PLANO, Texas, June 17, 2003 -- Executives with Plano, Texas-based Datamatic Ltd., today announced a partnership with Groeniger & Company to distribute Datamatic products, including the FIREFLY® Automatic Meter Reading System.
Long known in the waterworks industry, Groeniger & Company has been in business for over 50 years. Datamatic is a leading supplier of enterprise meter reading solutions that has served utilities worldwide since 1977.
Groeniger & Company President, Mike Groeniger said, "We took notice of Datamatic after several FIREFLY AMR successes in our region over the last two years. We had been handling a competing AMR technology and were losing opportunities to service our customers. Then our customers started asking us about FIREFLY. We knew Datamatic had been a player in the industry for a long time and the more we learned about them, and about the FIREFLY in particular, the more confident we became that this was the right time for a partnership. So we started talking. It made more sense for us to work together than to compete and it gives Groeniger & Company a more complete package of products for our customers."
Groeniger & Company is the largest distributor of waterworks equipment in California with 12 regional offices throughout the state. The company will also represent Datamatic in its Southern Oregon, Nevada and Hawaii territories.
According to Datamatic VP of Sales and Marketing, Scott Durham, "Working with Groeniger & Company offers Datamatic several key advantages. The company is a top-level distributor that has earned a solid reputation for attentive service, integrity and unmatched local support for the product lines they offer. In addition, Datamatic can leverage Groeniger & Company's presence and standing in the industry to capture opportunities in California that we previously did not have the resources to reach. This relationship will unlock tremendous opportunities for both companies."
The growing demand for FIREFLY's Meter Independent interfacing strategy and ProfilePLUS™ Usage Profiling capability were key to Groeniger & Company. Meter Independence means that FIREFLY is compatible with virtually any existing meter, allowing utilities, even those with highly mixed meter populations, to install AMR without meter change out. Meter Independence can save a utility literally millions over the course of an AMR project.
ProfilePLUS Usage Profiling is an integrated feature in each FIREFLY Meter Interface Unit. ProfilePLUS records and stores hourly usage data for more than 74 days; this data can then be retrieved and analyzed at a later date.
"New applications for this information are emerging every day," noted Durham. "Among the most useful are settling customer usage disputes, quicker leak identification, monitoring/enforcement of conservation measures and meter right sizing. ProfilePLUS takes FIREFLY far beyond the value of competing AMR solutions that merely provide a meter reading."
About Groeniger & Company
Groeniger & Company has served the Water Works, Wastewater, Fire Protection and Irrigation Pipeline needs in Northern, Central and Southern California for over 50 Years and three generations. The company has been a member of AWWA since 1959, and is a member of the Engineering & Utility Contractors Association, as well as the Water and Sewer Distributors of America. Additional information about Groeniger & Company is available at www.groeniger.com.
About Datamatic, Ltd.
Datamatic is a specialist in utility meter reading automation. The company's innovative ideas created an industry when it installed the first electronic meter reading system in 1980. For nearly a quarter of a century, Datamatic has been at the forefront in the design, implementation and support of advanced utility meter reading and field data collection solutions for water, gas and electric utilities.
Additional information about Datamatic is available at www.datamatic.com.
