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SEATTLE, WA., February 06, 2001 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - ConneXt®, a Seattle-based software developer of billing and customer care solutions for the utility industry, announced today the availability of ConsumerLinX™ for large commercial and industrial (C&I) accounts.

The solution is a special configuration of ConsumerLinX, and was developed to help utilities respond to one of their greatest business challenges -- billing and customer care for their largest revenue-generating accounts.

ConsumerLinX is already in use and processing intricate billing for some of the biggest names in American industry, including Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser, and Microsoft. In this energy-dependent information economy, the standards by which key account customers expect to do business are changing. Companies are asking their utility to provide more rate choices, including individually negotiated contracts, and dedicated customer service. Unfortunately, many utilities are still using tedious, labor-intensive processes to manage their largest industrial accounts. Not only are these inefficient billing methods costly to the utility, but they are unable to facilitate responsive customer account management.

"In today's competitive atmosphere, utilities need to build strong relationships with their large commercial and industrial customers to maintain customer satisfaction and to strengthen brand loyalty," says Jill Feblowitz of AMR Research. "A flexible and sophisticated complex billing system that provides multi-channel customer relationship management (CRM) functionality is essential to doing business in today's environment."

Even utilities who recently made significant investments in new billing technology are finding that today's requirements exceed their current billing system's capabilities. For those utilities, ConsumerLinX presents an effective, affordable solution to meeting key account expectations while extending the life of existing IT investments. One of the most attractive aspects of this configuration is that it's fully adaptable to a utility's current CIS, facilitating a C&I upgrade with minimal costs and process disruptions.

In contrast toothier special billing engines, ConsumerLinX offers complete customer service functionality. Additionally, ConneXt has recently partnered with leading providers of energy procurement and management analysis software to further enhance their key account management solution. Another tangible benefit to utilities is that ConsumerLinX is agile enough to set up new rates, business rules, and regulatory mandates -- configuration changes can be done in-house.

"Given increasing energy prices and volatility in the current wholesale markets, we expect to see increases in the energy bill and more rapid changes in rate structures," says Feblowitz. "Customers will need assistance in understanding how changes impact their cost of operations. Utilities will need the ability to quickly modify already complex billing."

As the utility's needs continue to evolve, the key account configuration of ConsumerLinX can readily be upgraded to serve all customer segments. Utilities can then extend even the most complex billing programs, such as real-time pricing, to smaller business and residential customers.

"Our decision to create this solution comes out of direct discussions we've had with utilities. We're responding to what the market is telling us it needs," says ConneXt CEO Bob Dryden. "Utilities have never before had the tools to offer complex rate options in conjunction with full-featured customer care. Now we can give them that capability. We're really excited about the value this solution can bring to our customers in a changing energy marketplace."

About ConneXt
ConneXt® is a Seattle-based developer of packaged billing and customer care software for utilities. The company's flagship product is ConsumerLinX™, a powerful, agile, and adaptable system featuring high-volume billing for residential, commercial, and industrial customers. ConsumerLinX enables utilities to meet the challenges of today's rapidly changing energy marketplace.

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