Advanced Utility Systems and HiQube Partner to Deliver CIS Analytics Solution

TROY, Mich. and TORONTO, Nov. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- HiQube, a division of Altair Engineering, Inc., and Advanced Utility Systems (Advanced), a division of N. Harris Computer Corporation, today announced a multi-year, non-exclusive agreement to develop and market a business analytics solution for Advanced's CIS Infinity® utility customers. Branded as Infinity.BI, the stand-alone customer information systems (CIS) analytics solution will provide powerful new business analytics capabilities for Advanced's CIS Infinity utility customers.  

Through a direct integration of Altair's HiQube business intelligence (BI) platform and Advanced's CIS Infinity solution, Infinity.BI will be sold as a rapidly deployed business analytics module providing a rich set of standard dynamic reports and performance dashboards addressing critical operational and customer service metrics for utilities.  

"More and more, utilities are requiring advanced BI functionality as part of their overall CIS deployment," said Peter Fanous, general manager of Advanced Utility Systems. "Customer service, operational performance and smart grid initiatives are driving this demand and over the last year and a half we have evaluated many potential BI solution partners. We found that HiQube's technology and scalability addresses both our short and long-term BI strategy and we are thrilled with what this partnership will offer CIS Infinity customers."

The initial Infinity.BI solution will include self-service analytics functionality to analyze revenue and service consumption, cash flow, collections, service customer move-in/out activity, customer call volume and service orders. Additionally, Infinity.BI can be extended beyond the standard core offering to address utility-specific rate scheduling analysis and optimization, additional data store connections, branding, reports, dashboards, and performance metrics through consulting services agreements.  

"The utility industry is in a state of transformational change in both business processes and operations infrastructure," said Michael J. Kidder, senior vice president of marketing and OEM partnerships for HiQube. "Now more than ever, the ability to quickly explore and analyze large data stores of customer information without requiring a specialized and dedicated hardware appliance is essential to optimize rate schedules and time-of-use pricing while ensuring the highest level of customer service. We are very excited about partnering with Advanced to deliver a scalable and extensible analytics solution that accelerates robust decision-making for CIS Infinity customers today and in the future."

Infinity.BI will be unveiled to the public during the 2011 Harris Customer Conference, Nov. 16-18, 2011 in Anaheim, Calif.  As a platinum sponsor, HiQube will introduce and provide a live demonstration of Infinity.BI on Nov. 16 at 12:30 p.m. as part of Advanced's customer-focused workshop series program. One-on-one live demonstrations also will be made available throughout the conference at HiQube's exhibition booth (#P1).

Commercial availability of Infinity.BI is expected in early Q1 2012 following the successful completion of a detailed beta evaluation program with select utilities that comprise Advanced's Executive Steering Committee.

About Advanced and Harris:

Advanced is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harris Computer Systems that provides Customer Information and Billing solutions exclusively to utilities and municipalities. Harris is a leading provider of financial management and Customer Information Systems (CIS) software solutions. Since 1976, Harris has focused on providing feature-rich and robust turnkey solutions to all levels of local government as well as public power and water markets throughout North America. Harris' focus is on creating long-term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we meet the changing needs of our customers over time. For further information on Harris Computer Systems, please visit http://www.Harriscomputer.com, or call 888-847-7747.

For more information on Advanced and CIS Infinity ® please visit www.advancedutility.com/contact.asp

About HiQube

HiQube is a next-generation, optimization-driven business intelligence platform that maximizes business performance. Unrivaled in speed, HiQube distinctively delivers in-memory performance with traditional BI scalability for large data stores. It provides a self-service user experience as an end-to-end BI solution or a complementary software stack extension for high-end business analytics. To learn more, try HiQube live or download a free trial license, visit www.hiqube.com.

About Altair

Altair Engineering, Inc. empowers client innovation and decision-making through technology that optimizes the analysis, management and visualization of business and engineering information. Privately held, with more than 1,500 employees, Altair has offices throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. With a 26-year track record for high-end software for engineering and computing, enterprise analytics solutions, and innovative product design and development, Altair consistently delivers a competitive advantage to customers in a broad range of industries. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com.

SOURCE Altair Engineering, Inc.