Lake Saint Louis, Mo., October 8, 2013 – Marietta, Georgia-based electric cooperative Cobb EMC has selected National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) to be its primary utility software services provider, as part of the co-op’s plan to realize efficiency gains across all of its customer operations areas.

Chip Nelson, Cobb’s President and CEO, said the move to NISC, a suburban St. Louis-based IT cooperative, was made after a rigorous internal assessment of its current information technology (IT) capabilities, costs, emerging technology opportunities, and the needs of a changing suburban consumer base.

“We evaluated multiple options for utility service providers and, at the end of the day, NISC came out on top,” he said. “NISC serves hundreds of cooperative utilities across the country and has done so in several cases for more than 40 years. That stability, coupled with its innovation, strong references from our neighboring co-op utilities, affordability and a strong culture of customer support, led us to our conclusion that NISC was ideally suited to help Cobb EMC meet our needs and vision.”

Nelson said that NISC’s enterprise solution, called iVUE®, will eliminate time-consuming manual processes and bring Cobb EMC’s operational data in one place, where it can be quickly and efficiently shared by the co-op’s operational and geographically-diverse business units. Cobb EMC will use NISC’s Customer Care & Billing, SmartHub, Meter Data Management and Automated Mailroom Services solutions.

At NISC, Vern Dosch, President and CEO, said the organization welcomes Cobb as the newest NISC Member-Owner. “We were impressed by Cobb’s careful, deliberate and thorough evaluation of IT service providers, and we are grateful to Chip and his team for selecting NISC,” he said. “We have learned that Cobb EMC puts a high priority on efficiency and service, and we look forward to working closely with its team to help them reach their goals of cost savings, enhanced efficiency and customer satisfaction.”

The task of moving to NISC’s iVUE will start with preliminary work in 2013. Most of the implementation of new software will take place next year. Once installed and live at Cobb, the co-op will join 500 other utilities who have successfully implemented NISC’s iVUE enterprise software solution.

About Cobb EMC

Cobb Electric Membership Corporation, based in Marietta, Ga., is a not-for-profit electric membership cooperative providing reliable electric energy. Formed in 1938, Cobb EMC started as an electric utility with 489 residential members and 14 commercial accounts. Today, it serves more than 200,000 meters, which represents more than 177,000 residential and commercial members. Cobb EMC is one of the largest EMCs in Georgia and is among the largest of the nation’s approximately 900 membership utilities. The Cobb EMC distribution system consists of approximately 10,000 miles of line located in the north metro Atlanta, Ga. area, and a rural service area located in southwest Georgia. Cobb EMC’s distribution system covers more than 1,400 square miles.

To learn more about Cobb EMC, go to:www.cobbemc.com.