PHILADEPLPHIA, PA., August 26, 2002 - ORCOM, the leader in outsourced customer care and billing (CC&B) services for electric, water and gas companies, today announced that Nova Scotia Power has selected ORCOM for infrastructure hosting and improved customer care functionality for its online customer care system

"Understanding that people are spending more time on the Internet, we wanted to offer our customers better online transaction capabilities," said Greg Reinhardt, Customer Solutions IT Manager for Nova Scotia Power. "We chose ORCOM because they are a great partner with an intimate understanding of customer care and billing for electric companies and a cost-effective solution for delivering increased customer satisfaction at the best price."

Outsourcing provides a number of advantages including reduced cost of operations, improved customer care and lowered technology risk and scalability without major capital investment. Nova Scotia Power presently has more than 450,000 customers who have access to an online system to check the status of bills and payment histories. With ORCOM's hosting solution, Nova Scotia Power will offer residential and commercial customers enhanced capabilities including online self-service order requests, usage history, billing history and payment transactions.

"Nova Scotia Power is a great partner, one of many utilities to realize the tremendous advantages of online customer care," said Jamie Biddle, CEO of ORCOM. "Whether in a regulated or deregulated environment, utilities must take serious steps to improve customer care operations, operational efficiency and cost savings and we are experiencing an increase in momentum to outsourcing to achieve this."

About ORCOM
ORCOM is the leader in outsourced customer care and billing services to electric, water and gas companies, providing superior service, guaranteed service levels and significant cost savings. The company has leveraged its 25 years of experience into long term, high-value relationships by responding to the rising demand for flexible, low risk application hosting and business process management (BPM) services. With a track record of no failed implementations and a large client base, ORCOM is uniquely positioned to lead utilities to the next level of profitability.

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