Fujitsu® Interstage® Business Process Manager™ To Support EPCOR In Meeting New Regulatory Reporting And Accountability Requirements
Canadian Utility Company Engages Fujitsu's Best-Of-Breed Business Process Management Suite For Complete Process Life Cycle Solution
Sunnyvale, CA, Feburary 7, 2006- Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced that EPCOR Distribution Inc. (EPCOR), a wholly owned subsidiary of EPCOR Utilities Inc., has chosen Fujitsu's Interstage® Business Process Manager™ to help automate its customer billing process while leveraging the business process models created as documentation to aid with compliance. This solution will be an important business tool that EPCOR will use to comply with existing and evolving electricity regulations. Interstage Business Process Manager, Fujitsu's industry-leading Business Process Management (BPM) solution, offers Full Business Process Life Cycle support thereby providing companies with complete control over their business processes.
In recent years, there have been a number of regulatory changes impacting EPCOR. Many of these changes resulted in increased levels of reporting and accountability. EPCOR needed to modify its existing inflexible in-house legacy application infrastructure in order to comply with these new requirements. EPCOR provides and maintains all power lines and meters for the 300,000 customer sites in the City of Edmonton, and delivers regulated load settlement and tariff billing services to the more than 30 retailers active in the city.
"With the responsibility for delivering power to over 300,000 customers, we needed a solution that could not only respond to the new regulatory requirements, but also meet the company's high standards for accuracy," said Ian MacNeill, EPCOR Regulated Default Supply Project Manager. "After reviewing several BPM vendor offerings, we chose Fujitsu's flexible solution that came packaged with all the functionality we needed, was licensed the way we wanted and met all of our business requirements."
Currently, EPCOR is addressing mandates such as the Tariff Bill Code, which requires that the owner of an electricity distribution system provide tariff billing information to retailers in a standardized format. EPCOR is also taking a proactive approach to addressing the Canadian version of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Companies will need to certify the design and effectiveness of their internal controls. According to David Gootzit of Gartner, "Compliance is increasing the focus of organizations on the demands of financial and business regulations, which are increasing the importance of software tools that enable the control of processes and data."
Interstage Business Process Manager, Fujitsu's best-of-breed business process management suite, helps businesses build complete process life cycle solutions. BPM capabilities include modeling, automation, integration, management, and process optimization. By offering end-to-end process management capabilities, business users now have complete visibility into their business operations and can quickly respond to changes in their environments.
"We understand EPCOR's commitment to operational excellence and are happy to have been selected as their BPM provider of choice," said Robert Sepanloo, senior vice president of Interstage at Fujitsu Software Corporation. "We also understand that a BPM solution is a key component to meeting compliance requirements and we are confident that our offering will improve EPCOR's ability to react to the changing business environment and ensure continuous business process improvement."
EPCOR will be speaking at IDS Scheer Process World on Feb. 14, 2006 in Miami, Florida, in a session titled, "How BPM has Ensured that an Electricity Company is Unphased by Changing Regulations." The session will focus on the challenges EPCOR faced prior to choosing a BPM solution and the benefits they now see as a result of the implementation. EPCOR will also be participating in a roundtable discussion to talk about the vital role of Business Process Management initiatives.
About Fujitsu Software Corporation
Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is part of the Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) family. The wholly owned subsidiary delivers one of the world's broadest lines of application infrastructure software products, including the Interstage® Suite and NetCOBOL®. Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages Fujitsu's international scope and expertise in developing and providing information technology solutions, including more than 4,000 software developers worldwide. To learn more about the Interstage Suite, visit www.fujitsu.com/interstage.
About EPCOR Utilities Inc.
EPCOR Utilities Inc. is one of Canada's top providers of energy and energy-related services and products, providing power and water solutions to customers in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Drawing on over 100 years of experience, EPCOR builds, owns and operates power plants, electrical transmission and distribution networks, water and wastewater treatment facilities, and infrastructure. EPCOR has been named one of Canada's Top 100 employers for six consecutive years, and was the 2004 Overall Winner of the Conference Board of Canada/Spencer Stuart National Award in Governance. EPCOR is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. To learn more about EPCOR, visit www.epcor.ca.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting device technologies, highly reliable computing and communications products, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers' success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 5.1 trillion yen (US$43.2 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. See http://www.fujitsu.com for further information.
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