Corechange Helps Energy Firm Craft an Enterprise Portal

Boston’s Corechange Inc., which develops software for portals, said
Wednesday that it has secured energy titan American Electric Power as a customer for its access framework product.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

AEP will use it to build an enterprise portal. According to the firms’
calculations, 80 percent of all information will be within two mouse clicks
of the front page, enabling all AEP employees to easily call up information
once Corechange’s Coreport 3g solution is in place. The new intranet, bound
to serve 22,000 employees, will facilitate improved communication and
increase productivity in the work environment to shore up customer service.

Coreport enables companies to deploy wired or wireless corporate and mobile
commerce portals, which are tailored to each user based on the individual’s
role within the enterprise. Corechange’s solution will allow AEP to provide
a personalized Web environment for its users, establish one sign-on for all
authorized applications, and permit remote access from any
Internet-connected device, including personal digital assistants (PDA),
which with each passing day are being used more and more to tap into
corporate networks by mobile users.

AEP began working with Corechange in March 2001 and Coreport is actually
AEP’s first investment in portal software. AEP said it would roll out the
Coreport-powered intranet in waves, with select business units using the
portal throughout the summer.
Based on the users’ experience, Corechange will work with AEP to make the
solution work better, and will subsequently launch the finished product in
October. AEP said it will also consider extending the solution to tackle
business-to-business initiatives, such as improving information exchange
between AEP and outside governmental and environmental stakeholders.

“AEP is leading the energy sector through its investment in portal
software,” said Ulf Arnetz, chairman and chief executive officer of
Corechange. “By providing every corporate employee access to all the
applications and information they need through Coreport’s comprehensive
Web-enabled framework, AEP will improve collaboration within the company and
transform the way they conduct business.”

Based in Columbus, Ohio, AEP is just the latest example of a large
organization investing in IT to make its internal processes run more
efficiently. Last year, the Navy tapped EDS for a major, multi-billion
dollar intranet implementation.

AEP owns and operates more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity,
making it America’s largest generator of electricity. AEP also provides
retail electricity to more than 7 million customers worldwide and has
holdings in the U.S. and select international markets.

Corechange’s strategic partners include Microsoft Corp., Nortel Networks,
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, and Aether Systems Inc.