Excelergy and Microsoft .NET Web Service Technology to Deliver Groundbreaking Value and Support to the Energy Industry

Business Wire, Jan 9, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2002

Performance and open standards at heart of Excelergy

and Microsoft .NET technology platforms pave way for

next generation of Internet-based services

Excelergy(R) Corporation today announced it is working with Microsoft(R) Corporation to combine key elements of the Microsoft .NET application development platform with Excelergy's open, component-based, native XML technology platform to deliver the most advanced Web services available in the energy and utility industry.

"We've been benefiting from Excelergy's Web-based XML services since we implemented their products two years ago, and they've always been on the leading edge in terms of technology innovation, so their leadership in Web services is no surprise," said Allegheny Energy Supply operations manager Lennie Davis. "What does this mean for us? Excelergy's products enable us to very securely and accurately exchange mission-critical information between disparate systems within our organization and with our market partners. Our key processes have become significantly more automated. We couldn't be more pleased."

Web services are collaborative, Internet-based services that make systems, applications and programs more interoperable through common communication standards. Next-generation Web services are unique in their ability to fully automate critical business and operational processes with little or no human intervention. This "straight-through processing" leads to quicker, more efficient, more accurate information delivery and collaborative exchange. Furthermore, the open standards underlying Web services allow companies, partners and users anywhere in the world to access and use critical business applications and information using any technology or system from any Internet-ready device, including personal computers, handheld computers and mobile phones.

"Microsoft is committed to promoting open standards and technologies that everyone can use to develop and deploy Web services. As widespread adoption emerges, we are going to see more of the groundbreaking benefits Web services offer businesses, including dramatically increased productivity," said Peter Boit, vice president of the Microsoft .NET Solutions Group. "With companies like Excelergy utilizing Microsoft .NET technologies, the energy industry will be able to take advantage of the next wave of software services and realize bottom-line benefits that benefit their company and their customers."

Prior to Web services, a company's systems were often collections of different proprietary applications and platforms using different standards that were not well integrated and could not efficiently exchange information. Standards-based Web services promote easy integration of these disparate applications and systems - both within and across a company's firewalls. Business managers, systems administrators and software developers alike can now link applications to automate entire processes from beginning to end.

"By all accounts, Microsoft has become the driving force in promoting these open, common standards to unlock the full power and potential of Web services. We'll capitalize on Microsoft .NET and other innovative technologies to continue to deploy the most advanced Web services in the energy and utility industry," said Bill Mahoney, president and chief executive officer of Excelergy. "The resulting benefits our clients achieve are clear: increased productivity, reduced cost of ownership, superior customer and business partner service, and accelerated revenue growth and cash flow."

Web services are being developed using open, XML-based, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) approved software standards, including SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), WSDL (Web Services Description Language), and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). All of Excelergy's products use XML and XML-based standards, including SOAP and WSDL. Excelergy is now registering its products with the UDDI Project (www.uddi.org), a community of more than 300 business and technology leaders working together to enable companies and applications to quickly, easily, and dynamically find and use Web services. By joining the UDDI Web services registry, Excelergy's clients and their market partners will be able to access and use Excelergy's applications from anywhere in the world, anytime, using any Internet-enabled device.

One example of Excelergy's advancement of Web services is the just-released new version of Excelergy eXACT(R), a software product that automates business processes and collaborative exchange between companies operating in restructuring markets. Excelergy eXACT 5.0 automatically accepts, translates, validates and securely transmits mission-critical business and customer information for vital processes such as forecasting, trading, scheduling, billing and settlement in retail and wholesale energy markets. Future versions of Excelergy eXACT will incorporate Microsoft .NET technologies such as .NET Alerts, which allow users to automatically receive instant notifications and securely access corporate data from any electronic device.