The Pursuit of improved service and operational efficiency by utilities

As the raw energy prices are rising at a tremendous pace, the pressure on utility firms to enhance operational efficiency has become greater than ever. Overextended supply lines and the requirement to invest in varied and long-drawn-out infrastructure are adding extra costs to the value chain.

The utility industry is swiftly adapting itself to ownership structures and altering regulations. The pressure of higher customer expectations and dropping operational costs is always growing.

Additionally, aging work forces and cost of labor is ranking seventh among the top industry issues list. Currently, utilities are facing cumulative pressure from communities and stake holders to enhance their monetary performance by lessening noncollectable accounts.

Utilities are searching for right solutions that can help them to enhance their organization’s efficiency in many ways. For instance, spotting the leaking of water supply systems and safeguarding customer’s money.

To accomplish success in such a competitive market utilities are continually focusing on enhancing operational efficiency and excellent customer service.

The Utility Revenue management department has the responsibility to read meters, bill customers, make service calls, set up and close accounts and collect payments. The most major obstacles faced by the utility providers are a large number of customer orders that can be lost or mishandled, incorrect billing or no billing for long-drawn-out periods of time. These problems are ultimately making them look at the cost-effective solutions to make the billing process hassle free, accurate and instant.

Nowadays, numerous utility service providers are utilizing dynamic and robust IT services, some of the most prominent systems being Billing, Customer relationship management and Meter Data Management.

According to a survey conducted recently, many energy utility billing service providers are switching from on premise software to Cloud billing platforms for monetizing and managing their subscription based products with an ease.

To overcome the obstacles of energy utility billing many utility firms are utilizing modern cloud based Utility CIS systems. Such cloud based solutions have successfully handled commercial and residential billing needs of public and municipal utilities.

Water utilities are continually moving towards superior levels of automation. Moreover, water utilities are taking advantage of Cloud based services that have amended the economies of contemporary automation programs. According to utility automation and integration report, Cloud based systems have the safety and confidentiality required to safeguard vital client details and operational data. They even give small firms access to larger system capabilities.

Cloud based systems have successfully closed the gaps between large and small utilities. To accomplish the mission of operational efficiencies, for instance, small Utility firm leaders are incorporating Cloud billing technology to their entire billing plan. Besides this, Cloud based utility billing solution is also facilitating utilities with amalgamated billing and collections, work force management, revenue settlement, utility analytics and customer management.

Besides using Cloud based systems to simplify the billing process, utilities are using automated utility solutions to send automatic bill payment date reminders through text messages, email or voicemail. Many utilities are running utility billing contests to entice the customers to make payment within the time frame. This is done on some of the most popular social media sites like Face book and Twitter.

Many water utility organizations are going cutting edge utilizing Cloud based Billing Management, Monitoring and Analytics. Neeman told Investment in automation technologies will definitely enable the water leaders to meet their goals efficiently, become more robust and provide enhanced customer service

Cloud computing can facilitate supple and cost effective solutions by making it possible for the utilities to move faster and diminish investment in temporary capability like mobility and scheduling solutions for the meter installation services.

Businesses and individuals prefer to receive multiple services from a single service provider. This is ultimately forcing the utilities to hunt for a billing solution through which all the bills for various services can be consolidated and sent to a single customer.

The most ideal choice for a traditional Utility in order to transform in to a Smart Utility is to look for a player that can help them establish not only a Smart Metering infrastructure but complement it with a Smarter Utility CIS solution too.

Such a solution should be capable of absorbing the Smart Meter data as well as applying sense to it to make the challenge of providing a single bill achievable. It should provide consolidated Billing features such as multiple rating plans for consumers of multiple kinds, easy and multiple payment options and dynamic pricing. An efficient Utility CIS should provide customer care features such as customer service via multiple channels such as phone, email, web and mobile based service portals and many more features that enhance the operational efficiencies for a Utility and brings down the costs.