In an effort to modernize its customer information infrastructure, Avista Utilities has invested in a new integrated utility platform from Oracle.
Avista is an investor-owned utility serving over 360,000 electric and 321,000 natural gas customers across eastern Washington, northern Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon.
Called Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, the new solution has been specifically designed to meet the needs of the Utilities industry. With the solution in place, Avista will be able to build up an open, modern customer information system that will help the company address its changing business requirements.
This integrated utility platform has been designed as an end-to-end solution to deliver a range of functionalities, including customer care, billing, credit and collections and payment processing. By providing Avista with a 360-degree view of customer data through its easy-to-use interface, the solution will help streamline the billing processes and enable more responsive customer service for the utility company.
As such, the solution is expected to let the utility operate more efficiently, streamline billing processes and enhance the customer service experiences, a news release explained.
Above all, Oracle Utilities will prepare Avista for smart metering and smart grid initiatives aimed at enhancing efficiency and providing critical intelligence metrics that can help drive more-informed energy and water usage decisions for consumers and businesses.
EP2M, a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), will lead the implementation process of Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing at Avista.
“We selected Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing because it is specifically designed to meet the needs of the utilities industry and offers a modern, intuitive, flexible and easy-to-use user interface,” said Vicki Weber, director of Customer and General Services at Avista. “The Oracle Utilities solution is designed to give us a robust, integrated solution, capable of providing features that our customers and employees expect of a progressive utility.”
Oracle recently released “Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Plans and Preparedness for the Data Deluge,” a research report which surveyed 151 North American senior-level executives at utilities with smart meter programs.
“Smart grid deployments are creating exponentially more data for utilities and giving them access to information they have never had before,” said senior vice president and general manager at Oracle Utilities, Rodger Smith. “Oracle’s ‘Big Data, Bigger Opportunities’ report indicates that a vast majority of utility executives are working to enhance their ability to glean real intelligence from smart grid data – to ultimately create new opportunities to improve service reliability and deliver useful information to customers.”
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