IBM and Hydro One Team to Improve the Power Grid in Ontario

Smarter technologies to be tested on Hydro One's distribution power grid

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ARMONK, N.Y. and TORONTO - 27 Mar 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its Business Partner Telvent announced that they have been selected by Hydro One, the largest distributor of electricity in Ontario (Canada), for a new smart grid project that will help transform the province's electrical system. Together, the companies will run simulations and tests to determine the smart grid technologies that have the potential to improve power efficiency and reliability.

Installed in the 1950s, many components of Ontario's current electricity distribution system have reached the end of their service life. More recently, technological advancements, provincial governmental policy, market forces and increased environmental awareness have added pressure to the demands on Ontario's electricity distribution system.

"As equipment on our distribution system ages, it needs to be replaced. This creates an opportunity to create a world-class network with new, intelligent and sophisticated technologies to meet the changing needs of our customers," Rick Stevens, Vice President, Asset Management, Hydro One. "Our collaboration with IBM and Telvent will help Hydro One assess the next generation of distribution equipment and make the right choices for our customers looking for more reliable electricity, particularly in rural areas."

The Advanced Distribution System (ADS) project will help the utility identify and assess equipment, test new delivery models for electricity, validate the costs and benefits anticipated with a new smart grid and recommend changes to cost effectively modernize Ontario's distribution system.

The project intends to enable an increased amount of Distributed Generation into the grid as well as help increase the reliability of the current distribution system and improve outage management during large scale situations. By taking advantage of the insights gained from new data sources based on analytics, Hydro One will be able to optimize energy utilization and management for greater efficiency while accommodating consumer demand.

"Utilities around the world are investigating new smart grid technologies to help solve complex challenges caused by an aging infrastructure and increasing demand," said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM's Energy & Utilities Industry and Chairman of the Global Smart Grid Federation. "Together with Hydro One, we are paving the way for transformation by testing new sophisticated monitoring and control technologies that will enable the integration of renewable energy in the distribution grid while improving its reliability and responsiveness, and ensuring customer satisfaction. This will prepare Hydro One and the province of Ontario for further growth and deliver more affordable and reliable renewable energy for Ontarians."

As the overall system integrator, IBM will provide expertise in smart grid technologies, planning and implementation to oversee the reliability of the network solution. Hydro One will use the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), from Telvent, a real-time solution that will provide complete functionality for planning, operation and analysis of its distribution system. This will allow Hydro One to more accurately manage and plan their grid investments.

According to Telvent's Chairman and CEO, Ignacio Gonzalez, "In addition to the ADMS solution, Hydro One will benefit from the strategic collaboration between Telvent and IBM. Over the years, we have provided solutions to several large utilities to help make mid-project technology adjustments while increasing the speed of the solution development."

The project is in line with the requirements of Ontario's Green Energy and Green Economy 2009 Act ("GEGEA"), which fosters the growth of renewable and cleaner sources of energy while promoting a greener economy.

About Hydro One Hydro One provides services to 1.2 million residents of Ontario with the vast majority of its rural customers in low-density areas. Hydro One is the largest distributor of electricity with about 120,000 km of distribution lines over a rural service territory of about 640,000 square kilometers covering 75% of the province.

About IBM

IBM is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements around the world, in both mature and emerging markets. IBM is the founding member of the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition, a unique collaboration of utilities from around the globe who are working to accelerate the use of smart grid technologies and move the industry forward through its most challenging transformation. More about IBM's vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works—how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet. 

For more information about Smarter Energy at IBM, please visit:www.ibm.com/press/smarterenergy. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

News Release from SAP

SAP TO EXTEND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERS WITH LAUNCH OF SAP® BUSINESS ONE ONDEMAND

Hosted by Certified Partners, SAP® Business One OnDemand Solution to Come Via Web Browser

HANOVER, Germany - March 06, 2012 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the SAP® Business One OnDemand solution, a new offering that aims to build upon the broad market success of the SAP Business One application, addressing small enterprise preferences for minimal up-front cost and lower IT operations. The announcement was made at CeBIT 2012, being held March 6-10 in Hanover, Germany.

To be offered by trusted partners, including Hungarian Telecom, itelligence, Seidor, Singtel, Versino and Virtustream, the on-demand solution is planned to be comprehensive, easy to consume and available with transparent, predictable costs. It will target smaller companies seeking a single offering with deep business functionality, as well as support for sales, purchasing, inventory and finance business processes.

SAP intends to provide SAP Business One OnDemand through qualified partners as well as further extendibility and industry offerings as required. The recommended concept to partners is a monthly subscription fee per user. Initially, the solution is planned for availability in 18 countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. As a comprehensive partner-hosted cloud environment targeting smaller companies, SAP Business One OnDemand is intended to complement the currently available SAP® Business ByDesign™solution for midmarket customers.

"Small and midsize companies continue to be a relatively untapped market for SaaS / hosted solutions, especially small firms," said Ray Boggs, vice president, IDC. Boggs indicated that this will likely change as over half of small firms plan to add enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and other advanced software while looking at cloud-delivered solutions: "Not everyone will move to the cloud, of course, but interest is clearly growing even among the smallest firms."

SAP Business One OnDemand will be suitable for customers seeking to implement their first holistic ERP software as well as for affiliates of large enterprises with deep industry functionality requirements. Customers may want to choose the cloud deployment model or combine it with on-premise deployment, avoid a lump-sum cash outlay or capital investment and help heavily reduce IT operation costs by not having to hire experienced IT staff for maintenance of the underlying infrastructure. Together with perpetual license options for on-premise or hosted installation, the on-demand option aims to provide customers unprecedented licensing and delivery flexibility to adopt the world-class SAP Business One application on their own terms, based on their individual IT and financial needs and preferences.

Building on Broad Market Success 
Building on the significant channel success of SAP Business One, SAP intends to offer SAP Business One OnDemand exclusively via its vibrant partner ecosystem, which provides local industry expertise to customers . A compelling set of new features are planned, aiming to allow partners to operate the solution for their customers in a cost-efficient way, building on proven architectural principles of SAP software. SAP is planning various ways for partners to participate in the delivery of SAP Business One OnDemand. Hosting partners will need to obtain an SAP hosting certification. Reselling partners or value-added resellers (VARs) without SAP hosting certification will be able to subcontract to a certified SAP hosting partner.

"Small companies with little infrastructure and outsourced IT are expecting cloud offerings, sometimes in easy combination with their existing software," said Eric Duffaut, president, Ecosystem & Channels, SAP AG. "Together with our partners, SAP is committed to providing customers of all sizes with choice and a solution that fits their needs. Now, small companies can use SAP Business One on premise or in the cloud to run their businesses better."

To read more about what partners have to say about the solution, see: " Partners on SAP Business One OnDemand." For more information, including additional news and coverage from CeBIT 2012, visit the Events Newsroom.