PHOENIX, April 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CS WEEK
-- The utility industry is undergoing a massive evolution as
utility customers are becoming more active consumers and producers.
The explosion of data from a multitude of devices, including
meters, IoT sensors, and smart home appliances, require utilities
to rethink old business and billing models to meet the demands of
this new utility economy.
As such, Oracle continues to enhance its leading customer
solutions platform to deliver the tools water, gas, and energy
utilities need to address this changing market dynamic. With a
modern user interface, deep analytics, and built-in integrations
with operational device data management and customer self-service
capabilities, utilities can better engage customers at scale. For
example, they will be able to tap user interface innovations to
target customers for new programs based on personalized information
on their utility usage. The new features are now available across
Oracle's customer solutions, including Customer to Meter and
Customer Cloud Service (CCS).
"In this new utility economy, the customer is transitioning from
a billable account to a participant in the utility business model.
With changes in rates, regulations, and production, customers are
looking for more information regarding their usage and bill and how
they can lessen the impact of both," said Hillary Martin, senior director, Oracle
Utilities. "Antiquated customer systems simply don't allow
utilities the flexibility and intelligence they need in this
changing market paradigm. With our continued updates, Oracle is
bringing utilities to the leading edge of innovation."
Driving Customer Innovation at Scale
Customer Cloud
Service brings together Oracle Utilities' market-leading customer
information system (CIS) and advanced meter data management
capabilities into a single meter-to-cash-to-customer solution on a
shared database and technology stack. By bringing metering,
customer account and revenue data into a common view, enriched by
deep analytics and data visualization tools, utilities can drive
greater business value from the increasing amounts of data and
convert it into actionable business insights.
Built on the Oracle Cloud and delivered as the industry's first
fully supported Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, CCS features
automated patching, upgrades, security, and standard SaaS services
– freeing up valuable utility resources. With CCS, utilities gain a
complete view of their customers and significant cost reductions
compared to managing two separate systems.
With these new innovations, CCS and Customer to Meter utility
customers can benefit from:
- User Experience Enhancements: Guided by dozens of
years working closely with customers on their CIS initiatives, a
decade of Opower behavioral science research and design best
practices, Oracle customer solutions feature a new, clean and
modern interface and improvements to the ways end users interact
with data, insights, content and context. With guided workflows and
intuitive design, even brand new customer service representatives
can deliver the same level of service as long-term call center
experts.
- Advanced Analytics: With the exponential growth in
volumes and sources of data, utilities have an ever-expanding
opportunity to derive value from that information to support better
decisions across the business. With pre-built analytics embedded in
both Oracle Utilities customer solutions, users can drive insight
throughout the customer lifecycle. This allows utilities to
visualize data clearly across systems and slice and dice to
discover fresh insights that support customer engagement, revenue
management, and more. With Oracle, utilities have the power of data
science and machine learning at their fingertips, in pre-packaged
solutions designed specifically for utility needs.
- Operational Device Management: enables utilities to
track meter and device inventory and monitor performance from
within the same system capturing meter reads and customer accounts.
This customer-device-data integration in a single solution not only
reduces technology costs for utilities but also provides a more
complete, "single source of truth" picture across an increasingly
distributed network. This helps utilities move beyond the meter to
leverage data across all relevant devices so they can explore and
scale to new connected home services and more.
- Digital Self Service: delivers a crucial component
in providing modern customer experiences. By integrating Oracle
Utilities Digital Self Service (DSS) and Oracle customer solutions,
utilities can deliver superior service across channels and devices
while driving down operating costs. In addition, based on a decade
of user insights and design experience from Opower, Oracle DSS
provides a strong web foundation to launch additional customer
engagement programs.
"Utility distribution is no longer a linear equation where a
customer uses a resource and then is billed for it. With the
industry's most connected, end-to-end customer platforms, Oracle is
enabling utilities to become trusted advisors in this new journey
while modernizing operations for an evolving customer-centric
utility future," added Martin.
More Information
- Oracle Utilities
- Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service
- Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter
- Follow us on Twitter and the Oracle Utilities blog
About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite
of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human
Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly
Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the
Oracle Autonomous Database. For more information about Oracle
(NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.
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The following is intended to outline our general product
direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may
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SOURCE Oracle