EET&D: I don’t think it would make sense for us to begin this interview without talking about your appetite for acquisitions. Since 2004 Harris has acquired several companies, all involved in one way or another in customer information systems. These acquisitions include platforms Cayenta, ImSoftech, Advanced Utility Solutions, and most recently, Systems & Software – pretty much in that order. Were all of these deals part of a grand plan, or did they just sort of come along one at a time?

Bender: That’s a really good question. When a significant part of your strategy involves acquisitions – it is more challenging to create a grand plan – because you never really know if you will be successful in acquiring your way there. One thing that we have learned is that predicting the timing of acquisitions is next to impossible due to the variety of factors involved in getting deals done. Having said that we certainly have worked very diligently at understanding the CIS market and building relationships with the players within it – so that we are positioned to be a successful acquirer. There is no question that we do have a grand plan of what we are trying to create at Harris – but that continues to change and evolve based on what we learn from our customers, the companies that we are able to acquire and how the CIS market continues to change.

EET&D: How does a utility decide which solution set is best for them?

Bender: The fact is, it is not really an organization or a utility buying our solutions, but rather a group of individuals and people – all with their own unique preferences, desires, wants and needs.

We believe that users are the best judges of what they need. We engage with our customers to explain the benefits and advantages of each of our solutions and how they link back to their individual business objectives and definition of value, but they know their business better than we ever can. So we empower users to choose whatever solution they believe is best for them by allowing them to make the trade-offs that are most important to them. Often times the vendor will try and convince a prospect what matters and what does not – we have moved this critical role back into the hands of our customers.

EET&D: Given that there is so much diversity across the various utilities, how are you able to satisfy all of those routinely variable requirements?

Bender: Harris has thousands of utility customers and hundreds of utility-focused employees throughout North America. They range from the smallest private water system to large investor-owned utilities and everything in between in the municipal and co-op market. This variety of customers and the corresponding variety of utility solutions we offer allow us to speak to utilities as true business partners – we are the market experts. When you combine our market knowledge, our financial resources and stability with our focus on the long term – we find that many utilities are very interested in what we have to offer. Our business model makes us great owners of CIS solutions and allows us to leverage the strengths of each solution set to the advantage of our customers – especially over the long term.

EET&D: So that our readers can better understand how and where all of these pieces fit, could you give us a brief synopsis of the five business units and what I’d call the ‘principal differentiators’ of each?

Bender: Let’s go ahead and have the GM from each division do that since they are really in the best position to answer that question for their individual solutions.

Brad Atchison (General Manager – Cayenta): Cayenta has been in the utility market for over two decades. We believe we have one of the most comprehensive and fully integrated ERP offerings available in the market today. We combine our Cayenta Utilities CIS suite – which includes a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module – with Financial and Operations Management. The CRM module allows our customers to extensively automate and enhance their business processes, allowing them to benefit from their specific business processes and requirements.

Our Operations Management Suite includes Work Orders, Equipment and Fixed Assets and our full Financial Suite supports both FERC and RUS accounting. The foundation of Cayenta’s successful project methodology emphasizes “People, Process & Technology”. This pragmatic and consultative approach allows Cayenta to scale implementations to fit the needs and complexity of customers of various sizes. Cayenta serves all utility service types and also has a robust capital credits module designed for our Co-op customers.

Ponder Wright (General Manager  – InHance): InHance Utility Solutions serves over 150 customers, providing mid-size
to smaller water utilities a single integrated solution. The InHance solution includes CIS, integrated financials as well as service orders (traditional or wireless), inventory and equipment management and backflow tracking. From a technology perspective InHance has standardized on the Microsoft SQL Server platform allowing us to take full advantage of MS-SQL integration for speed, tools, third-party integration and security.

Our scalable implementation model is flexible enough to support the required levels of service for utilities from 4,000 to 80,000 connections. While the majority of our new customers each year accept our standard implementation methodology, each year we also look for one or two larger sized accounts where we can partner – assigning them our most senior staff and delivering a customized implementation that they are not usually able to find elsewhere.

Steven Hammond (General Manager – Advanced): Advanced was founded over a decade ago to provide a Microsoft based solution to the utility market – a need we felt was un-served. Since then Advanced has grown to over 70 customers in six countries. Over this time we have continued to advance our technology evolving to Microsoft’s .NET platform. In order to meet the needs of many of our customers and market preferences we have chosen and do support Microsoft SQL as well as Oracle database platforms. Advanced customers span the spectrum of services offered including electric, gas, water, wastewater, Internet and solid waste.

Our unique implementation methodology allows us to install CIS Infinity at small, mid-sized and large utilities with proven scalability. Later this year CIS Infinity will support multiple languages facilitating our continued international expansion. We also offer a portfolio of valued-added products that include solutions that allow utility customers to view and pay bills online, enable mobile service orders, provide customer service orders, provide customer service kiosks, provide business intelligence and analytics, integrate geographic Information systems data and enable IVR.

Robert DiMurro (General Manager – NorthStar): NorthStar has been serving the utility market for more than 30 years. NorthStar provides utilities with integrated solutions for customer information and billing, financial management and more recently, meter data management. Our more than 200 customers in North America and the Caribbean, benefit from our solutions that let utilities manage their revenues, deliver superior customer service and improve efficiencies while reducing total cost of ownership.

Our flagship NorthStar CIS solution currently manages more than seven million utility accounts. All of our customer relationships combine a focus on long-term relationships, the mission critical nature of our solutions and a drive to exceed our customer’s expectations. A seasoned and savvy professional services team resolves any immediate issues, while an active, close-knit, facilitated customer-support community keeps NorthStar clients abreast of new developments.

Dave Decker (General Manager – Systems & Software): Systems & Software (S&S) has been dedicated to the electric, gas and water utility industry for over 35 years with a single focus remaining on long-term customer support and relationship management. We focus on larger size utilities – typically those having 100,000 to 500,000 metered services. Close collaboration with our customers provides the basis for continuous significant improvements to our base ERP solution as well as a steady stream of new offerings. We have also integrated a number of partner solutions that include online cashiering, IVR, credit card transaction processing, and document management, just to name a few.

Moreover, proven implementation methodology combines the best traits of a traditional software company delivery model with the implementation rigor of a systems integration firm. Our 4-phase methodology: Initiate, Design, Build and Activate, has resulted in successful implementations at utilities throughout the United States.

EET&D: I must say that’s quite a comprehensive array of solutions, but why not just fold it all into one product?

Bender: As you can see each of our CIS solutions are unique and provide a very different value proposition – providing our customers with the ability to decide what makes the most sense for them. Instead of attempting  to build out one product to address all the various decision elements Harris has decided to put together a portfolio of solutions and brands that address these elements in different ways. This allows users to select the solution that provides them with the best overall value – both in the short- and long-term. It also allows them to determine what “value” is to them. For some, that may be purely a cost issue, while for others, functionality and features count, for others technology or as is more often the case a unique combination reflective of the people involved in the decision process.

EET&D: Obviously, you have a large footprint in CIS, but how are users dealing with all of the data and application integration that we hear so much about these days?

Bender: There is no question that the quantity of data has increased substantially as has the requirement to link disparate systems to enhance a utilities ability to better service their customers. With the increase in data volumes and requirement for application integration comes increased risk. We are using a combined approach to help our customers succeed. We continue to expand our solution offerings to allow our customers to benefit from the increased data available – to make better and more timely decisions.

We also continue to invest in current technology and employ the most current development standards to support application integration and the free flow of information across and within systems with APIs (application programming interfaces) and with web services. Substantially all buyers of customer information systems – especially enterprise-wide deployments – want to be assured that the solution they select will be supported, enhanced and thrive in the future. And what they fear most is a solution that might disappear sometime in the future. In other words, regardless of how much or how little integration they plan to do, reducing decision risk is of paramount importance because no one wants to fail and no one wants to be associated with a failed implementation – personally or professionally. 

EET&D: So once they get past the issues of fear, uncertainty and doubt, how do utilities actually decide which solution set is going to be the best one for them?

Bender: This is what makes our customer choice strategy so interesting and, we believe, effective. There is no single right answer – the answer is: It depends. It depends on what the customer determines is most important. Part of the Harris strategy is to remove the concern surrounding the ability of the solution to survive over the long term from the decision process. Once this is gone users are free to focus on what really matters to them.

EET&D: What else figures into this decision process beyond functionality and sustainable longevity?

Bender: People, relationships and cultural fit. We have a lot of domain knowledge when it comes to CIS solutions and the utility industry. We combine this knowledge with building deep and long-lasting relationships. Each of our CIS solutions is part of a business unit – each with its own employees, experiences and ways of doing things.

This allows users to select which culture fits and aligns best with their own. Gaining a level of comfort and familiarity is a very important element in the overall decision process. The reality is that CIS solutions are just software until you add the human element, which in our case, means dedicated, experienced and committed employees.

EET&D: It’s still hard to understand how all of these offerings are able to peacefully co-exist. Can you perhaps explain that a bit more?

Bender: First, you must understand that all of our solutions at one time co-existed in the marketplace as head-to-head competitors – so peaceful may not be the right descriptor. What we require of all of our businesses and employees is mutual respect – for each other and especially for our customers. As the groups work together they realize that many of their pre-conceived notions don’t hold much truth and that in fact, there is much that can be learned from one another.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues that need to be addressed – as they are all competing for business, and each group is very competitive. The truth of the matter is that many of our brands and solutions would still be competing today if we had not put them together. So, what we are doing in effect is continuing the competition that existed previously, albeit under a common umbrella. We believe that competition is healthy and keeps our solutions evolving in ways that will allow us to remain at the forefront of the industry.

EET&D: I can see how that would have some potentially unique advantages and economies that would not be otherwise available to more traditionally structured companies. Is that a valid assessment?

Bender: We are not big believers in synergies. We actually have only focused on creating economies of scale in one area of our business. Our overall business model provides us with the ability to significantly reduce financial and administrative investments across our solutions and brands thereby increasing the amount of direct customer and product resources we have within each of our individual solutions. We refer to this as the real economies of scale. We allow our businesses to maintain or increase their levels of customer facing employees – while leveraging back office systems, processes and support. This is not insignificant as many businesses invest more than 20% of their revenues in this area.

EET&D: Finally, I want to ask about your thoughts on the economy – something that is on everyone’s mind these days – and for good reason. Somewhat ironically, the economy is in the tank at precisely the same time that utilities are facing what is arguably their biggest challenge ever: simultaneous grid transformation and infrastructure renewal. What do you see the role being for CIS as the Smart Grid evolves? Is it business as usual, or will we see something entirely different on the other side of this massive period of reconstruction and redefinition?

Bender: Thinking back to the early days of deregulation, utilities and continuous change have gone hand in hand for the past decade – as has their ability to adapt, improve and thrive. The evolution of the Smart Grid has been very interesting to not only watch, but more importantly, to be a part of. CIS remains at the heart of utility customer service operations as it has for decades. The Smart Grid and the current focus on conservation and the heightened awareness of our use of commodities is an opportunity for us to continue to build out the importance of our solutions.

I think it’s reasonable to predict that the role and value of the CIS is changing and will continue to change. From the Harris perspective, we are working with our customers to redefine their relationships with their customers – in terms of information, service and benefits provided. In that way, I feel we can keep our finger on the pulse of whatever the Smart Grid and grid transformation may bring and be prepared to deal with it in a meaningful and pro-active way.