Apogee Opens NE Office; Doug Langdon Named Dir. of Bus. Dev.

Doug Langdon

Apogee has opened a Northeast office and named Doug Langdon as its new director of business development. With 10 years of energy industry and related online applications expertise, Doug will have responsibility for new business and product development, national sales and client service.

"Doug is a valuable addition to our creative team as we continue to develop innovative solutions for our clients who face multiple issues in today's energy markets," said Joel Gilbert, CEO of Apogee.

Joel added that the Northeast was the next logical step in Apogee's expansion as it's traditionally an active energy region and leader in energy efficiency and customer relationship programs. "Doug will bring us closer to a large population of our clients, facilitate dialogue and crystallize needs so we that we can develop customized solutions even more quickly than before," Joel said.

For complete details, see out Sept. 24 press release.

Here's how you can contact Doug:

Doug Langdon
Director of Business Development
Apogee Interactive Inc.
1 Locke Hill Lane
Barrington, NH 03825
Office: 603-664-9527
FAX:   603-664-9528
Email: dlangdon@apogee.net
Web:   www.apogee.net

Unique Spanish Course For Utilities Underway

With development underway, Apogee will release a first-of-its-kind online Spanish course for electric utilities January 1, 2003. This highly targeted, one-hour course will provide utility employees with: 1) Introduction to Hispanic Cultures, 2) Pronunciation/Grammar Fundamentals and 3) Spanish on the Job - with a choice of three tracts: Field, Customer Service or Power Plants. Employees select their tract and learn how to handle common situations with customers or contract crewmembers using "controlled response" dialogue and key phrases/questions. Apogee has teamed up with Joyce Robledo, a seasoned Spanish instructor, and representatives from Southern Company to develop the course content.

Robledo has dedicated her teaching career to instructing "occupational Spanish" for a variety of industries including healthcare, construction, paramedic, firefighter, police and utilities. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Dalton State College, Clayton College and State University and Appalachian Tech. Joyce began teaching occupational Spanish for utilities at Dalton State College in 2000.

Apogee's instructional designers will employ a variety of interactive techniques (quizzes, games, talking glossaries, graphics, etc.) to educate and entertain while Joyce and the Southern Company team will direct the content and coverage of the course. Any utility that places an order for the course within the next two weeks can also join the development team. All utilities who place orders before the end of the year will receive an unlimited number of seats in 2003. This allows employees to not only take the course, but to use it as a refresher throughout the year.

"Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to teach a universal or basic version of Spanish that will be understood by Hispanics regardless of their country of origin or style of Spanish spoken," explained Joyce. A number of other basic misconceptions can create problems in business settings, she said, such as "The Mañana Syndrome." Many Americans assume "mañana" means "tomorrow" and use it when scheduling an appointment with a Spanish-speaking customer. In the Hispanic culture, mañana actually means "some tomorrow" or "sometime in the future." This could lead to confusion about when the appointment really is.

Joyce also pointed to the potential problem of Hispanic customers hanging up when a phone rep has just told them "Hold on, I'll get our Spanish-speaking rep," in English. Chances are the customer may not understand the English statement and will hang up. Joyce teaches students how to say, "One minute please. Don't hang up. I will get our Spanish-speaking rep."

The Customer Service, Field and Power Plant tracts will each address specific situations related to their daily operations and equip employees to use the right phrases and questions, in the right situation, at the right time to ensure a positive interaction with the customer or contract crewmember.

For more information, contact Susan Gilbert at 770-270-6502 or susan@apogee.net.

JD Power To Keynote Apogee Web Workshop Oct. 16

Registrations already exceed 60 for our Fall Web Workshop Oct. 16! If you haven't signed up yet, register by Oct. 9. Many are looking forward to hearing JD Power & Associates' Jeff Conklin discuss their recently released "2002 Residential Customer Satisfaction Survey." Jeff's spent the last few months on the road delivering these results to his utility clients. He'll present a general overview of the findings, particularly as they relate to the utility's Web site, at our meeting. Following that, we'll look at Accenture's detailed analysis and rating methodology for evaluating utility Web sites.

Apogee is proud to have been recognized as the creators of the Demand Exchange Web site, which was rated by Accenture as 13th best of US utility sites and 18th in the world according to their latest survey*. The same survey shows that Apogee content or calculators power most of the top-rated US utility sites. We'll share with attendees the keys building dynamic and successful sites that produce measurable results.

We'll also have case studies presented by several of clients, sharing their Web site approaches and accomplishments. Apogee will then demonstrate new products, show enhancements to existing time-tested ones, and give you a sneak preview of some of the coming attractions that are underdevelopment in our leading-edge programming shop. There will be plenty of time for questions and group discussions.

Weather permitting, we're hosting a dinner cruise the night before the meeting, October 15, leaving at 5:30 p.m. on Lake Lanier. In addition, you're welcome to stay through Thursday, Oct. 17, to work individually on your Internet content or Web sites. We're pleased to schedule time to do this. Just give us notice by the Oct. 9 so we can plan the right people to be available to work with you.

See detailed agenda and online registration form here: http://www.apogee.net/reg_webworkshop.asp.

*Accenture's 2000 Evaluation of Utility Web Site...The Emerging Divide

Demand Exchange® and Planergy Team Up

Perhaps the most exciting thing to impact The Demand Exchange® platform in recent months is Apogee's new relationship with Planergy International, Inc. (see press release). The relationship is far-reaching and potentially encompasses Apogees' Web content and e-learning courses too. Of particular interest to Demand Exchange clients is Planergy's EnergyLinks™ portal. The implications for the Exchange and its clients are broad and herald a fundamental change in the Exchange's value proposition.

EnergyLinks is an online energy information services portal, branded with the appropriate look and feel, that serves as the primary communications link between an energy service company and its commercial/industrial customers. EnergyLinks can be used to deliver a wide range of information and services, including:

1. Meter Data Presentment - The portal excels at providing a set of intuitive meter data graphs and tables. The meter data presentment functionality in EnergyLinks converts interval meter data into actionable information. In addition to setting a default view for each graph, users can manipulate the meters and timeframes being viewed, download data into a spreadsheet, and print each graph. Of particular significance to Exchange clients, one of the data presentment graphs focuses on load reduction and customer baselines.


2. Weather Data - The portal presents a variety of local and national weather maps as well as a multi-day forecast based on the user's ZIP code.



3. Online Learning - EnergyLinks is an excellent means by which e-learning can be delivered to C&I end-users. Apogee's Study Center courses can be embedded into and dispensed through the portal.



4. Informational Banners - Each client has the ability to place banners, whether informational or marketing in nature, into the portal. These banners can be easily updated or changed as often as necessary.



5. Links to Other Sites - EnergyLinks can be configured with a set of Web links to additional sources of information of relevance to C&I customers.

In short, virtually any service, currently implemented or planned, can be delivered through the single unifying interface of the EnergyLinks portal. The portal itself can be customized to a large degree by each individual user so as to provide the user with the experience he/she is most comfortable with.

We at Apogee have always firmly believed that the single most important key to engaging and keeping demand response program participants engaged is presenting them with their energy consumption data and other energy educational services. Doing this helps educate the customer, making them better informed about how they use their energy and making them better able to adjust consumption when asked to participate in curtailment opportunities.

The marriage of the Apogee's content, courses and Demand Exchange platform with Planergy's EnergyLinks does this, and more! For details, contact Eric Watson at 770-270-6517 or ewatson@apogee.net.

The State of Electricity Deregulation Today, According to Gilbert

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