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    <title>Press Releases</title>
    <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/mediacenter/press</link>
    <description>Read the latest announcements regarding Aria Systems' products, clients, and the details of our rise to success.</description>
    <dc:language>en</dc:language>
	<dc:creator>kjackson@ariasystems.com</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>Copyright 2009</dc:rights>
    <dc:date>2009-06-16T11:00:56-05:00</dc:date>
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    <item>
      <title>Aria Systems Names Bill Macy to Head Sales</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_names_bill_macy_to_head_sales/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_names_bill_macy_to_head_sales/#When:11:00:56Z</guid>
      <description>Technology industry veteran brings more than 20 years of software experience to Aria&#8217;s sales team.
June 16, 2009 &#45; Philadelphia, PA &#45; Aria Systems, the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management solutions, announced today the appointment of Bill Macy to its executive management team as vice president of sales. Bill brings more than twenty years of high tech experience in finance, operations and sales management.


&#8220;Bill is an accomplished veteran in the high tech industry and knows what it&#8217;s like to undergo rapid growth all the while managing a tight knit sales organization and staying focused on the customer,&#8221; said Edward Sullivan president and CEO of Aria Systems. &#8220;The time is right for a leader like Bill to join our management team as Aria positions itself for a period of high growth in the rapidly expanding market of on&#45;demand billing.&#8221;


Before joining Aria Systems, Bill spent 13 years at Business Objects where he was part of the sales management team that transformed a $30 million company to a nearly $1.7 billion company before it was sold to SAP.


&#8220;Aria Systems has six years of proven success and leads the field of SaaS providers of on&#45;demand billing,&#8221; said Macy. &#8220;With more businesses seeing the upside of subscription based services and the value of customer life cycle management, Aria is uniquely positioned for growth as it provides the most robust on&#45;demand billing system available today. I&#8217;m thrilled to be part of such an experienced team.&#8221;


Most recently, Bill was responsible for the financial services vertical in the western U.S. for Business Objects products at SAP. Before his tenure at Business Objects and SAP, Bill began his career in the Relational Database and 4GL Tools business at Ingres, ASK and Computer Associates.</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-06-16T11:00:56-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Advanced CRM Functionality Added to Aria Systems A+ Billing Platform</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/advanced_crm_functionality_added_to_aria_systems_a_billing_platform/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/advanced_crm_functionality_added_to_aria_systems_a_billing_platform/#When:13:00:12Z</guid>
      <description>Leader in On&#45;Demand SaaS Billing Enables Customers to Handle Billing Disputes in Two Clicks or Less
May 19, 2009 &#45; Philadelphia, PA &#45; Aria Systems, the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management solutions, today announced the addition of new customer relationship management (CRM) functionality to its A+ Billing Platform specifically designed to let Aria customers quickly and securely address billing&#45;related customer requests. Aria&#8217;s Active CRM component is an end&#45;to&#45;end solution for billing&#45;related interactions, allowing customer service representatives to completely handle most billing inquiries (refund requests, monetary disputes, changes to service plans, etc.) in a matter of minutes. This helps companies improve their front&#45;line customer service and saves time and money by tying customer requested changes directly into the company&#8217;s on&#45;demand billing platform. 


Aria&#8217;s Active CRM component is specifically designed to solve billing&#45;related requests.&amp;nbsp; Changes requested by customers or implemented by service representatives are automatically reflected in the billing system.&amp;nbsp; CRM or accounting&#45;based systems require additional steps to implement changes in the billing system.&amp;nbsp; By Using Aria, companies improve their front&#45;line customer service, increase internal flexibility and enhance employee efficiency. 


&#8220;Since releasing our SaaS product, our customer management processes have been made highly effective by utilizing Aria&#8217;s solution that is specifically designed for solving billing issues,&#8221; said John Miller, Managing Principal and Director from Clario Analytics.&amp;nbsp; &#8220;Using Aria&#8217;s A+ Billing Platform has allowed us to best utilize valuable revenue&#45;generating resources that would have otherwise been allocated for managing critical but time consuming customer management related issues.&#8221;


In March, Aria announced version 5.0 of its A+ Billing platform, which included an increased ease&#45;of&#45;use, self&#45;service and fast implementation capabilities that make the solution set extremely well&#45;suited to meet small, medium and enterprise&#45;sized companies&#8217; billing and customer lifecycle management needs. Additionally, tying billing related customer service functions directly into a company&#8217;s on&#45;demand billing solution extends required billing&#45;specific secure procedures, assuring customer financial information remains protected.&amp;nbsp; Aria&#8217;s SaaS&#45;based solution makes this possible, enabling call center and customer service representative secure access to customer billing information when they need it to answer customer requests.


&#8220;Enhancing our CRM functionalities is a central component to our value proposition of being a comprehensive provider of billing and customer lifecycle management solutions,&#8221; said Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems.&amp;nbsp; &#8220;As a service provider, we&#8217;re committed to making our product entirely hassle free, which saves time, money and critical resources for our customers.&#8221;</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-05-19T13:00:12-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Aria Systems, Work [at] Play Launch Velocity, Sign Music Mogul</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_work_at_play_launch_velocity_sign_music_mogul/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_work_at_play_launch_velocity_sign_music_mogul/#When:11:00:34Z</guid>
      <description>Online Music World Enhances Community Experience with New Virtual Goods Management Application
May 12, 2009 &#45; LOGIN Conference, Seattle, WA &#45; Aria Systems, the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management solutions, has teamed with Work [at] Play, experts in developing monetization solutions for social media sites, to create Velocity, a fully extensible and scalable virtual goods management and payment solution for online games, communities or any virtual world environment. Powered by Aria&#8217;s A+ Billing Platform and developed using Aria&#8217;s powerful API suite to tie together the two systems, the jointly created solution has been selected by Music Mogul Inc., the virtual music world provider, to enable virtual goods transactions within its online music community.


Velocity is the first and only virtual goods management platform that offers virtual world game and inventory management, e&#45;wallet for virtual points or currencies as well as real&#45;world payment processing. These features are combined with robust management and reporting tools in an end&#45;to&#45;end, Level 1 PCI Compliant environment. Additionally, Velocity allows companies to mix&#45;and&#45;match one time virtual items sales with complex subscription&#45;based offerings.


&#8220;Billing is an interaction in any environment, virtual or physical,&#8221; said Ed Sullivan, CEO and founder of Aria Systems. &#8220;It must be flexible, scalable, secure and enhance the customer experience, or businesses risk alienating their customers.&#8221;


Seeking to create a rich economy for its virtual world, Music Mogul will use Velocity to offer its members a wide range of interactive transactional activities that extends beyond item trading. Services enabled by Velocity include gifting between community members, purchasing of musician merchandize and/or songs and other virtual transactions. Music Mogul chose Velocity because of its deep range of tools to measure, report upon and understand unique user behaviors and intrinsic needs. Aria Systems and Work [at] Play have proven track records regarding on&#45;demand billing and customer management and social media creation and monetization.


&#8220;The online music community should be no less restricted in creativity and self&#45;expression as the physical world,&#8221; said Nicholas Longano, CEO of Music Mogul. &#8220;We want our virtual world to foster collaboration between musicians and music lovers by increasing the options of interaction. With Velocity, we know that we chose a solution that addresses the next generation of social interaction, and will allow us to create an outstanding user experience.&#8221;</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-05-12T11:00:34-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Hi&#45;Rez Studios Selects Aria Systems as Billing Solutions Provider</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/hi_rez_studios_selects_aria_systems_as_billing_solutions_provider/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/hi_rez_studios_selects_aria_systems_as_billing_solutions_provider/#When:15:21:10Z</guid>
      <description>Video Game Developer Chooses On&#45;Demand Billing Leader to Execute its &#8220;Global Agenda&#8221;
March 26, 2009 &#45; San Francisco, CA &amp;mdash; Aria Systems, the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management, today announced that its A+ Billing Platform has been selected by Hi&#45;Rez Studios, an independent developer of online games, to monetize its new massive multi&#45;player online (MMO) game &#8220;Global Agenda.&#8221;  Showcased at this week&#8217;s Game Developers Conference, the A+ Billing Platform enables Hi&#45;Rez Studios to ramp and manage &#8220;Global Agenda&#8217;s&#8221; billing and customer management activities and processes.


Faced with the challenge of needing a billing and customer management system that could scale quickly and on&#45;demand in real time, Hi&#45;Rez Studios chose Aria Systems for its years of gaming industry experience. And, making its foray into the market with Global Agenda, Hi&#45;Rez Studios sought a reliable billing solution that offered its players complete payment security. Hi Rez puts its faith in Aria Systems as the launch&#8217;s stakes were high for both the company and its players, especially as the players put their &#8220;virtual lives&#8221; at risk.


&#8220;Billing is a critical component of running any massive multi&#45;player online game,&#8221; says Stewart Chisam, Vice President of Game Operations at Hi&#45;Rez Studios. &#8220;By partnering with Aria, we leverage their global reach and years of experience with MMO billing, and greatly simplify our deployment by using their unique and secure Software&#45;as&#45;a&#45;Service (SaaS) platform. That gives us great confidence that we&#8217;ll be able to adapt to our players&#8217; needs in this area &amp;mdash; and keeps us as a Studio focused on the efforts of building a great game.&#8221;


Aria Systems&#8217; A+ Billing Platform is the first and only end&#45;to&#45;end PCI Level 1 compliant, enterprise&#45;class billing platform offered in a highly flexible SaaS based environment.&amp;nbsp; This creates a powerful&#45;but&#45;simple, self&#45;service experience for companies who want to self&#45;manage their complex billing procedures. &#8220;Managing the billing process for online games can be incredibly complex, especially with MMO games that acquire large, global communities of online users, as they often quickly grow in popularity,&#8221; said Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems. &#8220;By selecting Aria System&#8217;s flexible and scalable SaaS billing platform, Hi&#45;Rez Studios will be ensured that its billing will be properly executed no matter where players are in their &#8216;Global Agenda.&#8217;&#8221;</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-03-26T15:21:10-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Aria Systems Appoints Tom Dibble</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_appoints_tom_dibble/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_appoints_tom_dibble/#When:11:00:18Z</guid>
      <description>Silicon Valley Veteran to Head Company&#8217;s Business Development
March 23, 2009 &#45; Media, PA &#45; Aria Systems Inc., the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management, today announced the appointment of Tom Dibble as vice president of business development.


In his new role, Tom will be responsible for partnership strategy and execution, as well as channel strategy and management. Tom will be a member of the Aria Systems management team and will report directly to Edward Sullivan, president and CEO while working out of the company&#8217;s Silicon Valley office.


&#8220;Tom brings several unique skill sets, and a depth of experience, that will help our partner and channel development efforts as we intensify our forays into new markets in 2009,&#8221; said Mr. Sullivan. &#8220;He has built and led business development organizations of all shapes and sizes, and he has a track record of delivering results in sectors that will be key to us moving forward.&#8221;


Tom comes to Aria from Oracle Corporation where he served as VP of Strategic Alliances since joining the company as a result of Oracle&#8217;s acquisition of BEA Systems in May, 2008. Prior to Oracle Tom was VP of Worldwide Alliances and Channels at BEA where he led the global team responsible for BEA&#8217;s partnerships across ISVs, System Integrators, NEPs, and Platform alliances. Examples of these partners ranged from VMWare/EMC to Accenture, Intel, HP and Nokia. Prior to this role Tom led Worldwide Business Development for BEA where he and his team managed all partner related initiatives driven by BEA&#8217;s product ecosystem and build versus buy strategies. 


Before joining BEA Tom led Business Development at several start&#45;ups backed by Kleiner Perkins and Mayfield including Slam Dunk Networks, BeVocal and Greenlight.com. Tom began his career working for Goldman Sachs and Company in New York, and received a degree in Economics with Honors from Syracuse University.</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-03-23T11:00:18-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Announcing Aria A+ Billing Platform 5.0</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/announcing_aria_a_billing_platform_50/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/announcing_aria_a_billing_platform_50/#When:11:15:08Z</guid>
      <description>Industry&#45;leading SaaS Billing Provider Increases Flexibility and Ease&#45;of&#45;Use While Extending its Enterprise&#45;Class CapabilitiesMarch 19, 2009 &#45; Media, PA &#45; Aria Systems Inc., the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management, today announced the availability of Version 5.0 of its A+ Billing Platform &amp;mdash; the first and only PCI compliant, enterprise&#45;class billing platform offered in a highly flexible Software&#45;as&#45;a Service (SaaS) based environment. These latest upgrades provide Aria&apos;s customers with unparalleled tiers of billing functionality and increased on&#45;demand capabilities within a completely secure environment, creating a powerful&#45;but&#45;simple self&#45;service experience for companies who want to self&#45;manage their complex billing procedures.  

&quot;In 2009 SaaS will shine, growing more than 40% over 2008, as the value of application services provides a lower&#45;cost, highly&#45;functional way to serve business users. With this rising demand, payments and billing are two of the thorniest &#45; and critical &#45; business operational elements facing both new and mature SaaS vendors and enterprises,&quot; according to Robert Mahowald, director of IDC&apos;s global SaaS practice. &quot;By providing a solution to a key pain point that all SaaS vendors share, Aria Systems is helping to drive new opportunities and to usher in the era of SaaS.&quot;

Version 5.0 of Aria Systems&apos; A+ SaaS Billing Platform creates a powerful user experience for companies that want to self&#45;manage their complex billing and customer management work flow. Aria Systems A+ Billing Platform now provides: 


Cloud Monetization: move beyond the one to one commerce world and enable channels, partners and independent software developers to leverage internet based platforms and product ecosystems
Self&#45;Administrative Tools: design the end&#45;to&#45;end customer experience.  Create new revenue streams, reduce the cost of operations and unlock powerful marketing.
Partner Enablement: scale when and how desired, ease&#45;of&#45;use and flexibility by design, and compliant end&#45;to&#45;end, any variety of large cloud partners and smaller channel partners can now access the A+ Billing Platform&apos;s capabilities.  


Version 5.0 of Aria Systems&apos; A+ Billing Platform contains significant upgrades to its dynamic seat&#45;based pricing (one of several payment mode options Aria Systems provides its clients to fit their business needs); enhanced support for complex supplemental pricing plans; integrated, cross&#45;organization function dashboards; the industry&apos;s most powerful ad hoc reporting capabilities; increased number of payment processing methods, including PayPal, with advanced capabilities beyond just payment acceptance.  

In addition, and enabling channel and partner expansion, the new customer self&#45;service functionality features enable customers to easily manage set&#45;up, create, and update product profiles and catalogs, product plans and services, and integrate customer relationship management capabilities – all within a highly secure, level one PCI compliant environment that protects customers against potentially catastrophic financial and data losses.  

&quot;Business models are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic. Our latest billing platform advances help our clients more intelligently and efficiently manage this change to their advantage, while the new functionality leaps further distance Aria Systems from its competitors,&quot; said Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems.  &quot;We&apos;re delivering on our promise to ‘monetize the cloud.&apos; More than ever, our A+ Billing Platform provides customers with increased useability, new on&#45;demand features, and highly flexible pricing plans that are all overseen by our one of a kind level&#45;one PCI compliant, enterprise&#45;class SaaS billing platform.&quot;</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-03-19T11:15:08-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Ed Sullivan Chosen to Present at 4th Annual Pacific Crest Emerging Technology Summit</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/ed_sullivan_chosen_to_present_at_4th_annual_pacific_crest_emerging_technolo/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/ed_sullivan_chosen_to_present_at_4th_annual_pacific_crest_emerging_technolo/#When:16:07:36Z</guid>
      <description>Ed will address how companies large and small can &#8220;monetize the cloud&#8221; and make the most of this fast&#45;emerging, sea change to the software and computing space.
February 25, 2009 &amp;mdash; Media, PA &amp;mdash; Aria Systems Inc., the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management, today announced that CEO Ed Sullivan has been selected to present at the 4th annual On&#45;Demand Conference at Pacific Crest&apos;s Emerging Technology Summit. Ed will address how companies large and small can &quot;monetize the cloud&quot; and make the most of this fast&#45;emerging, sea change to the software and computing space. This invitation only event, which takes place from February 25&#45;27 in San Francisco, CA, will provide attendees with an early and unique view into technology&apos;s most rapidly changing markets, Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud computing and clean technology.

	What: On&#45;Demand Conference at Pacific Crest&apos;s Emerging Technology Summit
	Who: Ed Sullivan, Aria Systems CEO
	When: Thursday, February 26, 2009; 4:00pm PST
	Where: St. Regis Hotel, San Francisco, CA


About Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan, Aria Systems&apos; Founder, has been the CEO since the company&apos;s inception in 2003. As CEO, Ed offers his vision, innovative ideas and valuable insight to the needs of the marketplace to bear on Aria&apos;s strategic direction. Under his leadership, Aria has been established as the market leader in on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle solutions and currently supports over 1 million customer accounts in 236 countries. 
Ed&apos;s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ideas have led him to build several successful companies. Prior to Aria, he was the Founder and President of LaserLink.net, the World&apos;s first and largest Virtual Internet Service Provider. LaserLink provided billing and Internet services to over one million end users and operated the Internet Services for several ISP&apos;s including American Express, Compaq, Gateway, Amway and IBM. LaserLink was acquired by Covad Communications in March 2000. 
Ed serves as a Director of NetQOS, an Austin Texas based IT company which offers end to end network management solutions. NetQOS was recently ranked the number one fastest growing technology company in Texas by Deloitte and Touche. He also serves on the advisory board of Covad Communications (DVW) a publicly traded provider of voice and data services. Ed has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University.</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-02-25T16:07:36-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Aria Systems Achieves Highest Level Security Standard for Online Billing Transactions</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_achieves_highest_level_security_standard_for_online_billing_tr/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_achieves_highest_level_security_standard_for_online_billing_tr/#When:11:00:14Z</guid>
      <description>Customers Provided Highest Level of Protection from Fraudulent Activity and Financial PenaltiesJanuary 7, 2009 &amp;mdash; Media, PA &amp;mdash; Aria Systems Inc., the leading provider of on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management, today announced that it has been approved by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council as Level One PCI Compliant. This level of security certification is extremely rare in the Software&#45;as&#45;a Service (SaaS) space, and the achievement of the highest level of PCI Compliance certifies that Aria Systems provides its customers with an on&#45;demand platform to manage SaaS billing transactions that adheres to the credit card industry&#8217;s most stringent security measures. Aria Systems now joins a select group of PCI Level One Compliant companies that includes Intuit, Oracle, Google, NetSuite, and Microsoft.

Through the company&#8217;s attainment of PCI Level One status, Aria Systems&#8217; clients are assured that their end&#45;to&#45;end processes (and each component individually) are fully compliant, continuously. As such, unlike many companies that claim to offer PCI Compliance to their clients, Aria Systems provides its clients the peace of mind that comes with the assurance of the highest level of customer transaction data safety and security, in functions such as:



	Registration 

	User Self&#45;Service (USS)

	Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools

	Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Aria Systems&#8217; A+ Billing Platform is the first and only enterprise&#45;class billing platform offered in a highly flexible Software&#45;as&#45;a Service based environment. Over the past six months, Aria Systems has rigorously updated its security standards while implementing new policies and procedures necessary for obtaining Level One PCI Compliance of its billing procedures. These new security measures will protect Aria Systems&#8217; customers against lost transactions and financial penalties generated from fraudulent activity or technical malfunctions such as:



	Credit Card Fraud

	Identity theft

	Breached &amp;amp; Insecure Networks

	Internet Viruses

In the billing space, Aria Systems is uniquely committed to comprehensive customer lifecycle management. A dimension of Aria&#8217;s focus is the execution of contextual, appropriate&#45;point&#45;in&#45;the&#45;process communications and alerts with clients&#8217; customers, preemptively launched before any billing problems arise. Because being PCI compliant allows Aria Systems to securely store customer data, customers benefit through a unique waterfront of related value&#45;adds that translate into direct cost savings, increased marketing, flexibility enabling revenue growth, and increased customer and revenue retention.

PCI mandates that all billing companies&#8217; processes, not just infrastructure, must be Level One PCI compliant. Merchants that do not comply with the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) face monthly fines for noncompliance &amp;mdash; ranging from US$5,000 to $25,000. Beyond monetary fines, there are far greater costs associated with noncompliance such as lost reputation, damaged customer trust and loyalty, financial losses, lost business, lawsuits and other results of a breach.

&#8220;Relative to PCI Compliance, there are layers of danger facing companies that handle customer financial and personal data. Many companies have a false sense of security, not realizing that when they work with a provider that is PCI Compliant, yet still commit behaviors like storing customer credit card information in their CRM tool, they are putting themselves and their customers at risk,&#8221; said Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems. He added, &#8220;Even more alarming is that many companies don&#8217;t understand at all the gravity and potentially catastrophic consequences of working with a non&#45;PCI Compliant billing provider, or one with only a single component of its processes Compliant.&#8221; 

Sullivan notes, &#8220;Aria Systems is the only SaaS billing provider truly dedicated to the safety and security of our customers&#8217; transactions. And we have the certification to prove it.&#8221;

To maintain Level One Compliance, Aria Systems must adhere to annual third party audits and integrate regular upgrades into their security systems. To manage these audits, Aria Systems has partnered with Trustwave, a leading provider of on&#45;demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions, to oversee penetration tests, manage code reviews and inspect firewalls.

&#8220;While we have always trusted Aria&#8217;s commitment to the security of our data and billing transactions, their decision to spend the time and money associated with becoming Level One PCI compliant adds even greater assurance and validity in their services,&#8221; said John Miller, Managing Director and Principal of Decision Intelligence. &#8220;With so many threats posed to Internet transactions, it&#8217;s important for any company that manages its billing with a third party vendor to insist that the company be Level One PCI Compliant.&#8221;

The PCI Security Standards Council cannot prevent companies from claiming PCI Compliance (in fact many do), but only those that are named in the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) annual report are truly compliant. Companies that are unsure of whether or not their billing provider is PCI Level 1 compliant are urged to check the list of those companies that are certified as such, at http://usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/cisp_service_providers.html.</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2009-01-07T11:00:14-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Aria Systems Completes $10 Million in Series B Funding</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_completes_10_million_in_series_b_funding/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/aria_systems_completes_10_million_in_series_b_funding/#When:11:00:46Z</guid>
      <description>Leader in SaaS Billing Looks Ahead to Launch of its A+ Billing Platform
Media, PA, December 8, 2008 &amp;mdash; Aria Systems Inc. (http://www.ariasystems.com), the leading provider of on&#45;demand subscription billing and customer lifecycle management, today announced that it has secured $10 million in Series B venture funding, led by Venrock and joined by Aria Systems&#8217;s initial investors Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Dave Labuda. Aria Systems will use this money to accelerate the development of its industry&#45;leading A+ Billing Platform, the first and only enterprise&#45;class billing platform offered in a highly flexible Software&#45;as&#45;a&#45;Service (SaaS) based environment.


&#8220;Aria Systems has created an impressive SaaS billing and CRM platform that addresses the needs of businesses, small and large, looking to manage their customer relationships and financial transactions,&#8221; said Ray Rothrock, managing general partner, Venrock. &#8220;Its billing and customer lifecycle management platform allows companies that don&#8217;t want to, or can&#8217;t, invest in costly software and related IT and finance subject matter experts the opportunity to control the complex billing associated with their subscription or recurring purchases.&#8221; 


With this round of funding, Rothrock will be joining Aria Systems&#8217;s Board of Directors. Rothrock joined Venrock in 1988 and has been actively involved in more than forty investments for the firm. He presently serves on the public board of Check Point Software and a number of private company boards, including CoreTrace, Imperva, PGP, RedSeal Systems and Transonic Combustion. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Texas A&amp;amp;M Foundation, where he chairs the investment committee, as well as the Visiting Committee of the MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering Department.


Aria Systems has managed over one million accounts over the past five years by helping SaaS, technology, entertainment, gaming and non&#45;profit companies control their finances, billing and marketing procedures. They have done so by converting complex legacy billing systems to straight&#45;forward, efficient subscription management processes for large enterprises, while overseeing subscriptions and reporting for smaller companies. Aria&#8217;s approach is unique. The company takes a holistic view to managing subscription&#45;based billing – recognizing that the customer experience begins before and continues after payment collection, into the entire lifecycle of a customer experience with the company. No other on&#45;demand or subscription&#45;based billing company provides its customers as broad and deep a billing and marketing solution. 


&#8220;Today&#8217;s investment signifies the tremendous confidence that Venrock has in our ability to continue developing the most advanced on&#45;demand billing and customer lifecycle management solutions,&#8221; said Ed Sulivan, CEO, Aria Systems. &#8220;With this investment, we intend to accelerate the development of our A+ Billing Platform to meet the increasing demand to manage SaaS subscription billing, while making it even easier for customers to mine the potential in their billing and transaction data.&#8221; 


In September, Aria Systems announced a record third quarter that saw sales bookings double those from the second quarter and quadruple those from the first quarter. Since its launch in 2003, the company has processed more than one billion transactions for the million accounts it maintains and manages for its customers.</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-12-08T11:00:46-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Parature and Aria Systems Announce Strategic Partnership</title>
      <link>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/parature_and_aria_systems_announce_strategic_partnership/</link>
      <guid>http://www.ariasystems.com/site/parature_and_aria_systems_announce_strategic_partnership/#When:15:40:20Z</guid>
      <description>The Global Leader in On&#45;Demand Customer Service Software Partners with the Leading Provider of On&#45;Demand Billing and Customer Lifecycle Management Solutions.
VIENNA, VA &amp;mdash; October 27, 2008 &amp;mdash; Parature, the global leader in on&#45;demand customer service software, announced today a referral partnership agreement with Aria Systems, the leading provider of on&#45;demand subscription billing solutions.&amp;nbsp; Parature and Aria, both best&#45;in&#45;class software&#45;as&#45;a&#45;service (SaaS) providers, have a significant focus on the fast&#45;growing interactive media and online gaming markets.&amp;nbsp; 


&#8220;As the global leader in on&#45;demand customer service software, we are delighted to embark upon this partnership with the first and most experienced SaaS billing provider,&#8221; said Chuck Coulson, Parature Vice President of Business Development. &#8220;Parature is the fastest growing customer service and support software company in the United States, and this partnership is a logical next step to expand our presence in interactive media communities, virtual worlds and the online gaming industry as a whole.&#8221;


Parature enables any organization to fundamentally change the way they support their customers through its Software&#45;as&#45;a&#45;Service (SaaS) delivery and integrated, intuitive design that empowers organizations to better and more efficiently serve, support, engage with and retain customers in today&#8217;s Web world.&amp;nbsp; The seamlessly integrated suite of Parature modules allows organizations to effectively manage all of their support needs without additional hardware, software and IT expenses.&amp;nbsp; This dynamic, on&#45;demand software enables organizations to get up and running quickly, easily and efficiently. 


&#8220;Aria System&#8217;s work with Parature embodies our commitment to creating the most robust customer lifecycle management environment possible for our clients,&#8221; noted Edward Sullivan, president and CEO, Aria Systems. Sulivan added, &#8220;Parature&#8217;s powerful customer service, support, and communications solution complements our world&#45;class billing platform extremely well. Based on input we&#8217;ve culled from the market, companies assessing the space will be delighted with this development. We look forward to going to market with Parature.&#8221;</description>
      <dc:subject></dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-10-27T15:40:20-05:00</dc:date>
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