http://www.afr.com.au/content/990521/inform/inform6.html

Power utilities struggle to plug in new systems

By Mandy Bryan Too much to do in too little time would ... adequately describe the plight of most power utilities, as mergers, Y2K and open com-petition are presenting them with unprecedented technical challenges.

Call centres and customer information systems are the new lifeblood of this industry, but the immaturity of the technology, its need to be heavily customised and its prohibitive cost are taking their toll.

"Cost is our main obstacle," said Great Southern Energy's call centre manager, Ms Margaret Ritchie. "There are lots of wonderful CIS packages, but for an organisation our size these are not always practical."

In an organisation with no shop-front and a huge geographical spread, Great Southern Energy has instead invested in interactive voice response to be introduced next month in a new call centre.

Implemented for its cost-effectiveness, Ms Ritchie said the Compaq-designed system would interface with an upgraded customer information system (CIS).

But where cost is prohibitive for Great Southern Energy, customisation has stymied electricity and water utility, Actew Corporation.

The ACT-based utility recently went live with an off-the-shelf CIS on a new client server platform, proving an unstable combination to bed down.

"We were the largest customer to use the software and the first in a multi-utility environment, and we did a significant amount of customising because the billing algorithms are quite different for each," said Mr John Neal, Actew's director of business systems.

"We had limited experience with a client server and we knew it was a risk, and we knew we had to customise and that was a risk, but customer focus has to be paramount for any utility now," Mr Neal said.

Actew has brought forward the roll-out of an enterprise management plan to stabilise the system, which has been designed to allow the utility to jointly meter water and electricity and to bill for both in one envelope.

Utilities are left with immature solutions because they built their CIS themselves in the name of competitive advantage, said Mr Glen McLean, general manager, information technology, of privatised Victorian electricity distributor, Powercor, which in a month will also go live with an off-the-shelf CIS.

"You would be lucky if the software has been around for two years," Mr McLean said.

"Most organisations are going with packages that only have a dozen customers in world.

"Also, historically, systems didn't have a good customer model, whereas customers are now the centre of the universe."

Some utilities are capitalising on the problems. United Energy is offering an outsourced back office service for utility retailers, called Utilimode. Last month it signed its first deal a $10 million dollar, 7-year deal with Multinet Ikon, one of three privatised Victorian gas suppliers.

Implementing a CIS application is "like giving an organisation a heart transplant" said United Energy's general manager of retail services, Mr Wes Ferguson.

United's new system would enable retailers to focus on selling, and included services such as billing, call centre, new customer account handling and ongoing management, Mr Ferguson said.

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), May 21, 1999