Press Office

TAURON Polska Energia has been awarded in two categories of the 10th edition of the Most Interesting of the Best ranking, for the implementation of the AUMS Billing solution with the help of Asseco and for its IT strategy. This is the first successfully completed centralization of a billing system carried out on such a large scale in the Polish power industry.The editors of Nowy Przemysł (New Industry) monthly and wnp.pl portal awarded honourable titles to the most computerized companies. The attractiveness of IT deployments was evaluated by the project scale, innovation, and business benefits. TAURON Customer Service received the title of the Most Interesting of the Best for the centralization of their business customers. This project was carried out using software delivered by Asseco, which was also involved as the implementation partner.The newly deployed AUMS Billing system enables TAURON Customer Service to standardize and optimize their business customer service processes, as well as to issue invoices based on actual power consumption readings, eliminating the need for corrective invoicing. Thanks to this implementation, the month closing time has been reduced from 3 days to just 3 hours. The AUMS Billing system is also a very useful tool for TAURON Sales where it supports ongoing analysis of data, a function that is particularly important in the market of business customers which is much more competitive than in the case of individual customers. Not only does the system upgrade the quality of customer service, but it allows for faster introduction of new products into the market.“Asseco Utility Management Solutions form a family of IT solutions for the energy sector which are more and more used by utility companies operating in Poland and, I must proudly admit, they have already become almost a standard in the Polish power industry. A fully comprehensive solution and professional implementation support – this is our recipe for success,” says Paweł Piwowar, Vice President at Asseco Poland.In April 2012, Asseco performed migration of a database containing information on 1.15 million customers to the AUMS Billing system for GZE, a former company of Vattenfall in Gliwice, which is now part of TAURON Group. The process covered 1TB of data and 8 software systems that were used to support the company’s operating activities defined in 1400 business processes. This centralization model has been applied to all business customers of TAURON Group. Once the project is completed, the centralized database containing nearly 5.5 million electricity customers will be the largest one in the Polish power industry.TAURON Polska Energia has been also distinguished in the category of “IT Strategies”. The jury appreciated the company’s ability to implement multiple complex projects simultaneously. They also highlighted the advantages of using the experience and good business practices of the taken-over Polish branch of Vattenfall. The centralization of customers carried out by Asseco is the most secure and cost-effective approach, which is now applied to all business customers of TAURON.Asseco Poland has implemented numerous projects for the energy industry for over a dozen years. Our team consists of professionals with many years of experience in information technology. Engineers of Asseco Poland designed and implemented innovative IT systems for most of the energy companies in Poland. We always work with our clients on a partnership basis. We provide assistance in creating new solutions, right from the inception of a new idea up to its realization. We are a reliable partner not only in designing IT solutions, but also offer know-how and experience in planning organizational changes, as well as development of new processes and operating methods for our clients. Asseco Poland uses the internationally recognized models to improve efficiency of enterprises. These have been adapted to the specific IT market needs and modified based on our experience gained during the implementation of complex projects for corporate clients.60% of all electricity bills in Poland are generated from billing systems developed by Asseco. The newest one – AUMS Billing 3.1 – has been tested at IBM Client Center in Singapore. Its performance and reliability have been confirmed in a testing environment of several thousand simultaneous users, who conducted operations on databases containing between a million and several million active contracts with electricity customers. The gained knowledge will help energy companies optimize the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) incurred for purchases or upgrades of their hardware infrastructure.

On 15 January, the Municipal Office of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski celebrated completion of the project to launch new servers for the Municipal IT System.The Municipal Office’s information resources have been transferred to a modern server room. Asseco installed and configured all network infrastructure devices, performed migration of applications and databases from servers located in the Municipal Office premises, as well as transferred the Municipal IT System safely into the new environment. The value of services provided by Asseco reached nearly PLN 4 million gross.“We consistently implement projects involving the development of IT infrastructure. The newly launched server room will make it possible to provide cloud computing to all organizational units in our municipality. It will also facilitate access to centralized public services in the future,” said Jarosław Wilczyński, Mayor of the City of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.The server room has been equipped with modern blade-type servers, efficient mass storage systems for archiving and backup, as well as data transmission systems working at 10 Gb/s speed. It meets international standards for this type of facilities. Furthermore, it houses broadband telecommunications connections, two independent power connections, dedicated power circuits, emergency power supply (UPS) devices coupled with a power generator, as well as a redundant cooling system. The security of IT resources is guarded by a central monitoring system which, among others, cooperates with an automatic fire detection and extinguishing system.“This is a perfect example of a rational approach to avoid costly investments on the part of organizational units within a municipality. Moreover, centralization enables reduction in the cost of use and more efficient utilization of resources. Whereas, cloud solutions enrich the centralized system as a tool for flexible resource sharing,” commented Andrzej Dopierała, Vice President of the Management Board at Asseco Poland.The ability to create virtual private networks, or dedicated internal segments within a computer network, without access to the public network, allows for secure isolation of the database maintenance services from public networks, such as the Internet.The launch of new servers for the Municipal IT System is just one of the projects implemented by the Municipal Office of Ostrowiec, within the task called “e-Świętokrzyskie Province – Development of Information Infrastructure for Local Government Units”. At an earlier time, the municipal organizational units have been provided with a modern VoIP technology communications system, supporting teleconferencing and video conferencing. That was possible thanks to the previous project whereby the organizational units were linked by a fiber-optic network. The Municipal Fiber-Optic Network in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski comprises more than 50 kilometres of fibre-optic cables that connect 57 municipal entities, including municipal companies and educational establishments.It is worth mentioning that the total value of IT projects completed by Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski in the period from 2006 to 2013 exceeded PLN 14 million, with the municipality’s own contribution reaching just PLN 2.3 million. This is how EU funds may be used rationally to create the necessary foundations to serve inhabitants effectively and launch public e-services.

On 20 December 2013, Asseco Poland has signed a 3.5-year agreement with the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARMA) to provide maintenance and development services on the Agency’s Information System (AIS). The contract is worth PLN 87 million (gross) and shall be performed over a period of 41 months, this is till the end of May 2017.Asseco Poland submitted the most beneficial offer in a tender announced by ARMA. The contract covers the Agency’s Information System which comprises the Integrated Administration and Control System, known as IACS. Under this contract Asseco Poland will be also maintaining multiple other applications that it has already built for the Agency. These include, among others, the system for management of subsidies granted under the Rural Development Programme, the platform for sharing of data collected by ARiMR with other institutions, as well as a module enabling farmers to submit their subsidy applications over the Internet.
“So far, we cooperated with the Agency as a subcontractor to HP. Now we will continue to work in a similar range, but our specialists will take over the care of the data warehouse and production environment. I think the Agency’s IT resources are in the hands of experienced professionals, not to say the best Polish experts in this area,” says Witold Malina, Director of the Agriculture Division at Asseco Poland.
Asseco Poland began to construct the AIS in 2001 and since then has been continuously engaged in the maintenance and development of mission-critical applications for ARMA. IACS is one of the most complex IT systems in the Polish administration. It is used by nearly 6.5 thousand users in more than 300 Agency locations to handle a total of 1.3 million input documents a month. In the middle of 2013, the size of the Agency’s databases came close to 7 TB.

In the second edition of the Polish Company – International Champion competition organized at the initiative of the PwC consulting firm, Asseco Poland was awarded in the Investor category.
The aim of the competition is to promote Polish companies that achieve a great deal of success in foreign markets, either as investors or exporters, as well as to promote the benefits that such operations may bring not only for those companies, but also for the entire Polish economy. The competition was participated by companies operating in Poland, funded by domestic capital, which have made significant foreign investments, conducted large-scale export activities and become successful in foreign markets over the course of the last five years. By the end of 2012, the total amount of foreign investments made by Polish companies reached USD 57.5 billion.The award committee included: Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Economy, Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sławomir Majman, President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), Dariusz Ostrowski, President of the Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency (ARAW), Paweł Rabiej, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of ThinkTank magazine, and Ryszard Petru, Partner at PwC.

Asseco Group moved up to the sixth place in the ranking of the largest software producers in Europe, Truffle 100 2013, as its software revenues for 2012 exceeded 1 billion euros.Asseco Group has, for five years, continuously maintained its position as one of the top ten software vendors in Europe. This has been possible thanks to the continuing improvement in sales of proprietary software, which is one of the key objectives of Asseco’s development strategy. Such a consistent growth in revenues from own software solutions is achieved by maintaining long-term relationships with clients as well as by implementing thousands of projects for various sectors of the economy.
Combined software revenues generated in 2012 by all the companies included in this year’s listing were 11% higher than in 2011. This proves the European software industry is thriving. Interestingly, 63% of such total turnover was generated by 10 largest market players.
Bernard Louis Roques, Partner & Co-Founder of Truffle Capital, emphasizes that with 63,000 specialist jobs and high investments for development of new products, the software industry remains an unwavering catalyst for innovation and a key driver of European economic growth.
The Truffle 100 ranking discusses the marketplace of Europe’s one hundred major software producers. The group of leaders is headed by Germany’s SAP with EUR 15.9 billion in software revenues, followed by France’s Dassault Systèmes (EUR 1.8 billion) and Britain’s Sage (EUR 1.6 billion). Asseco, which ranked on the sixth place, generated EUR 1.0 billion in revenues from its proprietary software solutions. The ranking is dominated by companies from the UK, France and Germany.The detailed Truffle 100 report is available at: http://www.truffle100.com/2013/ranking.php

In the first three quarters of 2013, Asseco Group generated nearly PLN 4.2 billion in sales revenues, achieving a 5% increase as compared with the corresponding period last year. Operating profit reached PLN 483 million, while net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company amounted to PLN 262 million. The backlog of orders totals PLN 5.5 billion and is 5% higher than in the comparable period of 2012. Revenues from our proprietary IT solutions are also at record-breaking levels. In the first nine months of 2013, such revenues reached almost PLN 3.3 billion, improving by 7% year on year.During the analyzed period Asseco has signed 3,326 new contracts, confirming good diversification of its operations. Over 70% of our revenues come from recurring projects, ensuring a great deal of stability for Asseco’s business. In the third quarter of 2013, Asseco Poland signed long-term contracts with its existing clients. Under a 3-year framework agreement with Orange Poland, Asseco has become the telecom operator’s partner responsible for the area of BBS (Business Support Systems) as well as for outsourcing of the fixed-line telephony billing system. During the past quarter we have also managed to strengthen our position in the healthcare sector. Asseco Poland concluded a contract with the Marshal’s Office of Subcarpathian Province for implementation of the Subcarpathian Medical Information System. The agreement includes the computerization of eight local hospitals and the launch of a wide range of e health services for residents of the region. In the energy sector, Asseco Poland has successfully completed a project that involved centralization of mass customer billing systems at Tauron Customer Service, by implementing one of its proprietary Asseco Utility Management Solutions. Whereas, in October and November we signed two four-year framework agreements with the Polish Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) – the first for maintenance, and the second for development of the institution’s Comprehensive Information System.The development of Asseco is possible thanks to the increasing sales of our proprietary software solutions. In the first nine months of 2013, such revenues reached nearly PLN 3.23 billion, accounting for 78% of our total sales. We continue to invest money in the research and development of Asseco’s key products.In the third quarter of 2013, Asseco Poland acquired a 70% stake in the Russian company R-Style Softlab, a producer of software for the sector of banking and finance. This company has approximately 400 active clients. It is specialized in three key areas: online banking and customer service systems, data warehouses and business intelligence systems, as well as core banking systems. Our acquisition plans for the remaining months of this year anticipate continued focus on emerging markets.