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SAN FRANCISCO, CA., April 29, 2004 - SPL has just released cost figures from the first upgrades to its CorDaptix™ billing and customer care system. The numbers exhibit dramatic reductions in the effort, time, and cost that system upgrades have traditionally required.

"Owning a customer information system in today's business environment is certain to demand frequent new versions of the software," said SPL's Guerry Waters, vice president of strategy, marketing, and training. "In today's market, utilities must accommodate new product lines, services, and position their companies for performance improvements."

In the past, Waters noted, these required upgrades have often been as labor-intensive as an entire system re-implementation. But CorDaptix client Rappahannock Electric Cooperative in Virginia, for instance, spent just $1.96 per customer for a system-wide upgrade that included major advances in the portal, sales and marketing, and energy data management. The total implementation time for the upgrade was three months.

A Midwestern-U.S. gas utility got similarly striking results, upgrading its CorDaptix Credit and Collections subsystem for a cost of less than 4 cents per customer. The company was so pleased with the rapid implementation and performance of Credit and Collections that it proceeded to a complete CorDaptix implementation.

"The figures now being released regarding CorDaptix upgrades mark a major turning point in the industry," said TMG Consulting President Greg Galluzzi. "In the past, upgrade costs of $5 - $8 per customer would have been considered very low-cost indeed; $20 and up would probably have been more realistic. We've had utility clients that have spent millions of dollars to upgrade systems with very little to show for it. Others have looked at the cost to upgrade systems installed as recently as 2000 and have instead elected to implement an entirely different vendor's system."

Chartwell's Dennis Smith has seen much the same phenomenon. "In the past, costs of upgrades and costs of implementations have tended to be so close that, when we've interviewed utilities about 'upgrades,' they've tended to give us implementation numbers and vice versa. It appears that many surveyed utilities view implementing a new vendor's CIS solution as 'upgrading' the former vendor, as the costs were similar. As SPL's new approach to upgrades wins mindshare in the utility industry, this blurring of concepts is bound to disappear."

How CorDaptix Lowers Upgrade Costs
All customer care and billing solutions permit utilities to accommodate their specific business requirements within a solution designed for use at multiple utilities. Most vendors permit these accommodations through changes to core program code. And since core program changes are lost during the upgrade process, they must be reprogrammed and retested, at high cost.

SPL's CorDaptix is different. It isolates the core program from client adaptations or extensions. When utilities are ready for upgrades, they "unhook" their adaptations and extensions from the old core and "rehook" them to the new one. The technical part of the upgrade can easily begin on Saturday morning and result in a system ready for testing on Monday.

Real Cost Savings
Rappahannock's Sterling Schoonover will discuss his cooperative's upgrade experience and other aspects of CorDaptix use in his presentation "Are You Out of Your Mind to Go Out of the Box?" on Thursday, May 6, from 11 AM to 12 noon at the upcoming CIS show, "Investigating the Best of CIS & CRM," at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida.

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About SPL
SPL delivers the proven billing and customer care solutions that help utilities around the world achieve competitive advantage and excellence in business performance. SPL solutions are specifically designed for energy, water and service companies, providing a platform from which clients serve residential, commercial, and industrial customers in regulated and competitive markets, across multiple products. Working with systems-integration and technology partners around the world, SPL has an unparalleled record of implementation success. Financially strong, and with customers on six continents, SPL focuses on clients' return on investment and fosters long-term relationships based on confidence and trust. Visit SPL WorldGroup at www.splwg.com.

About CorDaptix™
SPL's CorDaptix™ solution is a proven billing and customer care product designed to evolve with clients' business demands. Its comprehensive functional footprint withstands the tests of time, growth, and change while minimizing cost and risk. CorDaptix helps optimize cash flow and increase collections. It scales from a few thousand to many millions of customers. Upgrades are quick and easy. And because of its modular architecture, utilities need to purchase only what they need, when they need it. Utilities that use CorDaptix reliably meet market windows and regulatory deadlines while enjoying a low total cost of ownership and a high return on investment.

(2004 SPL WorldGroup, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SPL WorldGroup, SPL, and CorDaptix 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 other jurisdictions. All other trademarks and brand, product and company names herein are used for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.