BURLINGTON, Mass. – StreamServe, Inc., a leading provider of business communication solutions, announced today that it was the only technology vendor to be honored with an "SAP Collaboration Fuels Innovation Award" at the SAP for Utilities 2009 North American conference in Washington, DC (September 16-18). This award from SAP honors the utility customers that have demonstrated the most innovative implementations of SAP solutions, and the technology vendors that have demonstrated the best innovation and collaboration with SAP solutions and strategies.
 
The utilities industry is facing major changes. New market requirements and regulations mandate that utilities invest in technologies, such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which enable consumers to measure and monitor their energy usage. This requirement challenges energy companies to re-think how they interact with customers through programs known as "demand-side management," which enables the customer to have greater control over their energy usage. For those investing in technologies such as solar power, demand-side management may even allow them to become net suppliers of energy to their utility.
 
At the conference, StreamServe and SAP presented business communication solutions that speed implementation of demand-side management programs. These integrated solutions provide utilities with the dynamic composition, document process automation, enterprise output management, and electronic billing capabilities that help them support new AMI and demand-side management initiatives. A packaged dashboard, which SAP developed in cooperation with StreamServe, was also shown to demonstrate how these integrated solutions address the growing demand in the utilities sector for lowering operational costs, and advancing energy efficiency and sustainability. The dashboard displays cost-to-serve modeling and related carbon emissions impact.
 
"This award recognizes the strong relationship between SAP and StreamServe in the utilities industry with regards to co-development efforts, industry roadmap alignment, and support for customer projects in the field," said Stefan Engelhardt, head of Utilities Industry Business Unit at SAP AG. "StreamServe's business communication software integrates with SAP's infrastructure to provide utilities with low-risk, flexible solutions that reduce the costs to serve customers and improve billing and communication processes today, while also providing the agility to deal with the changes of tomorrow. Our collaboration over the last 10 years is a prime example of the strength of SAP's ecosystem, through which customers are clearly benefiting."
 
"The long-standing, solid partnership between StreamServe and SAP has benefited many of the leading utilities in the world, including some of the utilities that were also recognized by SAP at the conference for their innovative deployments of SAP solutions," added Dennis Ladd, StreamServe president and CEO. "Whether utilities are interested in improved reliability and efficiency of their billing processes today or in establishing highly flexible and proactive customer communication solutions to support AMI and demand-side management in the future, StreamServe mirrors SAP's commitment in offering utilities the most innovative solutions available for dynamic billing and customer communications. Utilities have a lot on their plate, and by providing integrated, tested and supported end-to-end solutions in support of SAP solutions, we help make the journey towards the smart utility a lot easier. We are thrilled by receiving this award and look forward to our collaboration with SAP in the years to come."
 
StreamServe Utilities, an SAP-endorsed business solution, offers utilities an easy way to improve their customer and business communications through the delivery of highly-personalized bills and correspondence in either paper or electronic format. As such, StreamServe Utilities integrates customer communications capabilities within the framework of the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. Solutions endorsed by SAP are complementary to SAP software offerings, are developed in accordance with SAP development guidelines, and provide additional capabilities and flexibility for businesses running SAP solutions. For further information on StreamServe Utilities, please visit: www.streamserve.com/industries/utilities/.