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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           

(CALGARY, AB—March 31, 2008)— Spira Data Corp., a leading innovator and provider of electronic data acquisition software solutions, today announced that it has been included in IDC Canada’s report entitled “10 Canadian Wireless Companies to Watch”, published March 27, 2008. 

IDC Canada’s “10 Canadian Wireless Companies to Watch” report is part of the Canadian Technology Innovation Watch report series, which profiles emerging Canadian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies, examining their technologies, go-to-market strategies, partnering approaches, and customers. The series also highlights the common challenges of bringing new technologies to market and the successful strategies and best practices these companies use to overcome those challenges.

This report profiled ten Canadian wireless companies that IDC sees as having the potential to make a substantial impact in the industry.  The key criteria for the report included clarity of vision of both vendor technology and business evolution, development of partner ecosystems, strength of customer base, and the navigation of competitive environments.  “We are very excited and honoured to be recognized in IDC Canada’s report” said Jon Watts, President of Spira Data Corp.  “This national recognition reinforces Spira’s Wireless Field Ticketing (WFT) technology as a viable, innovative solution that increases productivity while decreasing costs for field-based businesses and field workers alike. At Spira, we have discovered that only one-fifth of field-based companies within vertical industries—such as oil and gas services, energy and utilities—capture their raw field data electronically. And those that currently capture their data electronically are mainly small to mid-size businesses that are forcing large enterprises to take notice of the value added benefits and return on investment of wireless field ticketing. 

Spira’s WFT v4.8 represents a new way to capture and transport data, and IDC Canada’s recognition of our technology indicates that wireless field ticketing is an emerging innovation that is needed in field-based industries.”  “IDC's latest study highlights the wealth of wireless technologies and entrepreneurial endeavors across Canada,” said Krista Collins, Analyst, Canadian IT Innovation and Export for IDC Canada. “The companies in this study, including Spira, have developed impressive wireless solutions that deliver greater efficiency, productivity, and engaging interactions, and are positioned for growth locally and globally.”

 

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Spira Wireless Field Ticketing v4.8 is now Available to Field Service-based Businesses

(CALGARY, AB—November 20, 2007)— Spira Data Corp., a leading provider of wireless field data acquisition software solutions, today announced the official release of Spira Wireless Field Ticketing (WFT) version 4.8 to publicly-traded and privately-owned businesses that deploy field workers.

“Until now, Spira wireless field ticketing technology has only been available to the oil, gas and energy services sectors.  With our latest innovation of Spira WFT v4.8, businesses across multiple sectors now have the ability to launch wireless field ticketing that is fully customizable to meet their specific business needs,” said Jon Watts, President of Spira Data Corp.  “This product is a significant advancement and opportunity for businesses to save on operational costs, especially in response to the rising inflation rates, the appreciating Canadian dollar and the need to create efficiencies.  We are excited to offer businesses this cost effective solution that will automate their field data capture and processing.  We are also pleased to offer our customers more new features and benefits that will help elevate their return on investment.”

Joel Martin, Vice President of Enterprise Applications, IDC Canada, notes that wireless field ticketing is emerging from its infantile stage and demand for this technology is on the rise.
“IDC research has begun to suggest that there is a clear need for electronic field ticketing technology across the North American market.  I attribute this to heightened security concerns, necessary productivity improvements of field staff and remote customers, and requirements to better manage and support company assets,” said Martin.  He adds that he is “impressed by Spira’s management, diagnostic, user and device-centric approach.”
Spira WFT v4.8 is a comprehensive yet easy-to-use wireless field ticketing solution that captures, transmits and calculates data from the field to a central location. 

Key new features include:
• New Friendly User Interface with High Diagnostic Visibility
• Increased Accuracy through Data Requirements
• Enhanced Auditable Transaction Record
• Ticket Routing within the Organization
• Enhanced Electronic Signature Capture
• Streamlined Administration
• Advanced Operational Reporting
• Customizable Job and Ticket Entry Forms
• Enhanced Electronic Price Books
• Customizable User Defined Fields
• Multi-form support
• Multi-device support
• Increased Inter-System integration

“We are dedicated to providing the best wireless field ticketing solution that is simple to install, administer and operate, while also providing high quality performance and flexibility,” continued Watts.  “Spira 4.8 is the next-generation, one-stop-shop WFT solution. We provide businesses solutions that contribute to their bottom line through innovative field data technology.”

For more information about Spira WFT v4.8, please visit: www.spiradata.com/product/about-spira-4.8.html

 

About Spira Data Corp.
Spira Data Corp. is a leading innovator and provider of electronic data management software solutions. Founded in 2005, Spira powers companies of all sizes to automate and streamline business processes and data from the field to the office with their flagship software solution, Spira Wireless Field Ticketing. This innovative solution facilitates a myriad of operational and financial oil field data capture, including expenses, equipment, materials, and billing. Spira Data Corp. is based in Calgary, Alberta. For more information, visit www.spiradata.com.

 

        
SPIRA DATA CORP. PROVIDES SIGNIFICANT ROI TO FIREMASTER’S FIELD TICKETING PROCESS

Spira Wireless Field Ticketing Solution Brings Automation to Firemaster

(CALGARY, AB—October 25, 2007)— Spira Data Corp., a leading innovator and provider of electronic data acquisition software solutions, today announced that Firemaster Oilfield Services, Ltd., a full service safety company for the oil and gas industry, reports substantial return on investment with the Spira Wireless Field Ticketing (WFT) solution.

“Since deploying Spira WFT in 2006, Firemaster’s supervisors, field workers and administrators have recognized more time-saving and cost-saving benefits cross-departmentally and throughout our eight field offices,” said Kenji Kokaji, P. Eng, Engineering Manager of Firemaster.  “The benefits include significant increase in speed of ticket recovery from the field, instant work-to-invoice turnaround time, and simplified approval processing.  These benefits now enable our team to focus on the relevant, such as emergency response or worksite safety, rather than worrying about pricing discounts, minimum quantity pricing, and calculations.”

Prior to implementing Spira WFT, Firemaster’s in-house field ticketing system involved a manual paper-pen process to capture raw field data, shipping of field tickets and forms in boxes and manually entering data at headquarters.  At the time, the work-to-invoice process took about four to six weeks to complete.  Manual entries also presented other challenges, such as manual calculation errors, incorrect pricing and correcting triplicate carbon copies for records and invoicing. 
“To this day, many companies in the oilfield services industry are still completely paper-based and, as a result, they continue to struggle with inaccuracies, delayed processing time and the inability to digitize their field data,” said Darcy Tuer, Vice President of Operations, Spira Data Corp.  “With Firemaster, we saw an opportunity to work with them to provide an automated field ticketing solution that would solve some immediate data capture requirements and allow them to continue a strong history of offering cutting-edge services to their customers, while also improving their bottom line.”
Kokaji explained that Spira Data Corp. was their vendor of choice because Spira Wireless Field Ticketing included all of the significant features they needed.  “It was important for us to have a complete wireless and electronic field ticketing system that was user-friendly, built using the latest development tools and technologies, and most importantly was able to adapt to our existing and sometimes complex work practices,” said Kokaji.  “Spira WFT was a solution we believed met our immediate and long-term needs.”
Since implementing Spira WFT, Kokaji explained that their previous experience of drawn-out, error-prone manual field ticketing processes is now a thing of the past. “At Firemaster, Spira has helped us manage our data across the board and our field workers and administrators love it,” said Kokaji. “Since data is stored securely offsite, all stations can access their specific reports and statistics at any time.  New figures have begun to appear: 100 per cent of operational data is captured. Dramatic reduction of errors. Gone are long invoicing times. Complex price books are handled automatically by Spira’s software, and the whole process is both started and completed in one day.”

Spira WFT is an electronic data management software solution that helps organizations automate and streamline their business workflow in the field, in the office and on the bottom line.  Spira WFT 4.8 will be generally available to businesses in November 2007.

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About Spira Data Corp.
Spira Data Corp. is a leading innovator and provider of electronic data management software solutions. Founded in 2005, Spira powers companies of all sizes to automate and streamline business processes and data from the field to the office with their flagship software solution, Spira Wireless Field Ticketing. This innovative solution facilitates a myriad of operational and financial oil field data capture, including expenses, equipment, materials, and billing. Spira Data Corp. is based in Calgary, Alberta. For more information, visit www.spiradata.com.

About Firemaster
Firemaster Oilfield Services Inc. offers a full range of safety services for oil and gas job sites.  Services include emergency well control, fire protection, H2S safety, environmental monitoring, medical services and professional training.  Firemaster has eight operations strategically located throughout Western Canada to provide immediate 24-hour emergency response. For more information, please visit www.firemaster.ca.

 

 

 

           
SPIRA DATA CORP. PARTNERS WITH SIRRUS SOLUTIONS TO LAUNCH INTEGRATED FIELD TICKETING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOLUTION

Spira Data and Sirrus Solutions to Deliver Stratus Business Intelligence

(CALGARY, AB—September 18, 2007)— Spira Data Corp., a leading innovator and provider of electronic data acquisition software solutions, today announced it has partnered with Sirrus Solutions, a professional services provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, to offer companies a new one-stop shop electronic field ticketing BI solution called Stratus Business Intelligence. 

Stratus Business Intelligence is built on Spira’s trademarked field ticketing platform.  It is designed to capture field data and facilitate in-depth analysis of company operations through reports, dashboards and powerful analytical data cubes.

“We are excited to partner with Sirrus Solutions to offer businesses a first-of-its-kind electronic field ticketing BI solution.  For businesses that already deploy Spira Wireless Field Ticketing (WFT), they will have the option and opportunity to take Spira WFT to the next level with Stratus Business Intelligence by adding operational analysis to their field data processing automation,” said Jon Watts, President of Spira Data Corp.  “And for businesses looking to automate their manual field data capture, they will now have access to a fully integrated electronic field ticketing acquisition tool with advanced BI capabilities.” 

According to Dan Ellis, President of Sirrus Solutions, “Companies are better able to make wise decisions based on the availability and accuracy of its data.  We chose to partner with Spira Data because their field ticketing model is a standardized platform uniquely designed for electronic data acquisition and is highly configurable, which enables our engineers to design an integrated BI solution that captures data and reformats it for operational analysis.  The end product is Stratus Business Intelligence.”

Key features of Stratus Business Intelligence include:
• Powerful integration with Microsoft Excel®.
• Report viewer provides a high quality, interactive view of Microsoft SQL Server™ Reporting Services reports, allowing exports to various third-party formats.
• Analyzer viewer provides an intuitive channel for impromptu analysis of business performance data using Microsoft SQL Server™ Analysis Services.
• Drill through, search and sharing features as well as integrated user/data source administration capabilities.
• Stratus Connector for Spira provides a complete data warehouse solution for Spira users, including a standard reports package and analysis database for instant access to operational insight tools.

“We take great pride in knowing the tools and methods our customers need to better assist them in running their business,” said Watts.  “This partnership with Sirrus Solutions provides businesses the opportunity to take advantage of the underlying principles of obtaining faster, accurate data while accessing real-time operational information to help them make wise decisions.  Spira is setting the standard in intelligent field ticketing technology as is evident with our increasing partner ecosystem.”

Stratus Business Intelligence will be generally available to businesses with the launch of Spira 4.8 in 2007.  For more information about Stratus Business Intelligence, please visit: www.sirrussolutions.com/PDF/Stratus_Business_Intelligence.pdf

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About Spira Data Corp.
Spira Data Corp. is a leading innovator and provider of electronic data management software solutions. Founded in 2005, Spira powers companies of all sizes to automate and streamline business processes and data from the field to the office with their flagship software solution, Spira Wireless Field Ticketing. This innovative solution facilitates a myriad of operational and financial oil field data capture, including expenses, equipment, materials, and billing. Spira Data Corp. is based in Calgary, Alberta. For more information, visit www.spiradata.com.

About Sirrus Solutions
Sirrus Solutions is a boutique provider of Business Intelligence applications and custom designed systems.  Their primary focus is empowering users with powerful and flexible solutions for information access.  Sirrus Solutions’ Business Intelligence systems provide operational insight for companies of all sizes.  Sirrus Solutions is based in Calgary, Alberta. For more information, please visit www.sirrussolutions.com.

 

 

The company provides environmental services including weed control, soil drilling and hydroseeding. Other seasonal services include No-Flame Heaters and Steamers. Primarily for the oil and gas industry. Spira has been engaged at West Country Oilfield through TELUS in order to reliably capture and process field data. The company's struggle is getting billing information back to the office to be processed when they have crews working all over Western Canada. With the network and devices of TELUS and the Spira application they aim to reduce their billing errors and times significantly.

Spira Data Corp., a leading innovator and provider of electronic data management software solutions for the oil and gas services and energy services sectors, has unveiled the companys vision, technology road map and partner framework for the next generation oilfield data capture solutions at the GO Expo Conference in Calgary.

Spira Data is co-exhibiting at GO Expo with three VAR partners: Telus, Open Door Technology and Morphix Business Consulting.

Spiras revolutionary next-generation data capture solutions will drive the next major advancement in electronic oilfield data management technology for individual, team and organizational productivity in todays increasingly mobile work environment, said Jon Watts, president of Spira Data Corp.

We believe that through software, we can transform data management and data transmittal from the field to the office. Spira offers a highly configurable platform-based utilities system for the user, a highly customized model for the organization, and third-party data integration for business applications.

In support of this vision, Spira Data announced new and enhanced electronic data capture technologies that will be part of the Spira Wireless Field Ticketing solution.

The company will incorporate key capabilities including:

- A new user interface for maximum user adoption;
- Data exchange capabilities for application integration;
- Increased scalability and flexibility to work for any size of company;
- Additional modules and plug-ins for added functionalities; and
- A commitment to build on knowledgeable and experienced distribution channels.

Built on a rich platform and supported by the extensive capabilities of our growing partner framework, Spiras electronic data management software offerings will deliver seamless, comprehensive and integrated data transmittal capabilities for businesses, continued Watts. This new robust and flexible software solution will enable the company to move effortlessly into vertical markets and meet the data management needs of the construction and services industries.

Watts added that to achieve the productivity revolution Spira believes is possible with electronic field data capture software technologies, they need to provide deeper integration of business applications within the processes organizations use every day.

Spira Data also announced that Spira 4.8, the next generation electronic data management software product, will be offered through a partnership model that includes Telus, Motorola Enterprise Products (formerly known as Symbol Technologies Inc.), Betach Solutions Inc., Open Door Technologies, Divestco Consulting, Synercor Systems Group Inc., and Morphix Business Consulting.

While these relationships are not exclusive, they have been an exciting part of our growth, said Watts.

The controlled beta version of Spira 4.8 is scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2007.

Spira Data Corp. is a leading innovator and provider of electronic data management software solutions for the oil and gas services and energy services sectors. Founded in 2005, Calgary-based Spira powers companies of all sizes to automate and streamline business processes and data from the field to the office with their flagship software solution, Spira Wireless Field Ticketing. This innovative solution facilitates a myriad of operational and financial oilfield data capture, including expenses, equipment, materials and billing.

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Firemaster is a leading safety service provider to the oilfield service industry. As part of improving administration efficiencies, Firemaster now can bring the same quality they deliver in the field to their own internal operations. Firemaster provides world class service and expects the same from a field ticketing package.

 

 

Spira is currently being deployed throughout this Grande Prairie based organization. Lead by a goal to become a more efficient organization form field ticket to financials Bonnett’s has embraced digital field tickets. As the implementation is well underway, Spira will be providing value to over 200 units across all of their business units by May 2006.

To reduce errors in the field and get tickets in for quick billing, Blackwatch Energy Services Trust has selected Spira and Telus to provide an end to end solution. By leveraging the TELUS infrastructure (devices, communication and hosting) in combination with Spira's industry vertical application; Blackwatch Energy Services Trust has an efficient and robust solution.

 

As a high quality slickline service provider in Western Canada, Redneckz (a division of Bonnetts Energy Services Trust) is known for their service and expertise. Now by employing the Spira application they will be on the leading edge in reforming their own internal processes as well. They are looking to digital field ticketing to provide accurate pricing and high levels of operational reporting. Scott Walker, Manager of Business Development says, "We are fantastic at what we do: slickline work. But field paperwork is something we needed to streamline; therefore giving my guys more time to do what they do best."

 

 

Tucker Wireline entered into a development agreement with Spira Data in late 2004. We believed that the development of a electronic field invoice that could be transmitted easily over existing Telus 1x network would increase our efficiency by improving work performed to pay dates, reduce hand errors, interface easier with customer systems and be easier to handle by our field supervisors. Everything we have done to date continues to confirm our initial beliefs of the benefits of the system. I believe this is one of the most field applicable software developments I have recently seen.

- Dave Jellett, P. Eng, VP Technical Services, Tucker Wireline Services

 

By importing their proprietary field reports into the Spira application, Century Frac is able to easily create accurate digital field tickets that get routed for approval and sent out for invoice right after the job has been completed. As a growing organization it was important for Century to be able to roll out a solution that provided a good field ticketing basis from the beginning.

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UNOTEC (Unique Oilfield Technology Services) has been using the Spira 4 operational system for the past four years. Since its implementation we have realized large efficiencies in our complicated invoicing process. I am able to provide timely and accurate reporting on all our operational data – from revenue reports right to specific job reporting. By using Spira, we have increased the accuracy of our data and in turn have been able to push out data entry to regional offices improving our human resource costs.

"A big Oil patch challenge is seasonality and major asset expenditures (peak is 2.5 times normal). We use Spira to manage 260 pieces of equipment. Spira nails utilization to the day by asset. No guess work in actual usage only in predicting the oil patch trend. I have and will continue to recommend this software to other people in the Oil and Gas service industry," said Paul Fredericks, CMA, Controller for UNOTEC.

 

This well established Red Deer based service organization has chosen Spira to handle all aspects of their operational data including digital field ticketing, equipment and personnel certifications and payroll. They are able to get all the information off their field tickets to get immediately to the right departments for approval without paper or re-keying. They can now upload payroll, AP, AR and inventory right to their accounting system.