Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Austin Energy and Andres Carvallo recognized by InformationWeek 500


Austin Energy Listed on 2008 InformationWeek 500
Voice Over IP Project Gets National Recognition

Monarch Beach, CA, September 16, 2008 – Austin Energy, the 9th largest public power utility, nationally recognized for its energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, has been listed on the 2008 InformationWeek 500. This is the second year in a row Austin Energy has been named to the InformationWeek 500 list. The 2008 InformationWeek 500 companies were revealed on September 15, 2008 at a gala awards ceremony held during the InformationWeek 500 Conference at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California.

“We are honored to be recognized by InformationWeek for our world class work on telecommunications”, said Andres Carvallo, Chief Information Officer.

Austin Energy deployed a Voice Over IP communication platform throughout the enterprise (1,600 employees in 20 buildings). The VOIP Platform allowed Austin Energy to consolidate to a single supplier thus reducing the amount of annual maintenance costs, reduced network operating expenses by leveraging an existing OC-48 fiber network to every building, reduced overall staff support and employee training costs, decreased service response time by having increased technicians trained on a single platform, increased employee productivity by offering new phone and unified messaging functionality (administrative assistants claim a 20% increase in phone and communication productivity), increased over all customer satisfaction by 11% points. This project delivered a 12 month ROI and customers rave about the solution. This project closed on-time and slightly below budget and it is considered a great success.

“For 20 years, the InformationWeek 500 has honored the most innovative users of business technology,” said InformationWeek Editor-in-Chief Rob Preston. “Year after year, InformationWeek 500 companies harness technology to improve efficiency, boost productivity, drive revenue, and establish a competitive advantage. We applaud this year’s winners, and the CIOs and other executives whose ingenuity and risk taking are at the center of business technology innovation.”

InformationWeek has identified and honored the nation's most innovative users of information technology with its annual listing, now in its 20th year, and has tracked the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies. The list is unique among corporate rankings because it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.

Additional details on the InformationWeek 500 can be found online at www.informationweek.com/iw500/.

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