1. Payment Channels A Case Study of Payment Practices
Julie Compton Pellizzi
Project Leader
Customer Solutions Technology

2. About AGL Resources Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia
Approximately 2,400 employees
Serves more than 2.2 million average customers through natural gas utilities in six states
Largest marketer in Georgia under the Georgia Natural Gas brand through majority ownership of SouthStar
Diversified operations include asset management with Sequent Energy Management and gas storage projects in Louisiana and Texas.

3. About AGL Resources Atlanta Gas Light Chattanooga Gas
Elizabethtown Gas
Elkton Gas
Florida City Gas
Virginia Natural Gas

4. Distribution Operations
ETG
Elkton
VNG
CGC
AGL
FCG

5. Atlanta Gas Light
More than 1.5 million average customers as of June 30,2007
Function to sell retail natural gas deregulated since 1997
Currently 12 marketers

6. Chattanooga Gas 62,000 average customers as of June 30, 2007
Serves Hamilton and Bradley counties in southeast TN

7. Elizabethtown Gas 272,000 average customers as of June 30, 2007
Serves Union, Middlesex, Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Morris and Mercer counties

8. Elkton Gas 6,000 average customers as of June 30, 2007
Serves Greater Elkton on Maryland’s Eastern shore

9. Florida City Gas 104,000 average customers as of June 30, 2007
Serves Miami-Dade and Brevard counties

10. Virginia Natural Gas 271,000 customers as of June 30, 2007
Serves Southeastern VA

11. Electronic Commerce 7,806,447 = EDI transactions for 2006 Supply Chain
Purchase Orders
Invoices
Vendor Payments

12. Electronic Commerce – Part Two
North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) Transactions
Available No-Notice Withdrawal for Operator – G873ANNW & G873ANNI
Pre-Determined Allocation – G873PDAL
Request for Confirmation – G873RQCF
Confirmation Response – G873RRFC
Scheduling – G873SQOP
Enrollments / Response – Original, Changes and Drops
Historical and Monthly Meter Usage - 867
Energy Service Provider Invoicing & Application Advice – 810 & 824

13. Electronic Commerce – Part Three
How do we handle customers’ gas payments?
How do we incorporate six utilities’ regulatory requirements?
Multiple Channels
Lockbox
Electronic
Walk-in
Collection Agencies

14. Natural Gas Payments Payment Methods Payment Types
ACH/CTX/CIE – various online banking tools or corporate functions
IVR - Speedpay
Web - Speedpay
Recurring – authorized monthly withdrawals
Payment Types
ACH (checking, savings, money market)
Credit Cards, ATM Cards, Pin-less Debit Cards

15. Payment Partners Over 180,000 transactions/month:
Certegy (Fidelity BillPay®)
CheckFree
CheckFreePay
Global Express
MasterCard RPPS®
Metavante
Online Resources
WesternUnion® Speedpay®
Western Union Speedpay is a registered service mark
of E Commerce Group Products, Inc.

16. AGL Resources Case Study Payment practices using Western Union Speedpay
Ten + years ago – “check by phone” concept patented
Check writing software installed – DOS based
Physically printed checks and mailed to lockbox
Upgraded to Windows version
Migration to the Speedpay ASP extranet application

17. Service Overview Many channels maximize payment acceptance capabilities
AGL
Resources

18. Service Overview
05/03: Chattanooga Gas (CGC) & Virginia Natural Gas (VNG)
Go Live on Extranet
01/05: VNG adds IVR & Internet Channels
03/05: CGC adds IVR & Internet Channels
06/05: Elkton Gas, Elizabethtown Gas & Florida City Gas
Go Live on Extranet, IVR & Internet
09/06: Rollout of payments accepted via API

19. Electronic Payment Volume May 2003 – May 2007
YEAR
VOLUME
61,538
113,236
319,793
387,903

20. Payment Trends Distribution of electronic payments by type
CSR ASSISTED
100%
85%
39%
31%
SELF SERVE 0%
15%
61%
69%

21. Payment Trends Distribution of electronic payments by interface
Channel %
CSR
100
IVR
WEB
API
Channel %
CSR 85
IVR 7
WEB 8
API
Channel %
CSR 39
IVR 25
WEB 36
API
Channel %
CSR 17
IVR 21
WEB 48
API 14

22. Payment Trends Distribution by payment type
PMT %
ACH
100
ATM
CARD
PMT %
ACH 68
ATM 2
CARD 30
PMT %
ACH 58
ATM 6
CARD 36
PMT %
ACH 60
ATM 6
CARD 34

23. Electronic Volumes Before & after fee addition
03/05: Same Fee
Across all Channels*
YEAR
VOLUME
61,538
113,236
319,793
387,903
* With the NUI acquisition, some payments were coming in through another vendor, but were migrated to Speedpay

24. Current & Future Initiatives Web Services
Real-time integration via Web services
Current Initiatives
Performs Web service call to execute a payment transaction
Future Initiatives
Account validation lookup using a Web service call

25. Current & Future Initiatives Flexible Pricing Models
Continue to refine payment options
Modification to payment model possible
Customer service portal
Electronic Bill Presentment

26. Current & Future Initiatives Potential Additional Channels
Online Banking Payments
Recurring Payments
Outbound Messaging
Can be integrated with payment IVR
Mobile/SMS Payments
Electronic Bill Presentment

27. Current & Future Initiatives Consumer Marketing Campaign Assistance
Create awareness & educate consumers
Past and future plans service:
*Postcards/Direct Mail *Couponing
*Statement Messaging *Web Messaging
* Messaging *Bill Stuffers
*IVR Messaging *Magnets

28. Current & Future Initiatives Consumer marketing campaign assistance