SEDC Announces Release of Intelligent Software for Resolving High Bill Calls.

SAN DIEGO -- From NRECA's TechAdvantage Conference, SEDC president and CEO Ron Camp today announced a partnership with APOGEE Interactive that adds innovative new capabilities to their already well established UPN billing software. The new APOGEE application, the BillingInsight(TM) Call Center System, allows customer service representatives (CSRs) to run a sophisticated analysis of the customer's energy usage seamlessly without leaving the billing system screen. It automatically pulls the customer's consumption history, integrates billing cycle coincident weather data and a handful of home-specific demographics, allocates energy-use to the home's end-use systems, and presents that information graphically for easy interpretation. Then, with adaptive scripting, it prompts the representative with insightful questions for the customer to quickly clarify and resolve the concern.

"BillingInsight automates the analysis and response to customer usage questions that might otherwise take a CSR several minutes to diagnose," according to APOGEE product manager Eric Watson. "But it goes beyond preparing pretty charts and graphs to what's approaching artificial intelligence: looking for patterns and matching them to likely causes and then presenting suggested scripts for the CSR to use in discussions with the customer," he added. "While the software can reduce call time, the big savings comes when it resolves problems that might otherwise have required an expensive field representative visit," he concludes.

"Our customers look to SEDC for fully integrated billing solutions that incorporate the latest features and functionality. We are working with APOGEE to add just one more valuable new capability that will enable our co-ops to achieve greater efficiency and better serve their members." Ron Camp explains.

"Incorporating this analytical tool directly into the billing system benefits everyone," says APOGEE president, Susan Gilbert. "Customers get quicker, more accurate answers to questions, CSRs achieve shorter call times, and the utility benefits from increased customer satisfaction and reduced costs, it's a classic win-win-win," she says.

The new BillingInsight module is being introduced at the TechAdvantage and will be available for SEDC customers second quarter 2005.

About Southeastern Data Cooperative

SEDC (www.sedata.com) is a leading software development cooperative based in Tucker, Georgia. Billing and accounting software, e-commerce and financial solutions, and printing services are provided to more than 200 electric cooperatives nationwide. SEDC delivers value to its members by developing and supporting solutions that meet their ongoing business demands.

About APOGEE Interactive, Inc.

Apogee Interactive Inc. (www.apogee.net) is a leading provider of online solutions for the energy industry. For more than a decade, the firm has pushed the envelope of what is possible in enabling communication between utilities and their customers. Serving more than 200 utilities nationwide, Apogee's Web-based content and intelligent software tools reach millions of electricity consumers daily. The company also provides eLearning systems, call center programs and load management platforms to utilities and their trade associations throughout North America and New Zealand.