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Entergy Adopts New Customer-Focused Software SystemCHAPEL HILL, NC, April 15, 1996 - Jackson Associates, a Chapel Hill, NC software development and consulting firm, today announced that Entergy, one of the largest utility holding companies in the country, has licensed MAISY(tm), a new market analysis and customer intelligence software system. The software, which transforms existing utility customer data into a detailed customer intelligence system, including end-use energy profiles for each customer, provides information on residential and commercial customers in Entergy's five operating companies. "The MAISY system provides the kind of immediate access to detailed customer information and analysis that will soon be required in competitive electricity markets," says Jerry Jackson, President of Jackson Associates (JA). Entergy is the first utility to apply MAISY, which has been under development for more than two years. "Our experience in software development and in processing and analyzing customer data for electric utility marketing and forecasting over the last dozen years uniquely positioned us to develop the MAISY system," says Jackson. Entergy has been using JA forecasting software since 1989. Entergy, whose operating companies include Arkansas Power and Light, Louisiana Power and Light, Mississippi Power and Light, New Orleans Public Service and Gulf States Utilities, views MAISY as "a key marketing resource" said George Heintzen, Entergy director of small business marketing. "MAISY gives us the ability to immediately access and evaluate appliance, demographic, economic, end-use energy and other detailed customer information for any instantly-defined segment of our mass accounts with just a few clicks of a mouse." Traditional utility market segmentation restricts marketing analysis to a limited number of fixed market segments. MAISY's on-the-fly segment specification permits utilities to conduct instant analysis for segments defined by the competitive issue at hand. MAISY's unique data visualization, segmentation, chart-based queries and unlimited "drill-down" capabilities are the subject of a software patent filed in August, 1995. Competition Will Make Utilities More Customer-Oriented The electric utility industry is in the early stages of deregulation similar to that now underway in the telecommunications industry. This move towards a competitive electricity market began with the national Energy Policy Act of 1992 which required utilities to pass on or "wheel" power to wholesale customers such as other utilities and municipalities. Most states are now wrestling with plans on how to open the market to competition for all utility customers. Industry observers anticipate that utilities will be competing nationwide for individual customers within the next five years. In this new market each utility customer will be free to purchase its electricity from any provider. Since competition means that companies other than utilities can buy and sell electricity, companies with national experience marketing consumer services are eyeing the new electricity market. Several major companies in the financial services area are now undertaking preliminary market analysis required to operate in the new electricity market. The new power-marketing organizations which have sprung up to serve the new wholesale markets created by the 1992 Energy Act are also planning their entry into the retail electricity market. All of these changes mean that utilities must prepare to compete for each of their customers just as companies in other consumer service industries. Utilities must quickly change from considering their customers as homogeneous accounts in one of several service classes to recognizing the diversity and fragmentation that characterize today's mass markets. Jackson Associates JA was formed in 1981 to provide energy forecasting and marketing software to the electric utility industry. JA proprietary forecasting models, CEDMS and REDMS are widely used by electric utilities and state agencies for forecasting, conservation and marketing analysis. Dr. Jerry Jackson, president of JA, consults with federal government agencies, states and utilities and publishes articles on energy modeling and marketing issues in academic and industry publications. Dr. Jackson, who speaks frequently on these issues, is chairing one of the first national conferences on retail marketing in San Francisco in June, 1996.
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