John Lewis profits from outsourced online payment
authentication and verification now handled by Logic Group

June 6th 2005: John Lewis Direct, the web and catalogue division of John Lewis, has seen 80% annual sales growth for the last two years. The company has now chosen The Logic Group to provide a managed service with payer authentication for all online credit and debit card payments at www.johnlewis.com. The service significantly enhances the company's protection against fraudulent activity online and provide John Lewis Direct customers with a further level of card security.

The authentication of online customers has been outsourced to Logic Group Managed Services, cardholders are authenticated using the Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode programmes. Feedback shows that cardholders increasingly see these payer authentication schemes as a positive step in the fight against online fraud with 17% of John Lewis Direct customers using it in the first week of operation.

"John Lewis Direct handles a significant volume of credit and debit card transactions each month, with the volume growing exponentially," says Robert McCarthy, Finance Manager, John Lewis Direct, "The implementation of Silverfleet-Opal has enabled us to significantly enhance our fraud management capabilities while minimising the number of genuine orders being turned away and the risk of upsetting genuine customers."

Will Jones, Project Manager at John Lewis adds: "The Logic Group has enabled us to add an extra layer of security to our website and the use of a managed service has removed a considerable headache from our day-to-day operations and helped us to improve profitability."

"We continue to see a growing demand for our managed services," says Logic Group Product Marketing . "Clients from a wide variety of industries such as retail, banking, car rental, utilities, foreign exchange and Internet service provision now trust us to take care of their card processing needs. This frees up retailers’ in-house IT resources - which are often under considerable pressure - to concentrate on other projects. This means sophisticated systems can not only be implemented quickly, but also maintained with minimal effort on the customer's part. Our managed services group is showing substantial growth and is currently processing well over 100 million transactions annually from four continents."

About John Lewis:
The John Lewis Partnership operates 26 department stores across the UK, John Lewis Direct, a website and catalogue business and 149 Waitrose supermarkets. The business has a turnover of over £5bn. A typical John Lewis stocks more than half a million separate lines and seeks to be an "all-under-one-roof" destination for an entire region of shoppers. The website stocks over 10,000 lines focused on the best of home and giftware and is consistently ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK.

About Logic Group Managed Services:
Logic Group Managed Services provides an outsourced online authorisation and large-volume EFT batch processing service. Transactions are processed at two locations with links to all major acquirers. The group provides services to a wide range of customers such as High Street stores, car rental, DIY chains, utility companies, Internet Service Providers and currency services. The operation currently handles over ten million transactions each month. Approved by both Mastercard and Visa, the Payer Authentication service helps to prevent, reduce and deter payment card fraud in the online payment environment, enabling you to verify the identity of your cardholders, without delaying their transactions.

About the Logic Group
The Logic Group partners with leading organisations across Europe to enhance the effectiveness, security and profitability of their customer interactions.

The company focuses on the secure management of information and transactions delivering improved customer insight and loyalty, the provision of trusted card processing and payment environments coupled with the flexible IT infrastructures that support the enhancement of customer experience across all points of interaction.

The Logic Group aims to grow business value for its clients through innovative, high quality IT services, solutions and products that can help them deliver increased revenue, improved profit and reduced operating costs and risk.

The company is able to leverage in excess of 20 years experience in its field working with over 1,000 organisations across the financial services, retail, transport, communications, utilities, and leisure and hospitality sectors worldwide.

For more information call +44 (0) 1252 776 700 or visit our website: www.the-logic-group.com