SMART UTILITY SYSTEMS (SUS)

As the market dynamics are transforming rapidly, the utility industry is undergoing a massive change. These transformed dynamics involve; advancement in technology, regulatory requirements being changed, and the focus on emission reduction is increasing gradually. Due to these reasons and advancements, the utility industry is becoming more inclined towards customer centric approach and therefore, focuses greatly on customer engagement. As the customer expectations evolve with changing time spans, utility industries endeavor to conceive new and upgraded practices, in order to meet their client’s expectations and requirements.

In order to promote customer engagement, smart utility systems along with leading products of the industry assist utilities to refine their practices and applications. This optimistic goal is achieved through analytical capabilities with key KPIs and helps in streamlining their business processes. In spite of the fact that the utilities may perform from different business platforms, this constructive business model provides an opportunity to the utilities to scheme, operate and control their integrated customer operations in a refined manner.

Unique approaches and strategies are yielded by SUS, so that the investments made by electricity, water and gas utility companies could be maximized to a larger extent, with the aid of a single integrated platform, accessible to everyone at any time without any limitations.

Smart Utility Systems (SUS) is the leading provider of cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for Mobile Customer Engagement, Mobile Workforce, and Big Data Analytics to the Energy and Utility sector. They provide smart solutions to the electric, water and gas utilities that reduce operational costs of the utility and maximize their return on investments.

 

UTIL360’S SMART UTILITY SYSTEMS:

We deliver robust flexible capabilities to meet utilities most complex needs and the agility to adapt as the industry continues to transform. We deliver market leading utilities management solutions with robust capabilities. This complete solution allows seamless, cost effective growth of smart effective programs no matter where you are on your smart meter journey.

You are faced with enough complexity in today’s utility industry. Your meter to-cash platform should be simple, presenting Enterprise Utility Management with Util360, a market-leading customer information system (CIS) and a market-leading meter data management system (MDMS) in one complete solution.

1. Enterprise Customer Management (ECM)
2. Enterprise collection management (ECM)
3. Enterprise Meter Data Management (EMD)
4. Enterprise Finance Management (EFM)
5. Enterprise ticket management (ETM)
6. Enterprise rebate management (ERM)
7. Enterprise Cashiering Solution (ECS)
8. Enterprise Billing Management (EBM)
9. Enterprise Service Order Management (ESO)

 

ENTERPRISE CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT

Simplify bill to cash process with fast, compliant revenue management and financial insight and control with an agile, extensive and modular platform. It supports all activities related to billing and revenue management for energy, water and services.

Smart customer management is a completely integrated suite of software applications that are designed to help you save time and money. It ensures you to have all the tools you need to meet your immediate requirements and serve you well into the future. It supplies:

• Intelligent Dashboard
• Notifications / Alerts
• Outages
• Pay Bill
• SSO Available for payments
• Historical Data
• Service Order Portal
• Usages Data (Hourly, Daily & Monthly)

 

Navigate challenges and build resilience with Intelligent ECM

Util360 smart customer management provides customer information management for municipal and independent utility authorities for electricity, gas, sewer, and water operations. It processes all customer functions easily, quickly, and accurately.

Customer Focused

• It focuses on your customers and uses tools to best serve their needs.
• Display 360° view of all important customer and account information
• Access information about current and past customers within the same program and report
• Communicate with customers via phone, email, or text
• Allow utility account management — view, reprint and pay bills, request services, and make changes
• Generate letters, notices, contracts, and labels to manage customer communication

Periodic Processing, Inquiries, and Reports

A central launching point with access to key areas within the utility billing software, you can view a variety of information on an account, customer, or bill level.

• Display account location, customer, billing address, recent activity, and phone numbers
• Display deposit, current, delinquent, interest/penalty, total balance amounts.
• Access critical information easily with hundreds of user-defined reports
• Create custom reports with SSRS and Munis data views
• Use built-in analytic tools and pivot tables

 

ENTERPRISE COLLECTION MANAGEMENT:

Util360’s smart collection management provides comprehensive, strongly integrated and easy to use tax collections solutions that ensure timely and efficient processing of bills, payments, property and party information.

Integrated Collections Software

You will be able to save your staff valuable time by enabling them to more efficiently process through smart collection management.

Simplify the Collection Process for Everyone

Collection process could be easily managed by the office and information could be collected throughout the stages of the collection process. Besides this, reports could also be provided on collected information.

• Easily access and manage collections data
• Simplify processes and ensure efficient and consistent operations with built-in Workflow
• Provide electronic payment importing for credit cards, mortgage companies, remittance processing, and more
• Enable property owners to pay via credit and debit cards online with an integrated processing service
• Provide comprehensive reporting for collection activities, including daily collections, deposit reports, disbursements, adjustment audit trail, and more
• Receive scheduled automated reports
• Handle Delinquent Taxes with Ease
• Easily process all delinquent property taxes and fees, and create a variety of payment plans and installment agreements.
• Produce a delinquent roll to identify applicable properties and owners
• Track properties that have a bankruptcy, foreclosure, or warrant
• Produce letters and installment payment notifications to taxpayers with payment plans

 

ENTERPRISE METER DATA MANAGEMENT:

Smart meter data management is an employee and customer portal solution for water, electric, and gas utilities with an installed Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. Using advanced analytics, it monitors consumption for all smart meters in your service area. Account information can be accessed by customers anytime, anywhere from any device 24/7/365.

A Smart Meter Portal for Utility Providers and Customers (reduce Office Costs and Improve Efficiency)

With near real-time access to smart meter data, usage information, and intuitive charts and graphs, utilities can provide on-demand AMI transparency and more efficient customer service while increasing staff productivity.

• Troubleshoot and monitor the utility’s entire service area through a clerk dashboard.
• Review consumption patterns and quickly determine the status of an account, reducing costly on-site visits.
• Detect leaks or abnormal usage and Proactively alert customers via email, call, or text.
• Log previous leak or abnormal usage information to customer accounts for future reference.
• Prevent lost revenue from smart meter malfunctions, theft, and customer errors.
• Reduce routine calls and office visits with customer self-service.
• View up-to-date statistics regarding total community consumption, number of alerts and their severity, number of smart meters reporting, and more.
• Integrate with Tyler’s Encode Utility Billing solution and all major AMI systems.

Empower Customers to Take Charge of Utility Usage

Deliver on-demand smart meter data and consumption information for customer self-service.

• Set usage and billing thresholds.
• Receive threshold and leak alerts before they happen and avoid potentially high bills.
• Access smart meter data to view yearly, monthly, daily, or hourly usage information in easy-to-understand graphs.
• Compare current vs.  previous consumption data to track and control utility expenses.

 

ENTERPRISE FINANCE MANAGEMENT:

It minimizes the impact of economic disruption while maintaining the business continuity for the rapidly expanding remote workforce. Util360’s intelligent smart finance management solutions can help utilities emerge from crisis with great resiliency. Automate and streamline finance with Util360’s EFM from reconciliation and consolidation to compliance and reporting.

Implement Transparency for Your Utility

EFM provides unparalleled data access and analysis tools to help public sector entities implement principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration. It gives citizens 24/7 access to real-time data, engaging analytics that are easy to understand, while reducing the number of Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) requests your staff must handle.

Meaningful Data, Accessible to All

• It Reduces Office Costs and Improve Efficiency
• Budget data helps citizens learn the priorities of their government and how it impacts them and their neighborhoods
• Expenditure data allows the public and internal stakeholders to easily understand complex financial information, including checkbook-level details of spending
• Payroll data answers common questions such as total size of payroll, top employees, top departments, median pay, and more
• Easy access to historical data provides year-over-year insights and trend analysis

Engaging and Easy to Use

Graphics are organized by category, department, function, and vendor which provide insightful information for internal stakeholders and citizens. This ready-to-deploy application publishes the details of your operating revenues and operating expenses onto your branded website.

• Intuitive, Google-like search capabilities reach across your financial data
• Interactive charts and graphs allow for easy analysis and understanding
• Export functions facilitate sharing information both internally and externally
• Real time reports help Proactively identify issues, fraud, and trends

 

ENTERPRISE TICKET MANAGEMENT:

Smart ticketing would enable your customer support employees to address the problems relevant to their particular department and helps them prioritize the problem. This makes customer service efficient and time saving and provides a healthy customer employee relationship. 

HOW ETM WORKS?

1. Identification & Documentation

A wide range of sources are involved in the identification of the problem and then its documentation. Our internal ticketing system would be able to identify problems from various sources including; phone calls, walk ins, emails, social media platforms or self-service on the end of client

2. Recording

When the ticket is identified and captured, it is then recorded in the system to align according to the priority, urgency and relevant department.

3. Management

Furthermore, the solutions of previously resolved issues are saved in the knowledge base, therefore, after the ticket is recorded, our professional ticketing system would take guidance or signs from the knowledge base in case the current problem is similar to the previous one.

4. Receivers

In case the problem occurred is a new one then the ticket is revolved until it reaches the desired department and the employee along with the customer receives the ticket and the member starts working on it.

5. Communication

At any point and time, the customer can ask any question or check the status of work through a ticket; likewise, the employee can alert the customer regarding updates and resolutions. With the help of a proficient ticketing system, soon after the customer logs a response on the ticket, the employee can address it within no time.

6. Resolving ticket

After the problem is successfully resolved either the customer or the employee can close the ticket. Whereas it can be reopened at any point and time if any one of them has an additional question or query to discuss.

When your business is expanding and your customer service cases start increasing day by day, then it’s time to choose a proficient ticketing system, which allows you to manage, prioritize and resolve your issues and pave way for more friendly and trustworthy customer care solutions and that is Util360.

Features:

Smart Ticket Management framework provides client benefit software that allows your company to oversee your service and support cases. The efficient framework makes a “ticket” which records client demands and their concerned issues over time, and circulates it within departments until it reaches the concerned one, making it simpler for your customer service members to address the complicated issue and resolve them within a short period of time.

1. Management

The foremost benefit of the ticketing system is to organize a large amount of customer support cases to provide convenience to the customer care department. Employees can easily manage multiple cases within a day as each ticket is labeled and therefore it can be prioritized.

2. Knowledge Base

One of the prominent features of the ticketing system is that it centralizes the information. All the tickets are stored in software therefore the customer or employee can search for a particular ticket. Besides, the solutions are stored in it which provides the opportunity to the employee to look into previous cases and their solutions and utilize them in case they match one another.

3. Improves Company Reliance

The problems or issues are resolved with a proficient ticketing system and allows the customer to trust and rely on the company and it paves way to future benefits as well.

4. Communication

It allows the customer, as well as the employee to communicate with one another and inform, update and discuss the relevant queries. Customers may ask any question or concern by logging the ticket and it could be addressed by the employee within no time.

5. Saving time and money

Instead of spending money on manual hands, you may rely on a ticketing management system which would allow you to focus on major important issues along with saving time.

6. Satisfied Customers

With the help of organized and systematically working software, the issues are resolved in bulks. Moreover the categorization allows the company’s employee to work on issues based on urgency, relevancy and priority. All of this leads to quicker solutions of problems which consequently satisfies the customer.

 

ENTERPRISE REBATE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION:

Our unique and technologically boosted system is capable of producing scores of applications within a day. Besides this, it can compile and analyze data of consumers within no time.

Smart rebate management system is capable of processing over multitude applications in a day. It compiles data in a few minutes and analyses data of the consumer in minutes. The consumer can upload proof of purchases on turfs, sprinklers, water heaters, rain collectors. It’s a hassle-free system for both the reviewer and consumer at the same time. It also eliminates the expensive postage fee.

ERM Features:

Following are the features provided by smart rebate management system:

• Customer Portal
• Customer Portal Mobile App (iOS, Android)
• Suppliers
• Merchants
• Programs
• E2E Data Integration
• Business Intelligence Dashboard & Analytics
• Content Management Solution
• Ticket Management Solution
• Transaction Management
• Calculation Engines
• Employee Management Solution

 

ENTERPRISE CASHIERING SOLUTION:

With the help of Util360’s smart cashiering solution, cashiering is all about convenience, security, flexibility and what not? Util360 cashiering offers integrated cashiering solutions for not only local government but public administration organizations as well.

Smart Cashiering Management Solution

It offers its customers with:

1. Alerting: 

Are you looking for a solution that would keep you alert regarding important events; data or routine error? Util360 keeps you informed and alert while it would never topple without forewarning.

2. Privacy: 

Util360’s top most priority is to gain its customer’s trust and satisfaction. In order to achieve this, Util360 guards and secures the data and information of its client at any rate

3. Connector scalability: 

The mere objective of an ideal solution is to enhance the existing connector along with supporting new connectors. Constructing native integration swiftly, should be the foremost task of an organization. Therefore Util360 not only executes integration rapidly, but also meets its client’s demands.

4. Data scalability: 

Customers desire for a solution that is capable of managing large quantities of data. Moreover, an exemplary solution would scale properly with task- related needs. Util360 presents such an ideal solution to its client that makes data scaling far more easy and convenient.

Ameliorating citizen services

Scalable features would be embraced in your phone application by our talented and skilled Neoteric team member. This would allow you to save time and get maximum benefits, being economical. In addition to this, service provided to you would enable you to yield more and indelible profit out of your investments. Therefore, we can ensure a healthy and long lasting relationship with our respected clients.

1. Solution to the obstacles

It is no less than a daring challenge to receive payments from constituents, when you do not have a reliable software solution. Utill60 provides you with an intuitive and flexible software solution to remove the obstacles from your path of success.

2. Multitude accession

You make payments through multitude cards or Cheques and get vexed with receipts? Now you may use a combination of various cards or Cheque and Util360 receive single receipts for all of them.

3. Single transaction

Util360 offers you a single transaction method through which you can effortlessly pay full or partial payment for various bills using a simple one transaction.

4. Homogenization

Util360 solutions can be easily integrated; one may provide real time access to multiple applications and departments. That may vary from business licenses to property taxes and can be realized for either utilities or fines.

Payment process; secured & reliable

Util360 smart cashiering is not like other Util360’s applications; rather it maintains confidentiality and secures its customer’s data and billing information because it does not store the crucial data as it is. To ensure privacy and confidentiality each integrated receivable system, maintains its own billing and customer database. 

Not only this but billing information, Amounts documents, customer details and line item changes are requested from various billing resources and payments are confirmed in real time through Util360’s secured web services. Other crucial security characteristics of Util360 involve:

1. Permission

Data access and activity levels transaction Processing are all preceded after users verified permission.

2. Verification

Initially, gateway approvals are insured via verification of integrated credit cards to complete transactions.

3. Check and balance

Cash drawer limits access and large amounts are handed over after strict check and security control.

4. Data Billing

Billing information, Details Amounts and charges are retrieved by Util360 smart cashiering from various billing sources through standard integration that takes place between APL and web services based on XML.

5. Billing information

You may request for billing information from an external system in XML format and transaction details would be provided on the billing system automatically.

6. Reporting our client

Cash station managers are provided with a high level report which involves overview of item, fee and sales tax amount collected for respective days. Data is collected on a daily basis and crystal clear reports are submitted. Moreover, a deposit report is submitted which lists tender for every transaction and total, done by deposit account is also provided.

7. Integration via third Party

With Util360 cashiering, creation of all payment types is required which is provided by the external system that may involve real estate, utility or billing of personal property.

8. Virtual Tape

Virtual tape is featured by Util360; the purpose of this tape is to serve as an electronic version of traditional receipt spool tape. Moreover, for all batch activities it provides a running tape. Researching previous activities and reviewing them is now no big deal with this valuable tool

Payment Procedures

Under the systems of Util360 smart cashiering, one can also predefine payment types which the respective agency accepts in order to provide a customized collection experience. Moreover, payment can be received Utilizing one account only, besides this, when it comes on transaction Util360 offers you a single transaction method through which you can effortlessly pay full or partial payment for various bills using a simple one transaction.

1. Payment Process

Authentic searches are carried out for particular payment types and real time balances are shown. Then, furthermore, it allows configurable receipts to be printed and an email is sent over completion of transaction.

2. More to explore

Transaction data is organized, processed and managed with the help of batch. Badge information includes; status and owner, both of them are maintained under batch ownership. Moreover, user’s permission is strictly observed for activity levels transaction and specific user interface features. Cashiering process is made efficient and speedy through reducing the keystrokes and mouse clicks.

 

ENTERPRISE BILLING MANAGEMENT:

The team of Util360 manages your bill through a verified and just process. We segregate your consumed units and present the total amount charged by you through clear procedure.

 

ENTERPRISE SERVICE ORDER MANAGEMENT

Design, assign, schedule and manage served based and meter based service orders in UTIL360. We offer enterprise level services in smart order management and give our clients the edge of reliability. Util360 work management makes it easy to manage resources, tracks events and monitors Workflow in real time. From notes and service order status changes to customer account information and route or staking details-everything you need is easily accessed in the office or on the go with Util360’s service order management.

Empower Your Back Office

Controlling changes and updating utility accounts has never been this much easier but now with smart service order management it is.

• Approve or dispatch service calls to initiate, modify, or discontinue service.
• Generate status, statistics, and staff reports.
• Create service orders from meter reading trouble codes.
• Enter and maintain labor hours, material costs, and equipment usages.

Boost Field Productivity with Mobile Service Orders

A complementary mobile application empowers field technicians with the tools they need to do their jobs anytime, anywhere.

• View and pinpoint open service orders on a map using GIS data.
• Assign new service orders, which can be received in the field.
• View relevant contact, service address information, notes, and instructions.
• Search service orders using the map, service address, or service order number.
• Snap and attach photos to a service order from the field with Util360 Content Manager Integration.

 

CONCLUSION:

In the light of above mentioned services we can say that Util360’s smart utility system has changed the lens through which the world used to approach energy efficiency and water conservation. And In future we will keep on striving to achieve a future that is sustainable and beneficial.