Peace Software Ships Advanced e-Business Software

Peace Software Ships the Most Advanced e-Business Software For Energy Retailing

Energy Version 6 delivers flexibility, scalability and cost effectiveness for
deregulating energy companies

Auckland – December 11, 2000 – Peace Software, a global provider of the leading e-business solution for retail energy companies, today announced the release of Energy™ Version 6, the most technically advanced and capability-rich software environment for handling the essential demands of the retail energy industry.

“Peace’s Energy suite is becoming the preferred e-Business solution for streamlining the core business drivers of retail energy companies around the world,” said Brian Peace, chairman and CEO at Peace Software. “Using Energy, our rapidly growing customer base can quickly yet cost-effectively enter new markets, create innovative competitive advantages, and profitably manage their businesses. With Energy Version 6, we are expanding our leadership to flexibly address the complex business needs of retail energy companies as they rapidly scale their operations.”

Energy Version 6 is the first e-Business solution to integrate customer and commodity management to equip energy retailers for the profitable acquisition and management of energy supply in deregulating markets. Other new elements of the release include extended business-to-consumer (B2C) e-Commerce functions, an advanced third-generation browser user interface (BUI), enhanced billing capabilities, and expanded industry-standard support for the Oracle 8i database system and UNIX platforms from Sun Microsystems. Energy supports virtually any client desktop browser including Microsoft Windows and NT, Apple Macintosh, Linux PCs, Unix workstations, and NCs.

Ethan Cohen, senior analyst, Energy and Communications, Aberdeen Group said “With Energy Version 6, Peace Software is staking out a leadership position in IT for retail energy companies.

Combined with its ability to rapidly install and deploy Energy, Peace is at the forefront of enabling utility clients to seek out new competitive advantages while scaling their operations to millions of customers in multiple states and jurisdictions.”

“We engineered Energy Version 6 to be the most robust, flexible, scalable, and integrated browser-based system for energy retailing,” explained Paul Grey, chief technology officer, Peace Software. “Our R&D team leveraged the latest web technologies such as Enterprise Java Beans, Java Server Pages, XML, and BEA’s WebLogic Server, while employing an extensive quality management approach and comprehensive early-customer shipment program. As we begin general shipments of Energy Version 6, it is already customer-proven and production-ready.”

Energy Version 6’s third-generation Java-based BUI exploits the latest web browser technologies to support and streamline large scale, essential customer service operations. As a result, the Energy system is easy to learn, fast to deploy and highly productive to use in call centre environments.

"We continue to be impressed with Energy as a leading customer system solution for energy retailing with flexible and robust functionality that can be rapidly deployed in a cost effective manner," said E. Terry Cowles, Deloitte Consulting principal and leader of the Americas Customer Relationship Management for Energy practice. “The new release of Energy should be of great interest to the evolving competitive market and provide opportunities for Deloitte Consulting’s alliance with Peace Software to offer our customers a powerful combination of consultative expertise and technological innovation.”

The new version offers significantly expanded Internet capabilities for interaction with e-customers, including 7x24 fast, reliable and secure on-line bill review and payment. Customers now can register on-line for credit card authorisation, receive automated email bill notification and select direct debit/credit payment options. The new version also allows energy retailers to create privately branded websites and portals, a strategic advantage in today’s competitive markets.

Energy Version 6 supports an expanded selection of open industry standards for enhanced adaptability and scalability. Its open platform-independent architecture integrates freely with
legacy systems and third-party applications, is easily reconfigured for regulatory market compliance, and can be rapidly and cost-effectively deployed across multiple markets. Moreover, the new version is EDI and XML-enabled to manage data transactions with industry trading partners, including automated reporting of customer enrolments.

Energy Version 6 is currently shipping.

ENDS.

About Peace Software
Peace Software International delivers the most comprehensive and cost-effective e-Business solutions to the global retail energy market. The industry-leading Energy™ suite is being rapidly deployed in 20 deregulating markets spanning North America and Australasia. Based on industry standards, the innovative and customer-proven Energy suite integrates comprehensive customer care, e-Commerce and customer self-service, EBPP for C&I and mass markets, and commodity management. Headquartered in Atlanta and founded in 1984, Peace is a global company with offices in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Visit us at www.peace.com.

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