Procard Offering Net-Based Corporate Card System

Procard Inc. has introduced an Internet-based system for managing commercial credit cards.

The product, PVS Net, lets companies track business purchases and travel and entertainment expenses on-line. A fleet card enhancement is due in April.

Procard, based in Golden, Colo., has been offering a desktop version of its system, called PVS for "Pro value services," since 1990. It is licensed to 13 banks, which sublicense it to business customers.

Procard is setting up similar arrangements for PVS Net, which is geared to the needs of small businesses with fewer than 150 cards in circulation. PVS Net is less sophisticated and technology-intensive than PVS, which runs on the Windows computer operating system.

"Our existing package has been primarily designed for larger and medium- size corporations, which have fairly complex accounting needs," said D. Dale Browning, chief executive officer of Procard.

"We developed the Internet package because there are hundreds of thousands of small businesses that could benefit from the use of a credit card for procurement, travel and entertainment, and fleet."

The product is designed to let corporate cardholders file expense reports on the Internet. Managers can track payments to specific suppliers, monitor employee purchases, and make cash flow projections.

"This will allow small companies to have state-of-the-art technology, review transactions daily, and do some degree of allocating to cost centers," Mr. Browning said. "They can have all of their reports on-line without having to make a significant investment in technology."

Despite the small-business orientation, some larger companies-including a few with more than 500 corporate cards-were enthusiastic PVS Net during a beta test in August and September, Mr. Browning said.

The banks that tested it-Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National City Corp., CoreStates Bank, First USA, Mellon Bank, and Commerce Bank of Kansas City-are licensing the system to customers.

Until now, Procard had targeted the 50 largest banks. Last week the company began marketing the Internet version to the top 200 banks, Mr. Browning said, "because those are the ones that have significant small- business relationships."

Duncan Cathcart, national sales manager for Canadian Imperial of Toronto, said the Internet product seemed "very valuable for our midmarket customers. Later we can upgrade them to the PVS desktop software."

Dale Fitz, vice president of National City Corp. in Cleveland, said it has seen a "growing demand from prospects with lower volumes for a purchasing card product." He called the market "largely untapped."

Mr. Browning said Procard, which has 75 employees, expects interest in commercial cards to explode. "It's like a snowball going downhill," he said. "We're seeing growth expand this year more than I've ever seen it."

Sales are up more than 130% from the full-year 1996 total, Mr. Browning said, "and we had a fairly good base to begin with."

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