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CONTACT INFORMATION
ConneXt
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ConneXt commemorates its Fifth Year
as a Premier Provider of Utility Billing and Customer Care Solutions
SEATTLE, WA., April 2, 2001 - ConneXt, a premier developer
of billing and customer care solutions for utilities, marks a significant
milestone on April 2, 2001, when the company officially observes
its fifth anniversary as a leading technology solution provider
for today's rapidly evolving energy utility marketplace.
ConneXt's flagship product, ConsumerLinX, is currently facilitating
the billing and call center operations for 1.2 million gas and electric
customers at Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the largest utility in Washington
State. The software also is being utilized as the "back office"
for PSE's Personal Energy Management program, a pilot initiative
bringing real-time pricing tomore than 400,000 customers in western
Washington.
The highly agile ConsumerLinX software was developed from the data
model recommendations of a consortium of utilities that originally
set out tostudy the effects of deregulation on the energy marketplace.
In their study, consortium members discovered how critical customer
information system (CIS) technology would become to a utility's
survival in an era of competition and regulatory changes.
In 1995, prominent industry consultants drafted a business plan
and approached the board of directors at Puget Sound Energy for
the initial round of funding to get ConneXt off the ground. In 1996,
ConneXt opened its doors.
Robert "Bob" Dryden assumed the role of CEO in 1999,
coming toConneXt from Boeing Commercial Airplane, where he served
as an executive vice president. Dryden is credited with bringing
to ConneXt the leadership and focus necessary to continue developing
cutting-edge solutions for an increasingly complex utility marketplace.
"Puget Sound Energy is getting very favorable national attention
for its innovative customer care and billing operations, most notably
the ability to offer real-time pricing options on a wide scale through
the Personal Energy Management program," Dryden said. "ConneXt's
ConsumerLinX is an integral part of PSE's nationally recognized
programs. Few software vendors offer a solution capable of managing
such a wide variance of rate structures and billing options as ConsumerLinX
can. At a time when energy usage exceeds demand and customers are
seeing double digit rate hikes, PSE's transparent pricing options
are actually prompting customers to decrease their usage. We at
ConneXt are fortunate to have a staff with the level of expertise
and industry knowledge to develop software that can move utilities
into the 21st century."
About ConneXt
ConneXt is a Seattle-based developer of packaged customer information
system software that enables utilities to meet the challenges of
today's rapidly changing energy marketplace. The company's flagship
billing and customer care solution is ConsumerLinXä, a powerful,
agile and adaptable system featuring high-volume billing for all
customer classes, including a separate solution designed specifically
for commercial and industrial (C&I) accounts. ConneXt is located
at 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1900, Seattle, Washington, 98101. For
additional information, phone (800) 706-1976, fax (206) 521-2400
or visit the ConneXt Web site at www.connext.com.
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