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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Two California Water Districts Select
Advanced Utility Systems CIS Infinity
CIS Infinity toassist in
meeting State Wide Best Management Practices for Budget Based Rates
for Capistrano Valley Water District and Customer Service Initiatives
for Contra Costa Water District
TORONto, CANADA; March 27, 2001 - Advanced Utility Systems
Corporation is pleased to announce that Contra Costa Water District
(CCWD) and the Capistrano Valley Water District have chosen Advanced
Utility Systems to provide and install CIS Infinity to Handle their
Customer Information and Utility Billing needs.
CCWD provides a reliable supply of high quality water toover 430,000
residents in central and east Contra Costa County, California. Employing
approximately 340 people, the District supplies treated water services
to the cities of Concord, Clayton, Clyde, Pacheco, Port Costa, and
parts of Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, and Martinez. These cities
are located in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Untreated
water is also provided toseveral cities including Antioch, Bay Point,
Martinez, Oakley, and Pittsburg. CIS Infinity will be installed
immediately in order tomeet a projected live date in the winter
of 2001.
The Capistrano Valley Water District, operated by the City of San
Juan Capistrano, provides water and wastewater management services
for the residents and businesses of the City, located in Orange
County California. Water and wastewater services are provided toover
11,000 customers. The City employs over 25 people assigned to the
Water District that have provided high quality service since 1970.
A May go-live date is targeted.
Capistrano Valley Water District is undertaking a rapid implementation.
They will be using CIS Infinity with a Microsoft SQL database, and
will be the first client toinstall Version 2.0 with a planned go-live
in May 2001. Jim Widner, the Administrative Services Manager for
the City, stated the following, " Our existing system is in
unstable, crisis mode. The folks from Advanced are providing CIS
Infinity and all their resources on a fast track tomeet our rapid
schedule. We are extremely pleased with their flexible implementation
methodology and thoroughness. A key consideration for us was a software
system that could accommodate our complicated, but fair rates without
a lot of custom programming".
Capistrano has very intricate rate structure taking into account
the square footage of each lot and the house size of every customer,
along with the evapotranspiration rate to Bill by tiers tied to
allocation based on the calculated prudent use levels. This rate
is a forerunner toCalifornia's BMP #5 & 11 that specify calculating
"water budgets" for landscape customers and implementing
conservation rates. At Capistrano this "water budget"
concept is built into all customer classes and rate schedules.
"The implementation at the Capistrano Valley Water District
is one of the quickest we have ever undertaken. To-date the efforts
have been very successful because of the team of experts at Capistrano
Valley and the experience in place at Advanced Utility Systems"
said Patricia Sorbara, President of Advanced Utility Systems.
CCWD is not only replacing their Customer Information and Utility
Billing software, but also will replace their financial systems.
SunGard Bi-Tech has been chosen to provide and implement this part
of the project. SunGard Bi-Tech and Advanced have partnered on several
other implementations, and will work side-by-side to complete both
elements of the implementation.
Gaye Frohwein, Project Manager for CCWD, is looking forward to
beginning the implementation immediately. "It's been a comprehensive
search process and we are excited about starting the implementation.
CIS Infinity will provide support for the District's evolving customer
care vision. Expanding the services we offer to Customers is one
of the District's key business goals, and our customer service team
has been searching for a system that will meet our customer care
objectives."
The CIS Infinity business logic will be set-up on an NT server,
while the database will reside on an IBM RS6000, using an Oracle
database. This will provide CCWD with a comprehensive solution linked
to the SunGard Bi-Tech IFAS financial suite. This configuration
is enabled by the Database Independence of CIS Infinity Version
2.0, whereby CCWD can use their Oracle database tocreate a solution
they can control. It is extremely scalable, allowing CCWD to expand
services to their current customer base of approximately 60,000
customers. CIS Infinity provides Rate Infinity Technology™, which
is designed to allow complicated formulae and calculations to be
woven intoindividual rates. CCWD will utilize this functionality
for all of the District's rates.
"The enhancements we are building intoCIS Infinity to Handle
CCWD's complex operations will further strengthen CIS Infinity for
future customers" said Patricia Sorbara, President of Advanced
Utility Systems. "For example, extending the inventory module
to Handle back-flow devices will be beneficial tonumerous other
water utilities."
About Advanced Utility Systems Corporation
Advanced Utility Systems Corporation is a privately owned and operated
software and services Company headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
The company has grown from its 1997 start-up to serve over 40 North
American water, electric, and natural gas utility clients with its
billing and customer service software CIS Infinity. The team at
Advanced Utility Systems delivers what it takes to develop the ideal
solution for the utility market. For additional information visit
www.ausc.com.
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