The five-year exclusive agreement licenses Choice to deliver Profit Manager(sm), its Windows-based property management system, integrated with ProtoBase(r), SofTrans(r), and PbAdmin(tm), Southern DataComm's credit and charge card software, to Choice hotel brands worldwide.  Choice hotel brands include Comfort, Quality, Clarion, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, and MainStay Suites hotels.  The agreement enables over 4,000 Choice hotels worldwide to utilize Southern DataComm's products for electronic authorization and settlement of credit/charge card transactions.

Gary Eng, president and founder of Southern DataComm, said, "We are extremely excited about our relationship with Choice.  The latest releases of our products greatly enhance the credit card interface portion of Choice's Profit Manager system.  We are proud to be partnered with this worldwide leader in the hospitality industry."

James Mitchell, Director of Property Systems I/S Development for Choice Hotels International, commented, "The latest Southern DataComm products are written specifically for ease of integration and provide a seamless pass through to our front office system.  This is our second generation of integrated credit card processing with the Southern DataComm products.  This agreement now allows us to provide fully integrated credit/charge card processing to numerous processors from every franchisee purchasing the Profit Manager system.  The integration has been achieved by utilizing the latest software tools, and great effort has been put forth ensuring that the software applications are Y2K compliant and fulfill the Choice commitment of providing software that will remain state-of-the-art well into the twenty-first century."

According to Southern DataComm, ProtoBase and PbAdmin meet the needs of front desk staff and night auditors who demand quick response times for credit card authorizations and settlement during check-in and check-out.  The software also provides accounting staff and night auditors detailed reports and complete control of transactions at settlement.

Christopher Yellen, Director of Product Management at Choice, commented, "With the ProtoBase and PbAdmin modules integrated into Profit Manager, Choice hotel properties can satisfy both front and back-office requirements.  We are very pleased with the Southern DataComm agreement and look forward to multiple rollouts of the latest release of Profit Manager integrated with SDC's products."

Southern DataComm, Incorporated is a software development firm founded in 1985 specializing in electronic payment software solutions.  Southern DataComm products provide a generic interface to enable simple integration into point-of-sale systems.  The software supports transaction processing for credit/debit/check with virtually any Third Party Processor or Acquirer.  The applications support a variety of vertical markets including Lodging, Restaurant, Auto Rental, Retail, Gaming, Grocery, Mail and Phone Order, Subscriber Management, Cable TV, Public Utilities, Internet, Medical, and Government.  Southern DataComm is headquartered in Clearwater, Florida.