economically disadvantaged families.  The NEP will harness the power of smart card technology to to bridge government Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) and Electronics Service Delivery (ESD) programs while increasing the efficiency of the reporting and reimbursement processes.

The NEP is a consortium of the six (6) New England states, (CT, MA, NH, ME, RI and VT), in cooperation with three (3) Federal cabinet level agencies, encompassing over ten (10) separate government programs.   It is being financed under an agreement with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community and Public Health, with funds provided in part or in whole by the State of New Hampshire and/or the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. 

Each state has designated one county to participate in the 21-month NEP Pilot.  Participants in the 6 counties will be provided smart card with their benefits and personal data contained on the cards.  Approximately 10,000 participants will be able to purchase groceries, coordinate health appointments, and track their healthcare progress with their NEP card.  The program consists of a 21 month trial period where approximately 600 terminals will be deployed at 80 retailer locations, plus numerous clinics.  After the trial period, statewide rollouts

WearLogic will be offering the retailers a range of Merchant Shopcarte smart card terminals that can used in a wide variety of retailers, clinics, and point-of-service locations.  These terminals provide card interface, information display, secure PIN entry, receipt printing, and communication with the NEP  back end.  Shopcarte terminals have been proven in numerous other smart device projects with Financial Services companies, Restaurants, and Retail Merchants.

Chuck Wilson, Director of Solutions Delivery for the Hitachi Smart Solutions Group said "We are happy to have chosen WearLogic to provide the POS portion of the Team Hitachi Solution for NEP.  Because of their modular and fit-for-purpose Shopcarte merchan5t terminal and Shopkeeper store server products, they provided the best price/performance of any retail platform we considered.  Their commitment to innovation and quality were major factors in the NEP's award of the NEP contract to team Hitachi".

Larry Bodony,  CEO of WearLogic, said "We are proud to be supporting NEP to improve the efficiency of EBT/ESD to their participating programs.  What attracted us to this deal was the wide range of deployment situations, ranging from mom-and-pop stores, to major grocery chains.  We look forward to working with dozens of retailers to make the NEP a true value-added part of each and every one of their their businesses.  Only with the active support and participation of retailers can the full benefits of smart devices be realized."

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