VertexOne,
a leader in utility customer service solutions, today announced that its
latest customer information system project with DC
Water was recognized as the Level I Best CIS Implementation during
CS Week’s 2019 Expanding Excellence Awards ceremony. This annual award
is given to the utility company that achieved a highly successful CIS
project implementation during 2017-2018 based upon innovation, improved
service levels, budget, schedule adherence and more. DC Water and Vertex
completed this project, which included implementing the VertexOne
Customer Information System (CIS), Customer Self-Service web and mobile
portal (CSS), Mobile Workforce Management (MWM), and Bill Print/Payment
Processing solutions in just 12 months.
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Vertex and DC Water’s highly successful CIS project implementation – an expansion of its 20-year partnership – celebrated at CS Week 2019. (Graphic: Business Wire)
“This award is a significant accomplishment for DC Water, validating its
dedication to serving its customers and providing them with the most
sophisticated technology,” said Andrew Jornod, Chief Executive Officer,
Vertex. “As utilities look to the cloud to address the changing needs of
customers, DC Water’s innovative use of technology to adapt to an
increasingly complex market landscape sets a new industry standard for
others to follow.”
“The VertexOne solution exceeded expectations across all fronts,
allowing us to enhance our system capabilities while also developing
in-house expertise in the meter-to-cash cycle,” said Thomas Kuczynski,
Vice President of Information Technology, DC Water. “Vertex’s team was
instrumental in helping us deploy the system in record time and on
budget, freeing us to focus our attention on what matters most – serving
our customers.”
DC Water has 135,000 meters that serve government agencies along with
residential, commercial and industrial customers – including all of the
federal government buildings located in the District of Columbia –
totaling 680,000 residents and over 20 million visitors annually.
DC Water was working with a 16-year-old system, outsourcing several
business processes within the meter-to-cash cycle to Vertex. The
relationship had served the authority well, but DC Water knew that
customers’ expectations were evolving and improving the customer
experience with rich self-service features was essential. To better
engage its customers and adapt to an increasingly complex market
landscape, they wanted to provide their customers with state-of-the-art
technology and upgrade the core CIS for the future.
Through a nearly year-long selection process led by AAC
Utility Partners (AAC) and its signature methodology, NavigateOne,
DC Water chose VertexOne and embarked on a major expansion of its
existing Vertex partnership along with technology solutions including
the Customer Information System from SAP; KONA Mobile Work Management;
KUBRA EBPP, Bill Print, and Payments; Vertex Customer Self-Service
Portal and customer mobile app; and Fujitsu Data Center Services. AAC
led the negotiations and development of the Statement of Work that was
the foundation for the implementation project. AAC also provided Project
Management and Testing Leadership services for the DC Water project
team, working with VertexOne in managing the delivery of the VertexOne
Customer Platform.
After just seven months, DC Water implemented the initial VertexOne
customer self-service portal, www.mydcwater.com,
and mobile self-service app. In addition, DC Water added new electronic
billing and payment features powered by Kubra. The early launch of these
features allowed DC Water to quickly improve the customer experience,
while streamlining operations and positioning the organization to deploy
more enhanced customer service features after the core CIS went live.
Customers effectively saw the new system five months early,
significantly reducing the impact on the call center when the full
system went live.
At the end of 2017, DC Water completed the larger implementation of
migrating from its 16-year-old customer information system to the
VertexOne Customer Platform, built on SAP S/4HANA technology.
Simultaneously, DC Water completed the implementation and integration of
the VertexOne Mobile Workforce Management solution powered by KONA, from
The Confluence Group.
DC Water successfully deployed the system in record time and on budget
with a 14-percent reduction in billing-related customer calls. The
lifetime savings (seven-year forecast) that resulted from implementing
this new system is estimated at over $22 million.
“DC Water and Vertex have enjoyed a strong history spanning nearly two
decades, and it was a privilege to witness how these industry leaders
collaborated on how to best serve customers now and in the future,” said
Rick Cutter, Managing Partner, AAC Utility Partners. “From beginning to
end, the entire process was executed flawlessly, setting an example for
future utility industry implementations.”
About Vertex
Dedicated solely to the utility industry, Vertex Business Services has
been a recognized leader in customer experience solutions for the past
20 years. Vertex serves nearly 10 million end customers for more than 30
electric, gas and water clients across North America. Through a wide
range of innovative services and solutions—including the VertexOne cloud
platform inclusive of CIS, MWM, MDM, and Customer Self Service—Vertex
helps utilities more efficiently deliver a compelling customer
experience while also driving utility operations forward. Vertex takes
on the heavy lifting of keeping current with the rapid pace of
technology changes, so utilities don’t have to—leaving our customers
more time to focus on core utility business and leaving the technology
to us. For more information, visit https://www.vertexone.net.
About DC Water
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) is an
industry leading multi-jurisdictional regional utility that provides
drinking water and wastewater collection and treatment for millions of
visitors, residents and employees in the District of Columbia, and also
collects and treats wastewater for a population of 1.6 million in
Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland and Fairfax and
Loudoun counties in Virginia.
DC Water’s service area covers approximately 725 square miles and the
enterprise operates the world’s largest advanced wastewater treatment
plant with a capacity of 370 million gallons per day and a peak capacity
of 1.076 billion gallons per day. Blue Plains is also a model in
sustainability, with anaerobic digesters burning sludge for combined
heat and electricity and plans for green infrastructure on an
unprecedented scale to reduce combined sewer overflows.
About AAC Utility Partners, LLC.
AAC Utility Partners, LLC provides consulting services exclusively to
utilities for the transformation of mission critical systems. AAC is a
vendor-independent consulting firm providing services for utilities
mission critical systems. AAC assists clients in the areas of Strategy,
Selection, Cloud Adoption, and Project Implementation Leadership
Services (utility-side only). AAC is the leading independent Cloud
consulting firm focused on utility industry specific applications and
business process services.
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