Albuquerque, NM and Boston, MA—November 17, 2005—UtiliPoint^® International and IMERGE Consulting announced today that they will work together with energy companies, public utilities, service providers, and regulators to enable best practices designed to cut costs and leverage the value of mission-critical print and mail operations.

The two world-class consulting firms will benchmark corporate best practices to offer print and mail service providers—as well as utility companies— professional services that can streamline work processes, reduce expenses, and improve their invoicing, print and mail operations.

“With the price of fuel on the increase and operations capital becoming increasingly scarce, utilities and outsourcing vendors must find new efficiencies in customer billing, print and mail operations that cut costs and create a net gain in productivity,” explained UtiliPoint's Director of Utility and Energy Technology, Ethan L. Cohen.

“That's where the new partnership with our research and business process analysis partner, IMERGE Consulting, comes in,” Cohen said. “By teaming with IMERGE, UtiliPoint will maintain its commitment to excellence by offering our clients in the energy industry new insights that add value to their businesses. We show them how to adopt best practices through a variety of solutions that can improve the bottom line over the short term.”

“Utilities can achieve tremendous savings by streamlining their document production processes, reducing head count by automating their print and mail operations, and leveraging electronic distribution channels,” said Pierre Heymann, an IMERGE principal who has played a key role in automating some of the largest print and mail operations in America. Mr. Heymann's print and mail expertise covers software and hardware products, papers and supplies, policies, procedures, and best practices.

UtiliPoint studies are the result of primary research performed by dedicated UtiliPoint employees that are experts in the utility and energy industries. Three times a week, UtiliPoint publishes IssueAlert which features a free analysis of the day's critical issues in the utility and energy industry. Along these lines, UtiliPoint now publishes the Trading and Risk Management IssueAlert, and the European IssueAlert, all distributed free to email subscribers.

UtiliPoint and IMERGE are currently signing up clients interested in improving their billing, print and mail processes. For more information, please contact Ethan L. Cohen at 617-960-3584 or ecohen@utilipoint.com.