DISTRIBUTECH 2009, SAN DIEGO, CA. February 3, 2009 - Oracle announced the availability of Oracle® Utilities Quotations Management 1.5 – a highly configurable application used to calculate, analyze and manage price quotes and offers for current and prospective customers in retail or wholesale utilities or service markets. Oracle Utilities Quotations Management enables utilities to price different products with varying complexity levels. The new version allows utilities to more effectively streamline business processes, establish accurate pricing, reduce risk and increase profitability.

Availability and New Enhancement Details
Oracle Utilities Quotations Management 1.5’s work queue integration enhancement allows utilities to view and manage business process errors from a central tab when configuring, pricing and managing a quotation. For example, when a utility has neglected to assign a distribution rate to a specific service point (i.e. metering point or account), the system now alerts the utility to this error and allows users to view all data associated with the account on one screen, eliminating the need to click through multiple tabs and subsequently improving employee efficiency and issue resolution.

The new version also features enhanced flexibility to allow utilities to customize workflows. Previously, utilities were constrained to following pre-packaged workflows built into the application. Now, they can re-route workflows or add new steps to the contract development process – matching their own unique business processes for improved productivity.

The new version of Oracle Utilities Quotations Management also includes an enhancement enabling the pricing of service points (i.e. metering points), in addition to the pricing of accounts. With this functionality, utilities can accelerate the quote set-up process by avoiding the need to establish an account for a prospect that might not actually become a customer – saving significant time.

Finally, the new version allows utilities to group quote items (service points and accounts) and assign unique price points to each group while still maintaining one centralized contract. This eliminates the cumbersome task of configuring terms for each quote item and developing multiple contracts.

“Managing complex price quotes and offers for current or prospective customers is a complicated process for utilities, whether in retail or wholesale utilities or service markets. The new release of Oracle Utilities Quotations Management provides improved usability and flexibility that will help users accelerate pricing for a wide range of products with varying degrees of complexity,” said Quentin Grady, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities.

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 www.oracle.com/industries/utilities.

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