Auckland-based software company Agility CIS has won a tender to pilot its Orion utility billing software system in Oman, which if successful will handle all that country's power bills.

Agility beat off fierce global competition to win the contract, CEO Mike Thorne said.

Oman wanted to replace its existing outsourced billing and collections service for its electricity holding company, EHC.

EHC distributes power to more than 650,000 users, and Agility's pilot will bill 50,000 customers for six months, after which EHC will decide whether to roll the system out nationally.

''The Middle East is a very promising market area, with a number of countries looking to upgrade their outdated billing systems,'' Thorne said

''That's exactly the kind of change that creates opportunities for us.''

If successful, the deal will be worth "well north of a million dollars" Thorne said.

EHC spokesman Michael Lim said Agility was chosen because of its readiness to deploy.

"A project like this happens only once for a country like the Sultanate of Oman. We looked at the functionality very closely and found Orion's time for implementation was faster than the others.''

The Orion system manages multiple services including electricity, gas, water telephony and internet. It can work in both regulated and deregulated markets.

Agility hopes to have the pilot ready to launch within eight months.

- © Fairfax NZ News