FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Itron Teams with SAP to
Deliver End-to-End AMI Business Processes Meter Data Management the
Focus for the Utility Industry
SPOKANE, WA., February 28, 2007 - Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI)
announced today that it has formed a development partnership with
SAP® AG to offer a complete, pre-integrated solution for the
collection, management, analysis, billing, and customer service
for multiple vendors’ smart metering/advanced metering infrastructure
(AMI) systems. SAP has 33% of the market share of Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) and 65% for CIS for utilities outside of the U.S.
and nearly 20 percent domestically.
Itron will provide the technical integration with advanced metering
infrastructure (AMI)/smart meter systems and deliver commercial-ready
meter data and key analytic tools to SAP® applications. SAP
will provide financial, billing, customer service and related commercial
processes such as market messaging integration, energy settlement
and enterprise asset management.
This solution will solve the many systems challenges posed by smart
metering systems such as the operation of multiple vendor collection
systems, large volumes of interval data, remote disconnect/reconnect,
on-demand reads, complex billing calculations, and asset management.
The approach will utilize web services integration between Itron’s
flagship meter data management product (Itron Enterprise Edition)
and the energy data management, customer relationship and billing,
market messaging, and asset management capabilities of SAP applications.
The partnership will allow seamless access to metering devices
regardless of the technology and end-to-end integration of technical
and commercial business processes within the utilities industry.
SAP customers will receive a best-in-class solution to a key utility
problem. In addition, the solution will help the customer cover
all processes from the meter to the backend system.
“This relationship represents a long-term commitment by SAP
and Itron to synchronize our product road maps and deliver a true
end-to-end business process solution,” said Philip Mezey,
senior vice president and COO for Itron domestic operations. “We
will be able to combine our knowledge applications to bring forecasting,
fraud detection and distribution asset analysis to the table. This
is smart thinking and a smart approach to AMI and smart metering
and we couldn’t be more pleased to team with SAP.”
About Itron
Itron is a leading technology provider and critical source of knowledge
to the global energy and water industries. Nearly 3,000 utilities
worldwide rely on Itron’s award-winning technology to provide
the knowledge they require to optimize the delivery and use of energy
and water. Itron creates value for its clients by providing industry-leading
solutions for electricity metering; meter data collection; energy
information management; demand response; load forecasting, analysis
and consulting services; distribution system design and optimization;
web-based workforce automation; and enterprise and residential energy
management. To know more, start here: www.itron.com.
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