Utility eBilling Case Study - CPS Energy Texas

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: Created on Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:00

Newsflash #43

8th August 2006

Utility eBilling Case Study - CPS Energy Texas

We are very pleased to share with you yet another North American Utility Industry Case Study. CPS Energy is Striata's 165 biller to go live since 1998.

CPS ENERGY GOES LIVE WITH STRIATA ELECTRONIC BILL PRESENTMENT & PAYMENT

[New York / San Antonio, August 2006] CPS Energy, the largest municipally owned energy utility in the United States, went live this week with Striata Secure eBilling for its business customers.

"We are very pleased to announce this project go-live. CPS Energy is Striata's largest North American Utility customer to date with over 600,000 accounts in San Antonio, Texas." comments Garin Toren, COO of Striata North America.

"CPS Energy business customers have looked forward to an electronic solution for some time now. We very excited to offer secure eBilling as the best solution to meet their complex needs," says Stephanie Ewing, web solutions manager for CPS Energy.

Striata Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment at CPS Energy includes the following features:

Ease of Adoption: There is no website to visit, no registration required and no choosing & remembering 'username & passwords'. The email attachment is decrypted by the recipient entering the last four digits of their social security number or company tax ID. (Known as a 'shared secret'.)
Securely Encrypted PDF 'two-factor' Authentication: The security of the email bill is fundamentally 'two-factor' authentication; the recipient needs to have not only access to the email inbox, but also needs to know the required decryption 'shared secret'. The PDF remains secure at all times, regardless of where it is saved, or who it is forwarded to.
Digital Signature Sender Authentication: Each securely encrypted email is digitally signed to authenticate that the CPS domain that the email originated from is not spoofed, and that the email content & attachment have not been tampered with during delivery.
'2-Click' Convenience: There is just one click to open the eBills and one click to pay them all.
'Easy-Print': A single click from within the PDF prints out exact paper copies of each bill.
Data file: A data file of all bill detail is imbedded into the secure PDF for easy upload into the recipient's accounting package, thereby saving significant data capture time & effort.
Summary page: Each email 'package' has a summary page which lists all of the include accounts with the amount due.
Striata BillPay: The first page of each secure attachment includes the groundbreaking Striata BillPay offering, allowing the recipient to make an instant electronic check payment, directly from within the secure PDF, without the need to click through to even a single webpage. Payment is ultra secure as the payment capturing process is within the secure PDF and not at a publically accessible website.
Line Item Payment Management: The recipient is able to elect to not include any of the presented bills in their electronic payment.
Offline Viewing: All bills are viewable without the need to be connected to the Internet.

"The project is unique in the number of invoices that are consolidated into a single securely encrypted PDF email attachment. At go live today, the average email includes 150 bills", adds Toren.

Since adoption is nothing more than providing the correct email address (the recipient does not have to 'do' anything to receive the eBills), CPS Energy is expecting significant numbers before year end and are actively introducing the offering to their business customer base. We look forward to bringing you the resultant case study early in 2007.

About CPS Energy: CPS Energy is the nation's largest municipally owned energy company providing both natural gas and electric service. Acquired by the City of San Antonio in 1942, CPS Energy serves more than 600,000 electric customers and more than 300,000 natural gas customers in and around San Antonio, the eighth largest city in the United States. For more information, visit www.cpsenergy.com.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for samples / screenshots of the various functionalities outlined above.

Regards,

Garin Toren
Chief Operating Officer

Toll free: +1 88 88 USAPAY

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“In an ever-changing digital landscape, Striata has been a valuable partner providing consultation, advice and ideas in eMarketing that has helped to build and enhance our brand in the email environment. Striata’s knowledge and abilities to adapt to our dynamic requirements, have proved to be invaluable to Makro over the past eight years.”