Zoot Enterprises Reports Record Performance in 2007

Company selected for industry ranking, grows client base and achieves security milestone.

March 26, 2008

Bozeman, Mont–Zoot, a leading provider of advanced instant credit decisioning and loan origination solutions based in Bozeman, Mont., announced record performance in 2007. The company processed more than 240 million transactions, a 20 percent increase in volume from 2006.

Designed for high performance, Zoot’s hosted environment consistently processed nearly 660,000 transactions per day in 2007. Zoot’s infrastructure has been tested to support 10 times its current level of production, demonstrating the capacity to process more than 10 million transactions per day. The company’s use of redundant data centers through transaction load balancing provides an even greater capacity, allowing financial institutions to easily manage spikes in transaction volumes. During the past five years, the company has averaged 99.99 percent uptime in its core environment.

"Our speed and extremely consistent uptime record provides phenomenal reliability for financial institutions. An analysis of our speed during peak periods showed that over 98 percent of transactions were processed in 2.0 seconds or less," said Dennis Dixon, president of Zoot.

Zoot’s speed brings increased business value to clients by allowing them to achieve a higher return on investment. Zoot’s instant prescreen capability allows financial institutions to evaluate a consumer’s credit history on the spot and make a firm offer of credit at the point when they are most likely to accept. Because this process happens in seconds, institutions can instantly cross-sell a credit card to a customer at the same time they are requesting another product or completing a transaction.

The editorial staff of Bank Technology News recognized Zoot’s success in the credit decisioning space in August when the publication named Zoot the number one technology company to watch in its annual profile. Zoot was selected primarily for recent accomplishments with Charlotte-based Wachovia. Successfully meeting the bank’s aggressive launch timetable, Zoot’s Web-based decisioning engine enabled Wachovia to re-enter the credit card space in less than six months, approving more than one million credit card accounts in less than one year.

Zoot also experienced strong revenue growth from 2006 to 2007. The company attributes this increase to expansion of services with existing clients and new client acquisitions. Zoot’s new clients in 2007 include Fifth Third Bank and Revolution Money.

"In order to provide secure, easy, and instant payment solutions, it is essential that we choose partners who share common goals and capabilities," said Jason Hogg, president and CEO of Revolution Money. "We chose to use Zoot's credit decision platform for our new consumer credit card, RevolutionCard, because it is highly scalable, reliable and flexible. Zoot's tremendous uptime allows for a smoother, more consistent user experience.”

Additionally, Zoot formally announced its total encryption capabilities in 2007. This security feature encrypts data in three ways: 1) while data is in transport to external interfaces, 2) while data is at rest in internal servers, databases, etc., and 3) while data is being transported from internal server to internal server, such as during processing. Total encryption provides the highest level of data protection, both internally and externally, without unreasonable overhead and impact on transaction processing time.

Data encryption is one component of a multi-layered security strategy at Zoot that includes perimeter protection, firewalls, intrusion detection, filtering and monitoring tools. The company is also SAS-70 Type 1 and Type 2 compliant, and Zoot’s Chief Technology Officer Tony Rosanova serves on the security evaluation component of the BITS Financial Services Roundtable. Zoot achieved PCI certification in 2007 in response to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

“Security continues to be a major concern for financial institutions and consumers alike. Our total encryption capabilities ensure you don’t need to accept higher risks in order to maintain speed for transactions. The costs of not protecting your consumers’ data far outweigh the cost to provide additional protection,” Rosanova said.

The company offers several distinct advantages over competitors including advanced security and solution flexibility that enable institutions to adapt the software to meet their unique needs. The quality of support provided by Zoot’s experienced staff before, during and after each client installation has led to long-term relationships with seven of the top-10 U.S. banks. The company is debt free and continues to make significant strategic investments in its future.

About Zoot

Bozeman, Mont.-based Zoot Enterprises provides credit decisioning and loan origination solutions through a configurable, scalable and reliable platform to large and innovative U.S. financial services institutions. Visit http://www.zootweb.com or call 406.556.7555 for more information.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
William Mills Agency, Andrew McCaskill, 678-781-7210 or Zoot Enterprises, Eric Lindeen, 406-556-7449

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