Market restructuring and regulatory requirements are changing the way utilities operate. At the center of industry change is the Customer Information System, often referred to as the CIS. By upgrading or outsourcing their CIS, utilities are repositioning themselves as innovative, customer- friendly, and technologically savvy companies.
For utilities, its enhanced customer service, new marketing opportunities and efficient operations
The CIS has traditionally been seen as a back office collection and billing system. Today the CIS is viewed as an essential part of the evolving, larger picture of customer relationship management, and a new way for utilities to streamline operations and improve customer service. New CIS technology is helping utilities to:
CIS providers provide highly functional systems that allow utilities to customize their CIS solution and take advantage of industry change. Examples include customer contact and electronic work queue systems.
Customer Contact
To date, utilities have not been capturing information about all interactions with customers and to make that data available across its operations. As a result, they face a significant hurdle to achieving long lasting customer relationships.
A unique feature of some CIS systems is the capability to support a customer data entity and promote a single point of customer contact. With this technology, new and potential customers are assigned a customer identifier that tracks and records all customer interactions.
Systems for customer contact provide customer service representatives (CSRs) with instant access to customers’ contact histories, including service calls, meter readings and payment records. Some systems also allow for the recording and managing of all correspondence with customers, including bill inserts, telephone inquiries and email.
The system reduces errors and saves time by recording, tracking and scripting customer interactions and conversations, while allowing immediate processing of requests and automatic generation of service orders and correspondence.
Systems like electronic work queue also help utilities improve customer service by facilitating work load management, allowing utilities to set up multiple service goals guidelines in order to determine the level of service the utility provides to its customers.
Electronic work queue systems can also determine if a task has passed service goal tolerances. If so, the system automatically escalates tasks to the attention of targeted people (e.g. a CSR assigned to the account) within the utility.
Marketing Opportunities
Historically, utilities have focused their marketing efforts on building their marketing profiles, taking little time to target their customers with specific promotions or sales incentives. The CIS’s functionality provides an ideal solution for utilities looking to embark on new target marketing programs.
Another CIS feature, like targeted marketing systems, access raw data that allows utilities to design, manage and execute customized marketing programs. If the customer is calling regarding a high bill, it can prompt a CSR to promote items such as energy efficient light bulbs, and easily set up scripts for CSRs to follow. The system allows utilities to target specific market segments and track the results and effectiveness of each program.
Improve Operations
A significant challenge for utilities is managing meter-based work and equipment and product-based orders efficiently and accurately. The challenge is compounded when the utility needs to manage the information across a large customer-base and a wide geographical distribution area.
A service order system allows utilities to assign, schedule, and track all activities for the customer base, including meter maintenance and collections, and allows utilities to:
A geographical control capability allows utilities to address sprawling service areas and growing customer-bases. The system tracks financial information as well as sales, tax rates, customer growth and work assignments for each service area. This allows utilities to break their information up into smaller segments, to spot inefficiencies and to ensure consistent and optimal service throughout their operations.
Flexible Billing
One of the results of deregulation is the unbundling of services that utilities offer. As a result, customer systems must accommodate the identification of multiple suppliers, customer agreements, customer usage and numerous billings across several entities, including generation and transmission suppliers, distribution companies, and power marketers.
Today’s customer system must support the utility’s need to meet evolving regulations and to bring new products and services to the marketplace. Current CIS technology allows for the consolidation of multiple accounts, as well as combining multiple products and services for an account, into a single customer bill. Rates can also be unbundled into separate components, and available bill formatting allows the utility to quickly change the utility’s bill format to accommodate new products. Increased functionality enables utilities to offer advanced billing, allowing for a more effective collections process and additional customer choice.
Embrace the Internet
Deregulation and competition are driving utilities to compete for customers using the Internet. As a result, utilities are increasingly using the World Wide Web as an integration medium to support new customer service initiatives, including Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP).
With EBPP customers can view, store and pay bills online. Customers can receive an electronic bill by email, or view their bill at the utility’s Web site. Links to consumption history, graphs and bill profiles enable customers to get a better understanding of what they are paying for and how to reduce their usage costs.
Chartwell Inc., an energy and utility research company, estimates that it costs $1.25 to print, process and send a bill through the mail, while it costs only about 40 cents to process an electronic bill. Instead of managing paper transactions, EBPP allows utilities to manage an electronic process that is economical and efficient. Electronic billing reduces missed payments, bounced checks and associated costs, and automatically updates accounts when payments are made.
A further benefit is that EBPP enables targeted marketing initiatives. For example, the banner ad at the top of a customer’s bill can be relevant to their interests, living conditions and demographic characteristics (e.g. if you live in a condo, you wouldn’t see a banner ad selling you high-efficiency home heating systems or air conditioning).
EBPP also allows energy providers to take advantage of print stream three-in-one solutions that eliminate the need to manage multiple systems and ensure consistency for all bill presentment needs. A three-in-one solution creates an electronic bill, a paper bill, and a CSR bill view, all of which are identical. A simple click on the CSR’s screen allows the CSR to view bills exactly as customers see them, ensuring CSRs are better equipped to handle customer questions.
ASP Advantage
Because of the expense required to upgrade or replace a CIS, utilities often feel pressure to operate their legacy systems past their useful lifetime. For energy utilities, such problems are increased by the industry’s new sense of urgency. Mergers, a growing industry trend, in some ways pose greater problems for utilities because the difficulties of integrating two separate IT infrastructures are greater than building one from the ground up.
The complexity of Customer Information Systems means that implementations can be time-consuming and costly. As technology changes, the capital investment required can rise exponentially. Obsolescence provides an expensive and real threat. As a result, outsourcing the CIS to an Application Service Provider (ASP) is the best fit for many companies. Under this model, utilities are billed on a pay-per-use basis. The ASP provides the expertise required to host, customize, support and maintain the application.
The key benefit of an ASP is the ability to cost-effectively obtain specific IT processes and applications for organizations that lack the necessary labor, expertise, technology and/or finances. The ASP model allows quicker implementation and the ability to respond rapidly to new regulatory requirements or business initiatives. It also enables utilities to leverage the expertise of niche service providers on an ongoing basis.
Conclusion
Today’s customer information systems are a strategic resource reflecting utilities’ commitment to position themselves as competitive and customer-centric companies. The Customer Information System enables utilities to be timely and proactive in responding to customer requests, market forces and regulatory changes. By outsourcing its Customer Information System, utilities can leverage the IT and industry expertise of niche service providers and access the latest technology while avoiding huge upfront costs.
About the Author
As President of Enlogix Inc. Anthony Haines is responsible for leading North America’s largest Application Service Provider (ASP) for energy industry Customer Information Systems and associated services. Enlogix provides billing to over three million North Americans in the energy industry. For more information, please visit www.enlogix.com.
For utilities, its enhanced customer service, new marketing opportunities and efficient operations
The CIS has traditionally been seen as a back office collection and billing system. Today the CIS is viewed as an essential part of the evolving, larger picture of customer relationship management, and a new way for utilities to streamline operations and improve customer service. New CIS technology is helping utilities to:
- Efficiently gather and manage customer information;
- Improve systems operations;
- Support new marketing initiatives;
- Provide flexible billing of services and multiple commodities;
- Leverage e-commerce and the Internet.
CIS providers provide highly functional systems that allow utilities to customize their CIS solution and take advantage of industry change. Examples include customer contact and electronic work queue systems.
Customer Contact
To date, utilities have not been capturing information about all interactions with customers and to make that data available across its operations. As a result, they face a significant hurdle to achieving long lasting customer relationships.
A unique feature of some CIS systems is the capability to support a customer data entity and promote a single point of customer contact. With this technology, new and potential customers are assigned a customer identifier that tracks and records all customer interactions.
Systems for customer contact provide customer service representatives (CSRs) with instant access to customers’ contact histories, including service calls, meter readings and payment records. Some systems also allow for the recording and managing of all correspondence with customers, including bill inserts, telephone inquiries and email.
The system reduces errors and saves time by recording, tracking and scripting customer interactions and conversations, while allowing immediate processing of requests and automatic generation of service orders and correspondence.
Systems like electronic work queue also help utilities improve customer service by facilitating work load management, allowing utilities to set up multiple service goals guidelines in order to determine the level of service the utility provides to its customers.
Electronic work queue systems can also determine if a task has passed service goal tolerances. If so, the system automatically escalates tasks to the attention of targeted people (e.g. a CSR assigned to the account) within the utility.
Marketing Opportunities
Historically, utilities have focused their marketing efforts on building their marketing profiles, taking little time to target their customers with specific promotions or sales incentives. The CIS’s functionality provides an ideal solution for utilities looking to embark on new target marketing programs.
Another CIS feature, like targeted marketing systems, access raw data that allows utilities to design, manage and execute customized marketing programs. If the customer is calling regarding a high bill, it can prompt a CSR to promote items such as energy efficient light bulbs, and easily set up scripts for CSRs to follow. The system allows utilities to target specific market segments and track the results and effectiveness of each program.
Improve Operations
A significant challenge for utilities is managing meter-based work and equipment and product-based orders efficiently and accurately. The challenge is compounded when the utility needs to manage the information across a large customer-base and a wide geographical distribution area.
A service order system allows utilities to assign, schedule, and track all activities for the customer base, including meter maintenance and collections, and allows utilities to:
- Define equipment requirements for customer services;
- Create new and/or system-generated service orders on demand;
- Identify the order in which events are to occur when multiple events occur on the same day;
- Maintain the status of service orders and events.
A geographical control capability allows utilities to address sprawling service areas and growing customer-bases. The system tracks financial information as well as sales, tax rates, customer growth and work assignments for each service area. This allows utilities to break their information up into smaller segments, to spot inefficiencies and to ensure consistent and optimal service throughout their operations.
Flexible Billing
One of the results of deregulation is the unbundling of services that utilities offer. As a result, customer systems must accommodate the identification of multiple suppliers, customer agreements, customer usage and numerous billings across several entities, including generation and transmission suppliers, distribution companies, and power marketers.
Today’s customer system must support the utility’s need to meet evolving regulations and to bring new products and services to the marketplace. Current CIS technology allows for the consolidation of multiple accounts, as well as combining multiple products and services for an account, into a single customer bill. Rates can also be unbundled into separate components, and available bill formatting allows the utility to quickly change the utility’s bill format to accommodate new products. Increased functionality enables utilities to offer advanced billing, allowing for a more effective collections process and additional customer choice.
Embrace the Internet
Deregulation and competition are driving utilities to compete for customers using the Internet. As a result, utilities are increasingly using the World Wide Web as an integration medium to support new customer service initiatives, including Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP).
With EBPP customers can view, store and pay bills online. Customers can receive an electronic bill by email, or view their bill at the utility’s Web site. Links to consumption history, graphs and bill profiles enable customers to get a better understanding of what they are paying for and how to reduce their usage costs.
Chartwell Inc., an energy and utility research company, estimates that it costs $1.25 to print, process and send a bill through the mail, while it costs only about 40 cents to process an electronic bill. Instead of managing paper transactions, EBPP allows utilities to manage an electronic process that is economical and efficient. Electronic billing reduces missed payments, bounced checks and associated costs, and automatically updates accounts when payments are made.
A further benefit is that EBPP enables targeted marketing initiatives. For example, the banner ad at the top of a customer’s bill can be relevant to their interests, living conditions and demographic characteristics (e.g. if you live in a condo, you wouldn’t see a banner ad selling you high-efficiency home heating systems or air conditioning).
EBPP also allows energy providers to take advantage of print stream three-in-one solutions that eliminate the need to manage multiple systems and ensure consistency for all bill presentment needs. A three-in-one solution creates an electronic bill, a paper bill, and a CSR bill view, all of which are identical. A simple click on the CSR’s screen allows the CSR to view bills exactly as customers see them, ensuring CSRs are better equipped to handle customer questions.
ASP Advantage
Because of the expense required to upgrade or replace a CIS, utilities often feel pressure to operate their legacy systems past their useful lifetime. For energy utilities, such problems are increased by the industry’s new sense of urgency. Mergers, a growing industry trend, in some ways pose greater problems for utilities because the difficulties of integrating two separate IT infrastructures are greater than building one from the ground up.
The complexity of Customer Information Systems means that implementations can be time-consuming and costly. As technology changes, the capital investment required can rise exponentially. Obsolescence provides an expensive and real threat. As a result, outsourcing the CIS to an Application Service Provider (ASP) is the best fit for many companies. Under this model, utilities are billed on a pay-per-use basis. The ASP provides the expertise required to host, customize, support and maintain the application.
The key benefit of an ASP is the ability to cost-effectively obtain specific IT processes and applications for organizations that lack the necessary labor, expertise, technology and/or finances. The ASP model allows quicker implementation and the ability to respond rapidly to new regulatory requirements or business initiatives. It also enables utilities to leverage the expertise of niche service providers on an ongoing basis.
Conclusion
Today’s customer information systems are a strategic resource reflecting utilities’ commitment to position themselves as competitive and customer-centric companies. The Customer Information System enables utilities to be timely and proactive in responding to customer requests, market forces and regulatory changes. By outsourcing its Customer Information System, utilities can leverage the IT and industry expertise of niche service providers and access the latest technology while avoiding huge upfront costs.
About the Author
As President of Enlogix Inc. Anthony Haines is responsible for leading North America’s largest Application Service Provider (ASP) for energy industry Customer Information Systems and associated services. Enlogix provides billing to over three million North Americans in the energy industry. For more information, please visit www.enlogix.com.
