Delivering world-class service to customers is vitally important to utilities like DC Water. Providing a top-notch customer service experience demands that a utility's CIS meets the demands of its increasingly mobile patrons.
DC Water provides service to 680,000 residents in the District of Columbia, as well as to all of the federal buildings. Along with monitoring well over 135,000 water meters, DC Water also provides wastewater services to the District and the surrounding counties.
Today, DC Water’s unprecedented 12-month implementation of the VertexOne cloud CIS allows the utility to deliver on its mission— while saving an estimated $22 million over seven years.
According to Charles Kiely, DC Water assistant general manager, the goal was simple. DC Water wanted to provide their Customer Care Associates near real-time information on demand. This would allow them to answer customer inquiries quickly and resolve their problems in as few steps as possible.
Additionally, since their customer base is increasingly mobile-focused, they needed a CIS solution that provided customers with secure mobile access to better interact with the utility.
DC Water realized this would require a tier-one solution that was scalable and adaptable to keep up with an increasingly complex market landscape. Looking toward the future, DC Water searched for a solution that:
To fill this tall order, DC Water evaluated proposals from 18 different solution providers over a one-year period. This included both on-premise and Cloud solutions. When the field was narrowed to two finalists, the six key considerations for choosing Vertex's CIS solution — VertexOne — were:
Vertex employed a unique implementation process that delivered the CIS solution in an unprecedented 12 months—on time, on budget and right on target with DC Water's expectations. With quality control testing throughout the implementation process, the VertexOne strategy ensures no issues fall through the cracks and cause last minute scrambling for resolution.
From a financial standpoint, the VertexOne CIS saves DC Water $329,000 annually in the back office alone. Across the entire operation, it will save the utility an estimated $22 million over the seven-year contract. More importantly to the utility’s mission, it will keep DC Water ahead of the curve in providing the best customer experience possible.
To discover more details on DC Water's experience, download the full case study and find out if VertexOne is the CIS solution to meet your demands.