MITEM Powers Web Self-Service Solution for Baltimore Gas & Electric
New Web Application Provides State Agency with Access to Power Company’s Legacy-Based System, Expediting Grant Commitment Process for Low-Income Residents
MENLO PARK, CA and BALTIMORE
MD– September 16th, 2004 – MITEM Corporation,
the leading provider of integration software and operational
CRM solutions to public utilities, today announced that
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), a subsidiary of
Constellation Energy Group (NYSE:CEG), has designed
and deployed a web-based self-service application using
MITEM’s flagship legacy integration platform,
MitemView. MITEM’s solution extends BGE’s
mainframe-based Customer Information System (CIS) to
the web. The new application went live on July 1 st,
2004.
BGE’s
new self-service web application was specifically designed
for agency workers administering programs for the Office
of Home Energy Programs (OHEP). This web application
provides agency workers with direct access to a client’s
account information and the ability to commit funds.
OHEP helps low-income Maryland citizens pay their heating
bills, minimize heating crises, and make energy costs
more affordable. The new self-service application will
be used by approximately 170 agency workers. This deployment
will be used as a study for providing other self-service
applications for BGE customers.
“Prior to the new application, agency workers called our Customer Call Center via an Interactive Voice Response System to access client information, said Jan Zeller, BGE senior business analyst. “This new application enables OHEP representatives to get information via a secure web application without assistance from our call center representatives, who are then free to assist other customers.”
BGE undertook a very aggressive schedule for developing the new web application, which had to be deployed to coincide with the beginning of OHEP’s new program year on July 1 st, 2004. The project began in early March of 2004 with basic analysis and design and went live on schedule.
“The implementation schedule was very aggressive, especially given the number of vendors we chose for the technical infrastructure,” said Tony Roche, application development consultant for BGE. “We brought together a combination of site monitoring, firewall and hardware load-balancing technologies to create a scalable and robust internet solution. Because the customer-facing web site communicates to the back-end systems via both MitemView and WebSphere MQSeries interfaces, we were challenged with managing the overall quality of service across multiple runtime servers and connections.”
Gale Aguilar,
president of MITEM said, “By using MitemView to
web-enable legacy systems our customers have found they
can enjoy the best of both worlds - the freedom to create
composite, web-based applications that re-use existing
business functions while maintaining bi-directional,
real-time integration with those systems. Such applications
are cost-effective and compelling solutions for our
high-volume call center customers in public utilities,
financial services and retail.”
Roche added,
“Since we already had MitemView running our operational
CRM solution (called GUIdance) in our call center, we
already had the internal knowledge and expertise to
use it for this application. Additionally, we did not
want to have to build and maintain new specialized applications
for functions that we already had in CIS. MitemView
enabled us to use our existing business rules and logic;
for this reason we did not have to reproduce and maintain
them in more than one place. That was very important
because we were able to avoid the significant administrative
overhead associated with the duplication of all those
applications”.
About Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE)
BGE is a member of Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG), a Fortune 500
integrated energy company based in Baltimore. Constellation Energy is the
nation's leading competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and
industrial customers. It owns and operates a diversified fleet of power plants
throughout the United States. Additionally, Constellation Energy markets energy
nationally and manages the associated risks, providing value-added services
for its customers. The company also delivers electricity and natural gas
through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), its regulated utility in
Central Maryland. In 2003, the combined revenues of the integrated energy company totaled $9.7 billion.
About MITEM® Corporation
Established in 1985, MITEM is a provider of legacy integration software, operational CRM and business applications to a wide range of vertical markets that include public utilities, financial services, manufacturing, health care, and government. MITEM’s signature product, MitemView, integrates differently designed systems - via the development of composite applications - to share critical data and automate business processes. MITEM’s global customer base includes: ABN AMRO, GE/ERC, Harley-Davidson, ConEdison, EDF Energy (London Electricity), American Electric Power, Bayer, Swiss Life, Lockheed Martin, CalPERS, United States Postal Service and the US Air Force.
Contact:
MITEM Corporation
Andy Nelson
650.323.1500
pr@mitem.com
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