How Your Utility Tech Stack Can Power an Industry-Leading Meter-to-Cash Process

There has been a rapid increase in demand for convenient technology among consumers, making a future-proofed CIS necessary to create dynamic service.

With a CIS, utilities gain:  

• Total flexibility to carry out interval meter reads and complex rate variations across multiple service types, locations, municipalities, and jurisdictions.
• Comprehensive customer service so they can provide the best experience using two-way communication and multiple channels.
• Ease of use so customers can easily understand resource efficiency, its importance, and how it can be deployed. 
• Real-time integration that allows the CIS to be used with other technologies, such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). 
• Future scalability that allows for an efficient, adaptable CIS that grows with the organization.
• Safety and security that can be adjusted to future security needs and upgrades.
• Self-service integrations that are simple to learn.

Before selecting a CIS for your utility, you must ensure your current platform can handle this new technology or deployment will be a disaster.

The following steps can help: 

1. Know the end goal for your CIS and AMI. Set realistic, reachable targets that adhere to your budget and timeline. 
2. Coordinate AMI deployment with your existing CIS. It’s a good idea to upgrade the CIS first to ensure it can handle AMI data. 
3. Ensure that your integration platform can handle upgrades. You are future-proofing your CIS, so make sure upgrades won’t be a problem. 
4. Determine your utility’s ability to upgrade both CIS and AMI. Some utilities don’t have the proper resources to upgrade both simultaneously. Updating only one of these elements can lead to problems because the non-updated technology would need to work with the rest of the tech stack. 
5. Recruit a trusted utility advisor. Make the process easy and efficient by consulting with experts who understand the deployment process and can help with change management.

Deploying a new CIS will impact every employee in one way or another.

From training call center agents to ensuring data quality, seamless adoption of a new CIS is crucial. You have to ask yourself several questions, including:

• What will the employee learning curve be?
• Will employees who print bills and handle payments still have access to what they need?
• How will the change impact field service?
• Will deployment be intuitive enough for every learner?

Champion the Internal Change

For a seamless rollout that has minimal impact on business activity, new CIS training should be endorsed from the top down to get buy-in from everyone. Championing the deployment of new technology is highly effective—especially when the change management process is smooth.

Some utilities have their own change management processes and prefer to handle all transitions internally, but many utilities rely on a CIS partner. 

Choosing a CIS that provides comprehensive onboarding and training is a wise idea, even if you have solid processes in place. A trusted CIS partner may be able to maximize those processes, ensuring business can go on as usual.  

What are the minimum requirements?

Don’t make the mistake of taking prices at face value. Often, there’s much more—or less—behind the number. If your instinct is to go with what looks the most affordable, dig a little deeper. With CIS platforms, it’s all about what is included in that price. If the price doesn’t include future upgrades, post-deployment support, and hardware, it starts looking significantly less attractive. 

When developing an RFP, ask the right questions to get the best responses. Start with:

• Is all hardware included in the cost?
• Are there installation or deployment fees?
• What support is available after the go-live date?
• Does the price include data migration?
• Are training and development included?
• When a job fails, who do we call? 
• Are tech upgrades included, or do they come at an additional cost?
• Does your price include setting up users when we hire new people?

Proposal Red Flags

Knowing what to ask is important—but so is knowing what to avoid. When you put out an RFP and get responses, there are some deal-breakers to look out for. It’s important to remember that not all CIS solutions are the same, even if they seem the same. 

Red flags to look for when reviewing proposals during the RFP process include:

• Limited Data Storage: If there is limited storage capacity now, it will squeeze you even more in the future. This should be a deal-breaker. 
• Hidden Costs: If the CIS solution wants to charge you to upgrade, think of how much that can add up over the next 20 years. 
• Technical Currency: How innovative and future-proof is the technology? If it’s on the verge of becoming obsolete, it won’t help you stay up-to-date in the future. 
• Integration Fees: Will you be charged to integrate the new CIS system into any of your current systems?
• Limited Support Hours: If they can’t help you when you need it, don’t engage. Limited support hours could mean waiting days for one crucial answer. 
• Lack of Data Security: If there is offshore development, the solution may not have the data security you need. 
• Deployment Abilities: Check for testimonials about deployment. If you can’t find any, there is probably a reason. You want to choose a solution that is tried and true.

In addition to the tangible benefits a modern CIS offers to utilities, it also addresses the ever-changing modern expectations of customers. Twenty years ago, ordering a product using a mobile phone and receiving it within just a few hours seemed like a futuristic fantasy. 

However, as these types of services become more commonplace, customers’ expectations have also risen, and they demand more from all service providers, including utilities. 

It’s now considered unacceptable to provide a bill without itemization or context related to how or when water or energy was consumed. In a world of video doorbells and motion-sensitive cameras that use low-cost IoT sensors and inexpensive telecom devices, there is no excuse for reporting energy or water use only once a month. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of installing a future-proof CIS: 

Modern, Evolved Software

VertexOne focuses on continually evolving its products and modernizing its architecture to keep up with the ever-changing technological world.

Improved Call Resolution

VXcis optimizes the real-time presentation of key account information, increasing first-call resolution and simplifying account updates. In addition, charts and graphs that provide comparative consumption and other statistics support quick, accurate responses to customer billing inquiries.

Automated Processes

Automation saves time by alleviating manual processes such as meter reading, bill cycle initiation, usage calculation, billing, and statement generation. 

Moving IT infrastructure and applications to a fully hosted and managed model in the cloud brings utilities flexibility, scalability, reliability, and predictability. Plus, it shifts the burden of hardware maintenance and security expertise to the provider. 

Make sure you choose a cloud provider that understands the unique needs of a utility. VertexOne has more than 30 years of experience with utility CIS solutions, SAP, and other leading technology—putting us ahead of the curve. With a SaaS delivery model, your utility gets a future-proofed CIS and the ability to choose which updates and upgrades it wants to roll out and when—without any major overhauls.

To future-proof your CIS, schedule a VertexOne demo now.