Country Energy rapidly deployed Peace Software's (Miami, Florida, U.S.) Energy CIS (Customer Information System) to compete in the Australian full retail competition (FRC) electricity market.

All competitive Country Energy customers are now supported on the browser-based Energy suite, including an extensive roster of 6500 commercial and industrial (C&I) customers billed on complex interval metering contracts.

This deployment marks the second milestone in Country Energy's three-phase implementation project to consolidate nearly 750,000 C&I and mass-market customers spanning electricity and gas services in four Australian states on Energy. The unified Energy system, operating on scalable SGI hardware, is supporting both competitive retail and regulated distribution billing of Country Energy customers.

Country Energy, formed in July 2001 by the merger of Advance Energy, Great Southern and NorthPower, had only six months to merge its businesses and prepare for the opening of the Australian FRC market.

The joint Peace Software and PriceWaterhouseCoopers implementation team rapidly installed the new Energy version. The team developed the required XML market interfaces, integrated Energy with Country Energy's advanced FAST field services system, and migrated contestable franchise customers off disparate legacy CIS systems within the tight time frame.

Energy can be rapidly deployed because of its flexible thin-client architecture. Because data is stored on one central server accessible by users through their standard browser, Country Energy did not need to install software on individual workstations. The cost savings achieved from supporting one server versus thousands of individual workstations over a wide area network is dramatic.

Country Energy's customer base is located in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and covers three-quarters of New South Wales. The company's operations encompass more than a hundred offices and service centers throughout the expansive territory. Energy's robust and proven browser-user-interface (BUI) is enabling all offices and centers to share real-time information for improved operations and customer service efficiencies.
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