basis2 Billing System – Live at the City of Philadelphia 

basis2 Billing System – Live at the City of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA., January 17, 2008 – In record time and at approximately half of industry cost estimates, the City of Philadelphia is live on their new billing and customer care platform - basis2. One month in front of the original target live date and significantly under budget, the selection and implementation of basis2 is hailed as an outstanding success for the City and for basis2.

“With millions of dollars having been spent on four previous efforts to replace our legacy billing system, the success of basis2 in the City's hands is very pleasing,” said Terry Phillis, CIO for the City of Philadelphia. There was a lot of pressure on Project Ocean, though we stayed focused, kept it simple and succeeded in implementing a state of the art system. I’m very proud of what the City and this team has achieved with basis2.”

Noteworthy to the project:
 Live on January 2nd 2008, one month in front of the initial target date and before mayor Street left office as promised.
 Under budget by 25 %
 Less than 1/2 of the industry estimates for implementation costs
 12 months from project engagement to live operation
 Project managed and primarily resourced by the City
 27 Interfaces
 No modifications to the core product

“It’s very pleasing to see the City rewarded for its vision, selection of basis2 and commitment to the implementation,” said Peter Barzen, EVP of Prophecy International. “We’ve worked exceptionally well together. With basis2 we are providing a compelling alternative for the customer care and billing market. The significant risk for the City was to have dismissed the opportunity to do it differently with basis2.”

Basis2 has been architected to allow its customers, partners and 3rd parties to approach the CIS implementation through configurations as opposed to customizations. This enabled the City of Philadelphia to take ownership of the project, manage costs and minimize risk. Terry Phillis has been selected to speak at this year’s CS conference on the City’s strategy and experience in implementing a new CIS.

About the City of Philadelphia
Philadelphia is one of the oldest and most historically significant cities in the United States and during part of the 18th century was the first capital and largest City. The Philadelphia metropolitan area is one of the largest in the U.S. The population served by the Water System is approximately 1.653 million people and the population served by the Wastewater System is approximately 2.199 million people.

About basis2
Prophecy International, the authors and owners of basis2, have over 14 years experience in the utilities industry. The BASIS suite is used by a number of leading utilities in Australia, Asia, the UK and the USA. It is function-rich and flexible, suited to both the commercial and public sector markets. www.basis2.com