Itron BV, Itron Inc.s Amsterdam-based European subsidiary, has forged an agreement to market a sophisticated electronic-messaging system produced by Axway BV, a Dutch company, with Itrons own utility meter data-management system.


Axways linking software, or middleware, has gained strong acceptance in the European market, and the availability of the product with Itrons system will help Itrons business in Europe, says Doug Staker, vice president of Spokane-based Itron Inc.s international sales group.


Theyre well-recognized; theyre well-established; they have a nice tool set, Staker says.


Linking software, which provides pathways for systems to talk with one another, is a vital part of any utility meter-reading system in Europe, where energy companies have been taking advantage of the opening of international borders, Staker says.


He says those open borders have enabled some energy customers to buy energy thats generated, marketed, transmitted, and distributed by different companies, including companies based in different countries, and all of those companies can need information from a customers utility meter.


Theres always some middleware that you have to act as a port between our system and theirs, Staker says. Axways product does this in a very effective manner.


Itrons Enterprise Edition meter data-management system, with which Itron will offer Axways B2Bi Gateway linking software, enables utilities and other energy concerns to monitor and store round-the-clock information on a customers energy usage, which is important in Europe, Staker says.


He says energy prices are high there, and businesses like to take advantage of price discounts available for using energy at non-peak times of day. To offer those discounts, energy companies need to be able to monitor their own loads carefully and to price off-peak usage precisely, Staker says.


Meanwhile, commercial and industrial customers want information on their usage to help them manage their costs carefully, he says.


For all those reasons, Staker says, Were seeing more and more interest in these meter data-management systems throughout Europe and also South Africa.


In Europe, he says, Were doing quite a bit of business. Yet, while Itron has a fair share of the market, and demand for its meter data-management systems there is good, Itron doesnt enjoy the big market share that it does in the U.S., Staker says.


For now, the action in Europe is with commercial and industrial users, partly because utility billing practices with residential customers are much different than they are in the U.S., Staker says.


In some countries, he says, They dont read meters monthly. They read them annually. In Germany, they mail you a card, and you fill it in, and you mail it in. In France, they read meters quarterly, and they must see the meter once a year, but they have lots of trouble getting in to read meters on property owners premises. That, he says, can lead to conflict.


Yet, Staker says, meter-reading practices are changing in Europe, which could create more opportunity to sell meter data-management systems.


Contact Richard Ripley at (509) 344-1261 or via e-mail at [email protected].