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SPL WorldGroup, Inc.
www.splwg.com

MORRISTOWN, NJ., October 31, 2001 - SPL WorldGroup BV, the leading provider of customer management solutions to the global energy, water and waste management industries, is set to expand its already dominant position as the leading provider of billing and customer management solutions in the Australian utilities marketplace with full retail contestability imminent for the country's two most populous states.

SPL client implementations currently support billing for approximately 2.5 million customers out of a potential market of eight million. By comparison, its nearest competitor bills less than 1.4 million clients. Additionally, when the two largest states in terms of customer numbers, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, introduce full retail contestability in early 2002, SPL is expected to support billing for up to four million customers; half the projected market. Three long-term SPL customers: AGL, United Energy and Texas Utilities, dominate the Australian market serving a substantial majority of the country's eight million total customers.

When Victorian-based United Energy became the first utility in Australia to move forward with a new customer management billing solution for the deregulated market more than four years ago, it selected SPL as its solution provider. The SPL/United Energy project resulted in a successful implementation that delivered United Energy numerous cost, productivity and customer service benefits, and assisted SPL in securing new customers in the US and Europe.

"United Energy's initiative gave SPL the opportunity to work with a company that wanted to lead the market and this is consistent with SPL's philosophy. We welcome the opportunity to work with companies who embrace innovation to lead their markets locally and worldwide," said CD Hobbs, President & CEO of SPL WorldGroup. "Australia has deregulated more aggressively and in a shorter timeframe than the US. With United Energy as a client, SPL made a lot of enhancements to our products to support Australia's early maturation cycle. These enhancements have made our solution very attractive to companies in the US and Europe. The enhanced product not only served our customers' needs for the market in Australia, but also our deregulation experience helped SPL secure new business internationally, including two of the largest utilities in Europe: nPower in the UK and Electricite de France (EDF)."

In line with the country's aim to adopt a national energy market, Australia has introduced deregulation in the national electricity market for both generation and retail. The transmission and distribution segments - monopolistic by nature - will remain fully regulated.

Australia has traveled much further down the deregulation path than the US and most of Europe, with the exception of the UK. Australia has been a world leader in embracing deregulation of its utilities market since a 1991 Industry Commission report recommended restructuring the industry to promote efficiency through competition. The staggered introduction of full contestability will see South Australia follow NSW and Victoria in 2003, with other states yet to commit to a timetable.

"The plan is for a national market here and where that makes most sense is where you have the densest population in the smallest geographic area, and that is the east coast of Australia, particularly NSW and Victoria. That is where the early adoption of deregulation is happening and that is where SPL and our major customers are dominating," said Mr. Brenton McPherson, SPL's Senior Vice President of Sales for the Asia Pacific region.

A key lesson from the Australian experience for utility providers in other states and countries undertaking deregulation is the importance of flexible, customer-focused billing systems, as companies broaden their product and service portfolios. One of SPL's key customers, AGL (formed in 1837 as a gas company) became the first Australian energy company to offer natural gas, LPG and electricity to customers. It has now bought a mobile phone business - providing SPL with the opportunity to modify, enhance and integrate a legacy billing system to support the range of new offerings.

"One of the things deregulation has brought to utilities is the need to offer different types of products and services. Because companies are offering more products, flexibility in billing is critical. Today our system bills more than 20 energy and non-energy products for customers," Mr McPherson said.

Reflecting its commitment to tailor its products and services to meet local customer and market needs, SPL's Australia operation has introduced a formalized applications support and maintenance offering for AGL. "Whether a utility is regulated or deregulated, these types of systems need the highest level of availability for customers. We formalized the maintenance process with a dedicated team to provide dedicated support for AGL. It is an extra service that helps ensure maximum uptime," Mr McPherson said.

While SPL's next-generation customer management software CorDaptix was only unveiled in Australia in August, it has already attracted significant interest from existing and potential SPL customers. Mr McPherson expected all customers to migrate from CIS PLUS, SPL's original customer management system, to CorDaptix within the next year.

2001 SPL WorldGroup, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SPL WorldGroup, SPL, CorDaptix and CIS PLUS are trademarks owned by SPL WorldGroup B.V. or its subsidiaries. SPL WorldGroup and SPL are registered as trademarks in the United States and in certain foreign jurisdictions. All other brand, product and company names herein are used for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.

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