Kyle Kuntz, CEO, Sam Houston Electric Coop.

Livingston, TX, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 14, 2008 – Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, a member-owned electricity provider, is implementing the Oracle® Utilities application suite – including Oracle Utilities Network Management System, Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management, Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management – to help improve operational efficiency and control costs for its members.

Sam Houston Electric Cooperative ranks as one of the largest of the 66 electric cooperatives in Texas, maintaining over 6,000 miles of line and serving more than 51,000 members. Because it is a not-for-profit organization, the Cooperative maintains a very lean workforce and relies on technology to help keep its costs low. In addition, its rural service area requires Sam Houston Electric Cooperative’s field service representatives to travel more than two million miles on the road each year. The utility needed an integrated application suite that would help it to realize new efficiencies, lower costs, manage its workforce more effectively and provide excellent customer service.

Sam Houston Electric Cooperative has already implemented an integrated Oracle Utilities Network Management System and Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management solution in Phase 1 of the Oracle Utilities product suite deployment. With Oracle Utilities Network Management System, the Cooperative has reduced the duration of outages and improved customer satisfaction by providing customers with up-to-date and accurate information regarding outages and restoration times. The Oracle Utilities Network Management System accepts trouble-call input to identify probable outage locations and then the system automatically notifies Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management so the Cooperative can immediately dispatch crews to restore service.

In addition the Cooperative is implementing Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to improve visibility into customer data, allowing its customer service representatives to improve service and reduce issue-resolution times. The integrated Oracle system is expected to greatly reduce the flow of paperwork for Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, which will also use the application to streamline bill printing and distribution.

“Oracle is delivering a suite of applications that will provide the integration capabilities we need to improve efficiency across our organization and keep costs low for our members,” said Kyle J. Kuntz, P.E., chief executive officer, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative. “The Oracle Utilities application suite’s ease of use, as well as Oracle’s proven successes with similar utilities organizations, were key factors in our selection process. Oracle will enable us to continue operating with a lean staff, while at the same time providing the excellent service our members expect and deserve.”