Archive for June, 2010

Flexible solutions for the transforming energy industry

CIBER, one of the world’s thirty largest IT consulting companies, has initiated the collaboration with Junifer Systems on the launch of a new customer information system (CIS) in the Nordic market. The new system has taken the market by storm with a much lower entry-level pricing and greater flexibility than competing solutions.

According to the agreement, CIBER will be responsible for marketing, customization, integration, operation, as well as user training and support for Junifer in the Nordic countries.

“Primarily, we will be focusing on Swedish energy companies,” says Johan Barwén, Regional Manager at CIBER, who will be heading the new initiative.

“We have significant experience from systems integration and major project implementation. Some of our consultants have been actively working with electricity industry deregulation since 1996 and many others have over twenty years of industry experience. In addition, we add a proven project methodology that leads to minimized project risks”.

“We are excited about our partnership with CIBER. Their skills, experience and understanding of the local electricity market is unparalleled,” says Paul FitzGerald, Sales Director at Junifer Systems Ltd.

UK based Junifer Systems develops industry-specific business systems for electricity and telecommunications, but also for gas, water, waste management, and other utilities.

Unlike the majority of utility companies’ ageing existing applications, Junifer provides unprecedented opportunities to address the rapidly changing needs of an industry characterized by restructuring, increased competition, deregulation, and increasingly stringent regulatory compliance requirements.

“The system is scalable to fit both small and larger businesses. In addition, it is developed using Microsoft .Net, which means cost efficiency, short development times and sustainability,” says Johan Barwén.

For the utility (gas, water, electricty and waste) operator, the Junifer CIS & Billing products enable them to process the significant increase in data volumes (compared with the traditional utility billing estimate model) and also provides the business with a flexible, scalable and cost effective solution on which the business can build it’s unique offering.

For more information, please contact:

Johan Barwén, Business Unit Manager CIBER AB
+46 708-44 10 72
johan.barwen@ciber.com

Paul FitzGerald, Sales Director Junifer Systems Ltd
+353 87 9926723
paul.fitzgerald@junifersystems.com

About Ciber
IT consultancy CIBER Sweden AB, with approximately 150 employees are part of the global oraganisation Ciber Inc., with approximately 8500 employees and 1.2 billion dollars in turnover. Swedish customers are major banks, insurance companies and several telecommunication companies. CIBER also have assignments in the energy industry, government, logistics, trade and manufacturing industries.

CIBER provides specialist competencies in a number of areas, from business strategists to developers and testers / test leader. This means that CIBER can help their clients from strategy, via realization to maintenance.
Headquartered in Stockholm, with regional offices in Malmö and Sundsvall. See www.ciber.se

About Junifer
The Junifer Systems team has utilised it’s strong background in the complex, large transaction volume Telecomms billing sector to provide highly efficient, flexible and cost effective back-office solutions for the utilities market. The Junifer Product suite provides a complete end to end CIS and billing system designed specifically to support the unique challenges encountered both by the legacy utility systems and what Junifer believes will be tomorrow’s “Smart Meter” billing requirements for utilities. For more information on Junifer Systems, please visit www.junifersystems.com
Headquartered in London, UK.

Gothenburg, Sweden – June 14, 2010: According to a new research
report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of
smart electricity meters in Asia-Pacific will grow at a compound
annual growth rate of 91.0 percent between 2009 and 2015 to reach
116.5 million at the end of the period. Penetration for smart
metering technology is projected to soar from very low levels to 25.0
percent by the end of the period. By the mid-2010s, the majority of
all electricity meters shipped in the region is expected to have
advanced functionalities and networking capabilities. Berg Insight
anticipates that the leading economies in the region will have close
to 100 percent penetration by 2020.

“Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market for smart metering
solutions in the world”, said Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst, Berg
Insight. “South Korea has begun the construction of a nationwide
smart grid where intelligent energy meters constitute the basic
building-block. Japan’s two largest power utilities have announced
plans for full-scale smart meter deployments in this decade and China
is preparing a nationwide rollout within three to five years.”
Altogether the three countries have an installed base of more than
360 million electricity meters today, with an annual growth rate of
3–5 percent.

Australia and New Zealand commenced with massive installations of
smart meters at the end of the last decade. Victoria will become the
first Australian state to achieve full penetration by 2013. Mandatory
rollouts are also being considered in other territories such as New
South Wales. In New Zealand, the adoption of smart metering is driven
by the energy industry. While many other countries have introduced
regulations for the new technology, New Zealand’s government has
decided not to interfere with the process.

Read more at www.berginsight.com/