SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 - CN Utility Consulting (CNUC), an established industry leader in Utility Vegetation Management (UVM) consulting, today announced the planned product release of "electronic Vegetation Management Solution" (eVMS) for utility companies. Developed in partnership with Enporion and ViryaNet, eVMS is a first-to-market computerized system that provides utility companies with the necessary tools for effectively administering a UVM program. eVMS is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2005.

Better management of vegetation adjacent to utility assets and facilities is becoming increasingly important to all utility companies. Drivers such as the August 14, 2003 Northeast Blackout, new FERC reporting requirements, looming NERC UVM standards, and increasing focus by many state public utility commissions, present significant and urgent challenges to utility companies.

Designed by utility professionals for the utility industry, eVMS's patent- pending business process and systems provide the necessary tools and support for utilities to create, plan, execute, monitor, and report on every aspect of transmission and/or distribution UVM programs and activities. Such activities may include performing an inventory of vegetation, prioritizing pruning activities, and scheduling the resources (people and equipment) to perform required tasks.

eVMS provides the appropriate automation to address the new challenges and expectations of today's UVM industry. eVMS integrates the leading utility focused e-commerce and mobile workforce management solutions with the expertise of leading industry UVM experts. The result delivers a single, integrated solution providing the appropriate level of automation to support the utility's entire transmission and distribution UVM cycle.

eVMS starts with a model of vegetation adjacent to transmission and distribution assets. Sourcing tools support requisition, contract creation and management needs. eVMS provides for paperless creation of pre-inspection, audit, and tree-crew work orders. eVMS also handles planning, street level routing and work order optimization, and wireless mobile execution of the work in a paper-less mode to drive efficiencies through the entire process. When work gets done, eVMS updates the tree inventory database and processes the necessary follow-up, like invoices or follow-up removal or pruning work, based on a utility's specific type of contracting.

"In an industry where performing one cycle of work can take years and the obstacles to success are growing, change is an expected course of business. However, when rules change as fast as the environment, industry professionals need to look beyond traditional methods of addressing change. eVMS is by far the most complete vegetation management system of its kind," said Bob Novembri, CEO of CN Utility Consulting. "It not only provides a critical service to utilities, it does so at a time when government regulators are extremely conscious of problems that occur when vegetation management is not properly addressed."

"eVMS is designed not only to help utilities manage the ever-critical vegetation management program throughout their service territory, but to do so in a completely efficient manner," said George Gordon, chairman and CEO of Enporion. "Our goal as a company has been to supply our customers with the best way to procure goods and services, and we look at vegetation management as a critical service."

"The effort to manage vegetation near utility assets represents a major expense to these companies," said Paul V. Brooks, CEO of ViryaNet. "As expectations and demands for better management increase, companies need to find new and effective ways to manage this expense."

eVMS was designed to work at any utility that is interested in improving its current UVM program.

About CN Utility Consulting

CNUC is an established industry leader in consulting on all issues related to UVM. In addition to such high profile projects as the work on the August 14th Northeast Blackout for the United States and Canadian governments, CNUC has also completed the largest UVM benchmarking projects ever accomplished in the industry. Equally important, CNUC has been directly involved with the development of various UVM regulations and requirements, including the NERC draft standard for transmission operations. CNUC currently works with over 60 utility companies in North America on all issues related to Utility Vegetation Management. The company's Web address is http://www.cnutility.com/

About Enporion

Enporion provides strategic sourcing services to the gas and electric energy industry to complement supply chain activities and deliver bottom-line value. Enporion's goal is to simplify the buying process and to drive operational excellence through supply chain improvement. By reducing cycle times, lowering inventories, and reducing transaction costs, buyers and suppliers will realize enhanced profitability. Enporion buyers access new suppliers, and experience supply chain process improvements, thus lowering overall operating costs. Suppliers reap the benefit of a smoother interface and exposure to new customers. The company's Web address is http://www.enporion.com/.

About ViryaNet

ViryaNet has over eighteen years of experience in helping world-class organizations, both domestically and internationally, manage, automate, and improve their mobile work operations. ViryaNet is a company devoted to serving the needs of utility companies by offering comprehensive mobile workforce management products that allow utilities to create, plan and execute all types of work using comprehensive and configurable tools. ViryaNet implementations result in improved customer service, workforce productivity, and ready access of critical business operations information. ViryaNet products are highly scalable, and have been used to process more than 50,000 work orders in a single day. ViryaNet specializes in scheduling, map-based dispatching, electronic work transmission over wired and wireless networks, and work execution on a wide variety of ruggedized field platforms with integrated GIS data. The company utilizes a proven methodology to manage projects to achieve consistent, on time, and within-budget results. The company's Web address is http://www.viryanet.com/

See: http://www.cnutility.com/