The City of Austin has selected Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to replace its customer information system (CIS) and support the city’s smart grid initiatives. The City of Austin will roll out the new application to both Austin Energy, an electric utility company, and Austin Water.
Oracle said that the application will provide Austin Energy with a complete view of customer data and streamline billing processes to enable more responsive customer service. Austin Energy plans to work with IBM on the implementation.
The company claimed that its Utilities Customer Care and Billing will enable Austin Energy to implement energy efficient and demand management programs by providing detailed energy usage data that will allow its customers to make more informed decisions to conserve energy. The application will also help Austin Energy create new rate structures to support the future needs of its customers.
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing (formerly SPL Customer Care & Billing) handles utility customer information-service connection, meter reads, rating, billing while also undertaking associated functions like payment processing, collections, field service, and meter management.
Quentin Grady, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Utilities, said: “For utilities to effectively move to the smart grid, it is imperative that they provide their customers with actionable information about their energy use and prepare to accept new renewable energy sources into the grid.
“With Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, Austin Energy will be able to provide its customers with a clear picture of the relationship between their consumption and environmental impact, and then offer service options to help change behavior.”
Austin Energy is working with Oracle for its Pecan Street Project, in order to design a new, clean energy infrastructure business model. The utility is working also working with Applied Materials, Dell, GE Energy, IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor, GridPoint, The University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) on this venture.
