Gartner Group Proves That Peace's Energy Software Application Can Scale to Accommodate Over 1 Million Utility Consumers.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 1998--

Peace's Energy Product for Utility Industries Leads Market in Features, Capabilities for Web-Based Customer Information Services in Deregulated Environments

Peace Software International, a leading provider of Web-based customer information management and billing systems for the gas, electric and water industries, today announced that Gartner Group has released a report proving that the Peace Energy(TM) system is scalable to over 1 million consumers.

Peace's Energy software application helps utility companies manage their businesses and allows them to pass a host of informative and cost-saving services on to their customers.

According to the Gartner Report, Peace's Energy application can scale to over 1 million utility consumers while maintaining highly acceptable processing rates on mid-range open systems hardware. The report confirms that Energy can perform with an average overnight processing time of less than eight hours for overnight processing with 1 million consumers on a Silicon Graphics Origin 2000 system with 32 processors. OLTP response times were measured for 800 concurrent users with no impact to system performance.

"These impressive test results demonstrate the robust performance of the Peace Energy solution for even the largest-scale utility customers," said Gary Scott, director of consulting, Gartner Group. "The results validate that the Peace solution can serve consumer populations of 1 million, and also show that scalability of more than 1 million consumers is possible."

"We're moving aggressively to fulfill the demand for Internet-ready customer information systems in the North American utility market, and the Gartner Group study is a validation of our efforts," said Brian Peace, CEO and founder, Peace Computers. "The Energy product line was designed to meet the needs of utility companies competing for the first time in the deregulated energy market. The Internet revolution has opened up new methods of doing business, and we've identified a need for a software package designed to enable utilities to respond to and interact with their customers in a more customized and personal way." The Energy Solution: Giving Customers Direct Access to Utility Information and Saving Utility Company Operational Costs

Energy is a comprehensive customer management and billing system designed and customized for utility clients. Energy includes all functions needed to deliver total customer care: billing, meter management, order tracking, credit control and payment processing. Energy provides flexibility through its use of Web technology, customer-centered information, and easy-to-change parameters.

With a low total cost of ownership in combination with the latest technologies, a full feature set, and flexible design, Energy is the optimal solution for deregulated utilities. The interactive Web-based service also significantly off-loads the customer support functions, saving substantial operational costs.

"The average cost of processing an account at the counter is $1. The same transaction, if conducted over the Internet, can cost as little as seven cents," said Ian Gibson, senior manager of utilities industry practice, Andersen Consulting Australia.

For consumers, Peace's Energy product offers direct Web access to utility accounts to check invoices, account balances, power usage, make inquiries, and even notify support if needed. Commercial customers can use Energy to review power usage history to quickly identify patterns and review options for lowering peak loads and smoothing out power usage.

Peace Software International develops and implements the Energy Customer Information System for gas, electric, and water utilities. Peace's systems are Web browser-based solutions that operate on open hardware and relational databases. Peace's experience around the world in deregulated markets uniquely enables the company to provide competitive advantage to customers. Additional information about Peace is available at www.peace.com.