The Utility Company™ Quickly Expanding East and West in Canada

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Welcomes New Affiliate Franchises with the Addition of ImagePath Printing Solutions in Vancouver and Multivox Conferencing Services in Montreal.

May 16, 2007, Ottawa, Canada -– The Utility Company, the leading provider of information technology (IT) as a utility to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), is pleased to welcome its newest affiliate franchisees as it continues to steamroll across North America with its complete business system designed to allow franchisees to enter and prosper in the managed IT services industry.

With the recent upgrade to its revolutionary Beyond Managed Services franchise opportunity, BMS 2.0, The Utility Company has made it simple for existing SMB service organizations to seamlessly add managed/utility IT services to their businesses with its new affiliate model.  Two of the business types where the affiliate solution is a natural fit and makes an instant impact to their business are telecommunications resellers and the office equipment dealers.

Yves Aubin, owner of Multivox Conferencing Services, Inc. – a Teleconferencing Solutions Provider in Montreal, Quebec, has seen his business grow steadily since its inception in 2003.   Offering both the tools and the service for tele- and web-conferencing, Yves saw his partnership with The Utility Company as a natural extension to his business.  “Teleconferencing and web collaboration are becoming more and more of a commodity’, says Aubin.  “The way I see it, adding value from services like conferencing is becoming less and less of a possibility.”

“In order to provide added value to our customers, Multivox needed to start providing a different service than the one it provides right now.  Becoming a Utility Service Provider made sense as a relatively simple “plug-and-play” method to begin offering enterprise-level IT management services to our small and medium-sized customers…at prices they can easily afford”

Joe Russo, owner of Imagepath Printing Solutions in Downtown Vancouver, B.C., saw his partnership in much the same light, despite being in a different industry.  “Becoming a Utility Service Provider makes perfect sense for the independent Office Equipment Dealer like myself”, said Russo.  “We’ve been growing steadily in the past three years since opening our doors, but our customers are beginning to ask why we can’t take care of their networks as well as their office machines.”

“For me, its frustrating when you go to the customer’s office for a service call only to find out the problem isn’t on our end (with our equipment), it’s a fault somewhere in their network. We are both unhappy because of the loss in productivity over this issue.  The customer doesn’t care who owns the problem, they just want it fixed!”

“Adding The Utility Company’s Connected Office services means this situation doesn’t arise”, continued Russo.  “My customers now have a one-stop-shop at their service.  If they have a problem, they do know who to call.” 

From the customer’s perspective, having a single point of contact for office equipment and IT services means:

• No confusion as to who to call when they have an issue whether it be hardware, software or network related (1-866-My-Utility).
  
  
• No unnecessary service calls or multiple service calls – saving time, expense and frustration.  Also helps the “greening” of IT service as fewer on-site calls means less travel (costs) and fuel consumption.
  
  
• Superior service resolution levels with contracted Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure both quality of service and problem resolution times.
  
  
• A greater breadth of solutions available through the 1-866-My-Utility Live Helpdesk including desktop screen sharing (where the end-user and the technician both see the same workspace) and how-to help sessions for all Microsoft productivity applications.

From a business perspective, both Russo and Aubin are excited about the fact that 80-90% of the technical work, the service delivery, is performed remotely, through the Utility Service Center and Live Helpdesk.  This means neither of their businesses need to change significantly in order to provide a multitude of new services.  They can continue to concentrate on sales and customer service.  “It doesn’t take time away from our core focus”, said Aubin, “which will always be to provide our customers with top notch service and products”.

 “We are delighted to bring both Joe and Yves’ teams on board as new Utility Service Providers”, stated Mark Scott, President of The Utility Company.  “We’ve stated that BMS 2.0 allows vertical channels such as office equipment dealers and telecom resellers to painlessly add recurring technology service revenues to their existing business and the addition of both Imagepath and Multivox help prove it.  Most importantly, we are excited to add Joe and Yves to our family.  They understand the benefits of Connected Office services for their customers and appreciate the “business-in-a-box” solution we’ve given them for adding those services quickly and transparently.”

Details on the Beyond Managed Services franchise opportunity are available by prospectus only in Canada and in most states in the U.S.  Connected Office services are currently available across North America to small and medium-sized businesses looking to operate, communicate and manage their businesses more effectively.

About The Utility Company™

The Utility Company is the leading provider of information technology as a utility to small and medium-sized businesses, delivering the required hardware, software and service for a monthly fee per user.  Our Connected Office™ technology service program empowers people to operate, communicate and manage their business more effectively to increase productivity, performance and ultimately profit.  Our customers are supported by the Utility Service Network delivering on-site service and business-technology consulting across North America – technology sales, professionals and service organizations can review the Beyond Managed Services™ franchise opportunity on our website.  Learn how to make technology work for your business today at www.theutilitycompany.com

For more information contact:

Aaron Bradley
Marketing Manager
1-866-My-Utility ext.7675
abradley@theutilitycompany.com