Grant Count PUD Realizes Benefits from SoftSmiths Power System

Integrated system increases efficiency and improves business results 

Houston, TX. – February 16, 2005  – SoftSmiths, Inc. today announced that Grant County Public Utility District is experiencing increased efficiency, significant flexibility, optimal information consistency, and real-time visibility through their use of SoftSmiths Power suite

A longtime customer of SoftSmiths, Grant County PUD completed an ambitious project of implementing a new Energy Scheduling and Transaction System, while also replacing its EMS/SCADA system. With both systems integrated, the District accomplished a seamlessly integrated energy transaction management infrastructure, receiving the benefits of reducing operating costs, increasing productivity, and improving asset utilization.

"With SoftSmiths Power, we have clearly achieved our business objectives of a seamlessly integrated solution from origination through settlement," said Kevin Conway at Grant County PUD. "The new functionality and ease-of-use led to rapid adoption by the business users, whose acceptance became even stronger after seeing the powerful features that come with an integrated system. This also eased the obvious changes in their work processes as in return the automation provided productivity gains. In addition the robustness of the system gives us the ability to evolve our processes to better support the needs of our business."

SoftSmiths deployed a complete solution at Grant County PUD including SoftSmiths Power, SoftSmiths Electronic Tagging, SoftSmiths e-Link and SoftSmiths Market Portal.

"Integrated systems enable energy companies to improve their business processes, deliver information to decision-makers on a timely basis, and thereby save cost and maximize productivity," said Gary Vasey, Ph.D. Vice President Trading & Risk Management UtiliPoint International. "To realize these benefits, organizations should seek solutions based on a modern architecture providing the built-in connectivity, scalability, and real-time data movement required by the industry to establish a fully integrated transaction infrastructure."

"Grant County PUD is a showcase for validating our vision of an integrated, real-time enterprise-wide solution," said Hugo Stappers, Director of Sales and Marketing at SoftSmiths. "Softsmiths Energy Transaction Integration Manager enables companies to achieve operational excellence, establishing a fully integrated transaction platform by seamlessly connecting the energy transaction chain across all business units, including financial systems, risk management, and plant operational systems, as well as external entities such as RTO/ISOs, exchanges and trading hubs.”

For more information on how Grant County successfully streamlined its energy transaction business with SoftSmiths integrated product suite click here: Grant County Success Story

About Grant County PUD

Grant County Public Utility District owns and operates the two-dam Priest Rapids Project on the Columbia River in central Washington.  Together, Priest Rapids and Wanapum developments have the capacity to produce nearly 2,000 megawatts of electricity -- enough to supply a city the size of Seattle.  Environmental stewardship and providing affordable energy to millions of customers throughout the Northwest are top priorities for Grant PUD. The utility has successfully launched the Zipp Network, a world leader in bringing high-speed fiber optic access to homes, schools, businesses and farms in this rural part of Washington. http://www.gcpud.org/

About SoftSmiths

SoftSmiths is a leading provider of proven business critical Transaction Management Systems and services for Load Serving Entities, Generation Production Entities, Purchasing Selling Entities, and Transmission Providers who operate in physical markets to sell, purchase, trade, and deliver energy in the most efficient and cost- effective way. SoftSmiths’ seamlessly integrated, scalable, and adaptable solutions provide ready-to-deploy, out-of-the-box functionality that is highly configurable and customizable to meet companies' unique needs. SoftSmiths' proven solutions and in-depth knowledge of the industry's business practices allow its customers to automate manual processes, eliminate redundancies, and increase business visibility across the enterprise to allow faster decision making and more informed decisions, thereby improving profitability, operational efficiencies and cash flow. The company has been successfully delivering e-business solutions to energy service companies since 1997.

SoftSmiths is a registered trademark of SoftSmiths, Inc.

Contact Information:

Softsmiths Inc.
Hugo Stappers
Phone:    713.626.9184
Fax:          713.626.0186
Email:      mkt@softsmiths.com
Website:  www.softsmiths.com

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