FOSTER CITY, Calif.--June 20, 2005-- EFI today announced that Alagasco, an Energen company, has implemented EFI's Mobile Workforce Automation (MWA) solution to optimize field service operations and to better serve customers supported through its Birmingham, Ala. office. In addition to automating a host of field service processes, EFI MWA enables Alagasco to manage its mobile workforce remotely and establish real-time, uninterrupted communications among employees and systems. Driven by Alagasco's commitment to deliver the highest levels of customer service, EFI MWA equips field service technicians with the knowledge and situational awareness to increase the effectiveness of first-time call resolution. By automating previously manual procedures, EFI MWA has streamlined Alagasco customer-facing activities, including in-taking customer service calls, generating work orders, dispatching, scheduling, inventory status and parts ordering, closing work orders, and more. Alagasco reported that the deployment of MWA has resulted in improved employee efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, and reduced operational costs. "Thanks to EFI, we can more efficiently manage our field personnel and adjust service activities to meet our customers' needs around the clock," said Joe Wheeler, vice president, Alagasco Birmingham Operations. "We've improved communication between service dispatchers and mechanics, saved time by routing information electronically to our field mechanics, and reduced service costs. We look forward to working with EFI to expand MWA automation to our statewide field service and customer operations later this year." "Alagasco's commitment to optimizing operational efficiency and driving continual improvements in customer satisfaction has made this relationship a perfect fit," said Mike Stramaglia, general manager, EFI Service Automation Group. "Workforce optimization allows cutting-edge companies like Alagasco to increase the effectiveness of customer service while driving down costs -- a significant advantage in this age of limited capital expenditures and increasing government regulations. Key to our success has been our ability to seamlessly integrate with systems, processes, and Alagasco's most valued resource -- its human capital." EFI Mobile Workforce Automation is a turnkey, scalable software solution that can be easily customized and integrated into the management of field service organizations of virtually any size. Its powerful management module, mobile wireless applications, and feature-rich mapping functionalities combine to provide critical company data to the appropriate employees where they need it, when they need it. EFI MWA has allowed Alagasco to re-engineer field service activity to reduce costly and time-consuming manual processes, and to eliminate the use of paper forms and carbon copies. Fully integrated with the Alagasco CATS CIS system, EFI MWA now: Manages work orders and customer service requests automatically. Maps and routes field mechanics instantaneously. Enables real-time communication between service dispatchers, administrative personnel and field workers. Provides flexible resource allocation for reassignments, cancellations and workload monitoring.