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CONTACT INFORMATION
en.able
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
en·able Signs Orange and Rockland
Utilities, Inc. to Letter
of Intent to Market Simple ChoiceSM
LAKEWOOD, CO., September 2, 1997 – Orange
and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (NYSE-ORU), an investor-owned utility
serving parts of New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has
signed a letter of intent with en· able to explore the benefits
of offering its customers bundled products and services under the
Simple ChoiceSM brand.
With Simple ChoiceSM, Orange and Rockland's customers
would receive a full range of home-oriented, communications and
entertainment services, in addition to Electricity and natural gas,
serviced with one call, itemized on one bill and payable with one
check. Orange and Rockland serves 266,000 electric customers and
113,000 natural gas customers.
"Exploring the opportunity to Offer Simple ChoiceSM
is a logical and innovative response to the coming deregulation
of our industry," said Joanne Curley, Orange and Rockland's
director of marketing. "If it proves feasible, Simple ChoiceSM
will be very beneficial to help us to Continue bringing greater
choice and value to our customers."
The Simple ChoiceSM brand is marketed to utilities nationwide
by en·able, a joint venture of KN Energy, Inc. (NYSE-KNE), based
in Lakewood, Colorado, and PacifiCorp (NYSE-PPW), based in Portland,
Ore. Simple ChoiceSM is available in 10 states to 1.7
million customers.
"We welcome Orange and Rockland to the Simple ChoiceSM
family. We were the first-to-market and remain the only company
today offering bundled products and services to Customers through
their local utilities," said Mort Aaronson, en· able president
and chief operating officer.
Aaronson noted that Orange and Rockland also would benefit from
the capabilities that en·able has to Offer, including superior products
and services through the Simple ChoiceSM brand; the infrastructure
necessary to Offer customer service and billing with one call, one
bill and one check; and support necessary to distribute products
and services to Customers in a deregulated and competitive environment.
"We are working to enable our licensee utilities to make the
most out of the Simple ChoiceSM products and services
portfolio," Aaronson said. "It's important to make sure
that our utility partners have the ability to Deliver the ‘one
call, one bill, one check' concept, and the ability to successfully
market the Simple ChoiceSM brand to their customers."
Through en·able, partnerships have been established for products
and services in areas of energy, home-services, communications and
entertainment. These include, MCI, offering MCI One telecommunications
products and services; the Dish Network™, a satellite entertainment
company; Metricom's Ricochet™ wireless modem and Internet
service; RWI Interactive Communications, which provides electronic
access to an appliance and home entertainment catalogue; MaxServ,
which provides home service repair; and Weatherwise™, for
"weatherproofing" customers' energy bills.
en·able also has established partnerships, acquired operations
and developed systems to provide infrastructure and delivery platform
for customer service and billing. These include the acquisition
of Orcom, which designs and implements customer billing and information
solutions; a partnership with Intellicom, a billing and customer
information systems company; and the Simple ChoiceSM
Order Entry System, a link between Simple ChoiceSM and
the licensee utility's information system.
In addition, partnerships have been established to Offer design
and support in marketing communications for utilities in selling
Simple ChoiceSM to their customers. These include partnerships
with J. Walter Thompson Direct, a direct marketing firm based in
New York City; Doublepace, an internationally renowned brand communications
and interactive design company based in New York City; Pollack Norman,
a leading advertising firm based in Denver; and New Paradigm Ventures,
a design and operations company for consumer-driven retail businesses
based in Norwalk, Conn.
en·able is a limited liability company owned by PacifiCorp Holdings,
Inc., and KN Services, Inc. It was announced by the two companies
in January 1997.
Orange and Rockland employs 1,506 people and has two wholly owned
utility subsidiaries, Rockland Electric Company, a New Jersey corporation
based in Saddle River, N.J., and Pike County Light & Power Company,
a Pennsylvania corporation with headquarters in Milford, Pa. More
information about the company may be found on the company's web
site at www.oru.com.
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