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BEND, OR., August 1, 2000 - Florida Public Utilities is implementing a new customer information system, needed to manage the different service offerings of its multiple districts, announced Orcom Solutions today. The new system is scheduled togo live this fall.

FPU's distribution systems provide natural and propane gas service in three areas in central and southern Florida, electric service in two areas in northern Florida and water service in one location in northern Florida.

According to Controller George Bachman, FPU's legacy system could not accommodate the increasingly complex CIS and billing operations the company faced, including producing consolidated billing for multiple services. It also would not have been able to adapt to many new requirements brought about by deregulation, which is expected to occur in Florida within the next few years.

"With our expanding customer base and multiple commodity offering, we need a sophisticated, versatile customer information system. Orcom's E-CIS will support all our growth plans," Bachman said.

E-CIS handles a variety of complex CIS functions and processes FPU needed. For example, it can generate individual and group billing, and will accept the split payments and multiple payment sources FPU receives from some of its 70,000 customers.

"We had been looking for a user-friendly system that required little operator intervention," Bachman said. "Orcom's E-CIS was our answer."

About Orcom Solutions
Orcom Solutions, Inc. is the premier Application Service Provider (ASP) of billing and customer care solutions, systems integration, and outsourcing services to the utility and energy industry. With over 1.2 million outsourced bills, Orcom is the largest ASP for utility and energy bills in the industry. Headquartered in Bend, Oregon, with an office in Denver, Colorado, and a service delivery facility in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Orcom currently has more than 500 employees. Orcom is a LiveWire Utilities company. LiveWire is a diversified software and Internet company focused on business-to-business and mission critical software products and services for media, telecom, utility, and Internet companies.

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