Why should your customers care about the data your teams use to make decisions and how consistent it is across your various systems? The simple answer is because consistent data means a quicker resolution to their problem.
Utilities leverage a variety of business systems to manage their data. Often this data is shared across multiple systems and is used in the day-to-day decisions that impact your customers. Having a robust data synchronization process in place between these systems is critical to ensuring the satisfaction of your customer. This post will focus on the importance of integrating your Customer Information Systems (CIS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and how the right solution benefits customers.
A Customer Information System acts as a system of record for customer and billing information. For Utilities, data stored in the CIS often includes customer name, billing address, service premise address, type of service provided (electric, gas, water, etc.), and consumption information for billing taken from meter readings. Another use for the CIS is that it generates service requests based on customer inquiries.
Geographic Information Systems are the system of record for location information about the Utilities’ infrastructure assets. That information could include service premise, meters, and services. GIS may also manage the location of work orders and service requests generated from external systems like a CIS.
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Giving field crews access to current customer information is critical. Having access to accurate data allows crews to save time and be more effective as they respond to customer issues. Providing access to customer information from a mobile GIS application reduces time spent calling the customer service department for information and allows field crews to focus on correcting the problem at hand.
Sharing accurate data between GIS and CIS allows you to synchronize meter information which gives your team access to actionable data that is connected to their maps. Having this data in GIS positively impacts your team’s efficiency by enabling them to leverage geoprocessing tools in GIS to optimize meter reading routes. Having these routes optimized reduces switching between systems and increases the productivity of meter reading staff.
Integrating CIS and GIS allows you to support map-centric applications for viewing and creating service requests. Enabling Customer Service Representatives (CSR) to view existing service requests makes them less likely to generate a new service request for the same issue. This reduces the creation of duplicate requests and eliminates confusion. For example, if multiple customers call in about the same incident, the CSR can open their map, find the service location, and see if there are any existing service requests in that location.
At the end of the day, it is all about improving the customer experience. Integrating your CIS and GIS enables this by getting the right data to the right people at the right time.
Geonexus is a leading data integration platform focused on helping asset-intensive organizations in the Utilities and Transportation industries operate more efficiently. Our purpose is to ensure the integrity of your organization’s enterprise data by providing a continually supported, easy-to-use, proven platform for system integration. Our data integration platform supports Esri, Hitachi ABB Power Grids, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and more. If you are interested in learning more click here or reach out to one of our experts!
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