Since Oracle's strategic acquisitions of SPL WorldGroup in November 2006 and LODESTAR in April 2007, Oracle has extended its ability to meet utility customer needs, providing the industry's only end-to-end set of business-software products. Organizations that have selected and/or implemented Oracle Utilities applications in 2007 include Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, Aurora Energy, City of Las Vegas, ESB Networks, Hawaiian Electric Company, Las Vegas Valley Water and Southwest Water Company

"Utilities are demanding greater value from their technology providers as they seek to improve service, efficiency and conservation, and adapt to a rapidly changing industry," said Quentin Grady, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities. "Oracle is uniquely positioned to provide a rich, integrated set of world-class applications and infrastructure software that offer valuable business insight and empower utilities to respond to the industry's unique business drivers. The fact that more than 65 customers selected or went live on Oracle Utilities applications in just the past year indicates the belief in our end-to-end vision."

Customers and Partners Validate Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management Offering
Oracle has partnered with leading advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) vendors including Cellnet+Hunt and Elster Integrated Solutions to deliver advanced, end-to-end metering solutions to the utilities industry. By working with these strategic partners, Oracle can help utilities customers detect outages and issue work orders more quickly, verify service restoration through remote meter readings and prevent needless dispatch of repair crews and equipment.

With the proliferation of smart meters and demand-response programs, utilities have access to data that allows them to detect outages more quickly, drive energy-efficiency initiatives and provide more accurate billing information to customers. Oracle has incorporated into its Oracle Utilities suite the former LODESTAR's enterprise-class meter data management application suite, which allows utilities to enable effective demand response by more effectively managing and analyzing high volumes of meter data, while reducing the data delivery time to users. Customers, including Ameren, Constellation NewEnergy and Duke Energy, use Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management to support the loading, validation, editing and estimation (VEE) of meter data. The application suite is designed for the highest levels of automation and scalability to meet utilities' current and future needs.

"In order to meet the requirements of current and future demand response programs within our Energy Delivery Suite of Applications, we have integrated Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management application to provide a flexible, scalable solution that allows us to translate high data volume into actionable information," said Joe Solari, IT development manager, Ameren.

End-to-End Suite Meets Utilities' Mission-Critical Needs
The Oracle Utilities suite also provides industry-leading applications for customer care and billing, mobile workforce management, outage and distribution, and work and asset management, pioneered by the former SPL WorldGroup. With Oracle's standards-based applications, utilities have the flexibility to choose to implement one application, several integrated applications or the full suite, depending on their unique needs. Customers such as Southwest Water Company (SWWC), a water provider to more than two million customers across the United States, see the value of the integrated Oracle Utilities suite. SWWC became an Oracle customer in 2007.

"Southwest Water has grown through many acquisitions and, as a result, we have acquired a number of outdated and disparate IT systems. We are entering a period of reinvention and unification to improve our operational efficiency and provide superior customer service," said Mark Swatek, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, Southwest Water Company. "We selected the Oracle suite to gain a single platform to streamline our business processes, improve customer service, maximize workforce efficiency and optimize our asset management strategies."

Additionally, with its common technology platform and industry-standards based applications, Oracle helps utilities establish a cohesive application integration infrastructure to improve visibility into business data, accelerate decision-making, reduce IT costs and improve service to customers. Oracle's Application Integration Architecture - an open, standards-based platform based on Oracle Fusion Middleware - helps utilities streamline business-process management by delivering pre-built integrations across Oracle ERP, Oracle's Siebel CRM and Oracle Utilities applications.

"With unprecedented demands being made upon them by global warming concerns - which are forcing critical limitations on fossil fuels - utilities no longer have the luxury of solving one problem at a time. Their technology must be tightly integrated across their enterprises to enable them to be flexible and quick in adapting to these rapidly evolving conditions," said Warren Causey, vice president, Sierra Energy Group.

Oracle solutions experts will provide live demonstrations of Oracle's end-to-end utilities suite - including Oracle Utilities Network Management System, Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management, Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management, Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management, and Oracle Spatial - at the Oracle booth #1320, at DistribuTECH in Tampa, Fla., January 22-24, 2008.

About Oracle Utilities
Oracle Utilities delivers the proven software applications that help utilities achieve competitive advantage, business performance excellence and a lower total cost of technology ownership. Oracle Utilities integrates industry-specific customer care and billing, network management, work and asset management, mobile workforce management and meter data management applications with the capabilities of Oracle's industry-leading enterprise applications, business intelligence tools, middleware and database technologies. Oracle Utilities enables its customers to adapt more nimbly to market deregulation, meet ever-evolving customer demands, and deliver on commitments to environmental conservation. For more information, visit http://www.oracle.com/industries/utilities.

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

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