OREANDA-NEWS. Utilities achieve operational excellence by adopting technologies that enable them to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable services that in turn help drive a superior customer experience. Greenville Utilities Commission (GUC) and Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) are among the organizations taking advantage of Oracle Utilities Express Implementations by Oracle Utilities Professional Services to obtain value faster from mission-critical solutions designed to increase customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Greenville Utilities Commission targets improved customer care and billing

Greenville Utilities Commission (GUC)—providing electric, water, sewer, and natural gas services to nearly 152,000 clients in the North Carolina city of Greenville and also in Pitt County—selected Oracle Utilities Express Implementation to deploy Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, Oracle Utilities Customer Self-Service, and Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management, and Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management. GUC chose these Oracle solutions to help standardize its business processes and align services—such as meter to cash—with consumer expectations, including visibility into the full customer lifecycle.

The Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Express Implementation for Water Utilities solution used for this project contains preconfigured business processes that can accelerate implementation and provide standard practices that target improved operational efficiency and customer service.

“Our goal is to modernize our utility’s information systems using Oracle products,” said Sandy Barnes, director of information technology, Greenville Utilities Commission. “We started our project with Oracle E-Business Suite applications for financial and human resources management, followed by Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management for unmetered services. In the third phase of our project, we are implementing Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, Oracle Utilities Customer Self-Service, and Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management. This program is enhanced by the Oracle Utilities Express Implementation services approach, delivering an efficient implementation and simplifying the solution by reducing the amount of customized code and configuration required.”

Orlando Utilities Commission accelerates its customer information system implementation by four months

Additionally, OUC, a customer-owned municipal utility providing water and electric service to 234,000 clients in the cities of Orlando and St. Cloud, Florida, as well as parts of Orange and Osceola counties, worked with Oracle Utilities Professional Services to implement Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. OUC wanted a product that would deliver a fully functional, long-term customer information system (CIS). It chose the Oracle Utilities solution to align with its previous Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management implementation, linking the applications with meter-to-cash business processes to help improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and speed time to value by adopting proven configurations.

“We selected Oracle Professional Services to implement Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing using the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Express Implementation,” said Jerry Sullivan, vice president and CIO, Orlando Utilities Commission. “With this process, a project with an original timeline of 22 to 24 months should take 18 months to complete. This accelerated process allows us to more quickly benefit from our new customer care and billing platform and improve all of our customer-facing initiatives.”

During the CS Week Conference, OUC received the 2015 Expanding Excellence Award for Innovation in Customer Service in the large-utility category. This honor recognized OUC for implementing almost a dozen customer-facing initiatives that interface with Oracle products such as Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management.

“Oracle Utilities Express Implementation services use preconfigured business processes that represent proven practices for major application areas as well as tailored data conversion and reporting tools,” said Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities. “This approach helps utilities gain greater value faster from their Oracle Applications—allowing utilities to get back to their primary focus of superior customer service.”