OREANDA-NEWS. April 28, 2015. Grant County Public Utility District (PUD), which provides electricity to more than 48,000 consumers throughout Grant County in Washington, implemented Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing solutions to enable its staff to deliver superior customer service and seamlessly consolidate accounts for improved operational efficiency.

Because Grant PUD serves a wide range of consumers—from residential neighborhoods to large industries, data server farms to agricultural irrigation accounts—it needed a solution that would be flexible and robust enough to meet the unique needs of its clients, and one that offered an easy onboarding process for its customer service staff.

“Superior customer service is pivotal to our success as a utility. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing was a seamless transition from our prior system for our customer service staff and our customers. Employee training time was minimized through an intuitive user interface and by providing support staff with direct access to complete customer account histories,” said Annette Lovitt, project manager, Grant PUD.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing solutions help Grant PUD’s team answer 90 percent of customer inquiries from the main page of the platform without having to move through multiple screens, so representatives can provide assistance with one or two clicks—improving the customer experience and boosting team productivity. Additionally, the preconfigured data conversion tools and approaches in the Oracle solution simplified the utility’s complex rate for its irrigation clients. For every meter, Grant PUD had two service agreements, and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing enabled the utility to merge these agreements and consolidate approximately 5,000 accounts.

“Grant PUD’s smooth implementation of Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is helping the utility achieve optimal operational efficiency by elevating customer service and driving cost savings in its business operations. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing helps utilities, such as Grant PUD, streamline business processes and rapidly execute strategic business initiatives,” said Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities.