SpatialNews Press Release

UtiliCorp United Selects Smallworld Design Manager As Its Design Automation Platform Software to Support the Planning, Design, and Build Process for 25,000 Facility Design Jobs per Year

www.gepower.com

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DENVER, Jan 3, 2002 -- GE Network Solutions, a leading supplier of network solutions to the electric, gas, and water utilities, announced today that its Smallworld Design Manager software has been selected by UtiliCorp United (UtiliCorp) to help the company manage and standardize its facility design process at more than 70 field offices.

GE Network Solutions, a business unit within GE Power Systems, was recently created from the integration of three GE companies - GE Smallworld, GE Harris, and sofion - to provide customers with comprehensive, enterprise-wide network design, operation and management solutions.

Dave O'Brien, Utilities & Public Systems Leader at GE Network Solutions, says, "GE Smallworld and UtiliCorp have been strategic partners for several years now. UtiliCorp's key input into our on-going product requirements has resulted in many product line enhancements that have benefited all of our customers. We are extremely pleased that they have chosen to extend their implementation with Design Manager. UtiliCorp's experience integrating design tools with GIS and work management has generated many key enhancements to the latest release of Design Manager. UtiliCorp's detailed review and subsequent purchase of Design Manager is a testament to the superior design and functionality offered by our applications."

The Design Manager product will provide complete support for the construction planning, design, and build functions at UtiliCorp. The product is built upon GE Network Solutions' proven AM/FM/GIS database management technology, already in use at UtiliCorp.

Carol Keeney, Applications Manager for Energy Delivery Applications at UtiliCorp, said, "Our experience with GE Smallworld as a strategic partner has enabled UtiliCorp to move to Design Manager. Our existing design platform kept us from achieving our full potential of automation benefits. Design Manager will enable UtiliCorp's U.S. utility to achieve full automation benefits by deploying a more fully functional design tool. We are excited about teaming with GE Network Solutions on this effort."

GE Network Solutions North American Utilities & Public Systems (UPS) Services will assist UtiliCorp with its Design Manager implementation and roll out. The services group will work with UtiliCorp to integrate Design Manager with UtiliCorp's work management system. Design Manager will be rolled out to more than 200 UtiliCorp drafters and designers at the utility who plan and manage approximately 25,000 design jobs each year. UtiliCorp will use a phased approach for rolling Design Manager out to 71 remote offices, beginning with a pilot implementation with a select set of key users.

UtiliCorp United (NYSE:UCU) is an international, growth-oriented energy and services company based in Kansas City, Missouri. The company serves about 4 million customers across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. For 1999, it was ranked the second-largest wholesale marketer of electricity in the U.S. and the third-largest marketer of natural gas. On the Fortune 500 list, UtiliCorp ranked 60th based on 2000 sales. The company is also included in Fortune's list of America's Most Admired Companies as the fourth most admired utility.

About GE Power Systems

GE Power Systems ( http://www.gepower.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation technology, energy services and management systems with 2000 revenue of $15 billion. The business has the largest installed base of power generation equipment in the global energy industry. GE Power Systems provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, distributed power and energy rental industries. GE Network Solutions, a business unit within GE Power Systems, was recently created from the integration of three GE companies - GE Smallworld, GE Harris and sofion. It offers network software solutions to utility, communication and public systems organizations and has more than 900 customers in 44 countries around the world.

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Jan 4, 2002 Jun 26, 2002