SCT and the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District sign $3 million deal for customer management system

MALVERN, Pa., April 9, 2001 — SCT, a provider of e-business solutions, has signed an agreement with one of the nation's largest wastewater and stormwater utilities, Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD), for the SCT Banner® Customer Management System (CMS).

The contract, which could have a total value in excess of $3 million in license, services and maintenance fees, was signed in the company's second fiscal quarter, which ended March 31, 2001. The SCT solution is intended to improve the management of operations, including billing and customer service for the St. Louis area's 1.5 million people.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will now be able to offer enhanced billing services by enabling consumers to access account information online. Using SCT Banner software, MSD will have enhanced access to a wide array of information — including account details and requested services — that can be used to improve, as well as speed up, the care that customer service representatives provide to their customers. It will also give the customer service department improved capabilities to track customer complaints through the resolution process.

"With Banner CMS, we'll be able to deliver efficiencies and customer conveniences on a system-wide scale," said Larry Carpenter, director of information systems at MSD. "We have an extremely high priority on continually improving our delivery of service. We have had a strategic direction for some time now to migrate toward Web-based systems applications. The current billing system is a 20-year old homegrown system on the mainframe computer, and we're very excited to be bringing our customer service reps and our billing staff onto one modern integrated system. It's where they should be able to most quickly and expertly serve our customers."

Carpenter added, "We chose SCT Banner because it was the best fit for our particular needs, our technical specs and existing technology platforms. Its ease of navigation and integration with our other applications was a big selling point as well. And, by streamlining customer service processing, the Banner system has the potential to reduce operating and maintenance costs."

"We are very pleased to be working with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District," said John Gregg, president of SCT's global energy, utilities and communications solutions. "They've demonstrated strong leadership and vision throughout the entire selection process, involving users from all areas of the organization. At SCT, we're totally in synch with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District's key strategy, to continually improve and deliver the best service to the public at the best possible cost. SCT believes strongly in that ethic," Gregg said, "and with that same approach, SCT Banner has long been the leading customer management solution in the market."

The announcement reinforces SCT's dominant market lead in terms of total aggregation and fulfillment systems with more than 220 client companies using more than 180 SCT systems to support both regulated and deregulated public and private utility companies.

About Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD)

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the larger wastewater and stormwater management districts nationwide with more than 460,000 accounts and servicing more than 1.5 million customers. Established in 1954, MSD collects and treats area wastewater, and is responsible for stormwater management. It was created under a provision of the State Constitution as a public agency and is the only special district in Missouri established under this provision. MSD currently operates 9 treatment facilities and, in 1999, treated an average of 350 million gallons of wastewater per day. Information on MSD and its other services is available on the Internet at www.msd.st-louis.mo.us.

About SCT

SCT is a recognized leader in developing advanced technology solutions designed to meet the global needs of utilities, energy service companies, and communications companies. Sixteen million utility services bills are generated monthly with SCT solutions. The company's leading-edge software and services enable its customers to excel and fulfill strategies for their clients moving aggressively into an age of deregulation.

SCT enables clients to achieve breakthrough results by providing and supporting e-business solutions. The company's unique and powerful e-business solutions combine application software and services to deliver benefits quickly. As a global operation, SCT offers specific solutions for four industry markets: energy, utilities and communications; education; process manufacturing and distribution; and courts and state and local government. SCT has more than 3,400 employees and serves more than 2,800 clients worldwide. The company is headquartered in Malvern, Pa. For more information, visit www.sctcorp.com.

SOURCE: SCT