June 22, 2009 – In a recently published report, market research firm UtiliPoint ranked SAP as number one for the fourth year in a row as the leading vendor of customer information systems (CIS) for the utilities industry. The ranking was determined by North American sales data in the CIS market for the year 2008. With 33 CIS wins in North America in 2008, SAP outpaced its nearest rival by closing more than twice as many deals.

The report emphasized the overarching trend that utility companies look for easy integration with other systems when purchasing new CIS software. Equally important is the ability to handle dynamic pricing plans, as well as the ability to support bills either pre-paid or paid more frequently than monthly, and the support for remote connect and disconnect functionality. SAP was ranked number one, with 4.5 out of five stars in the category "Investor-Owned Utilities," and number one in the category "Municipal and Co-operative Utilities" with five stars. Customer wins and go-lives in 2008 for the CIS solution from SAP include, among others, Consumers Energy, in the U.S.; City of Dallas, in the U.S.; Electricité de France, in France; City of Zurich, in Switzerland; First Energy, in the U.S.; RWE Poland, in Poland; and Southern California Edison, in the U.S. These companies serve from 300,000 to 25 million customers.

For more information, visit the UtiliPoint Web site.