CX for Utility Companies - Uses Cases & Future | SoftClouds

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CX for Utilities Industry
Use Cases & Future

Utility Industry & CX

Top 5 CX Expectations by Customers
Mobile Access to Utility
Accounts
Digital Self-Service
Prescriptive
Personalization
Predictive Grid/Network
Operations & Maintenance
Automated
Scheduling
Companies expected to spend on CX
technologies in 2023
Utility customers say brands
have lost touch with the
human element of CX
Customers value experience
as much as products &
services
59%
80%
$641B

Florida Power & Light Co
Top Utility Companies in the US by the
Number of Customers (in 1000s)
Southern California Edison Co
Commonwealth Edison Co
Consolidated Edison Co-NY Inc
Georgia Power Co
Virginia Power Co
Pacific Gas & Electric Co
DTE Electric Company
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC
Public Service Elec & Gas Co
5,214.22
3,881.2
3,001.87
2,930.01
2,657.95
2,573.75
2,269.28
2,244.95
2,129.43
2,123.42
Number of customers in thousands
Source: statista

Exelon
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC
Southern California Edison Co
Pacific Gas & Electric Co
NextEra Energy
American Electric Power
DTE Electric Company
Commonwealth Edison Co
Dominion Energy
Consolidated Edison
36,347
24,677
23,113
20,642
17,069
16,792
15,369
14,905
14,218
13,676
Numbers in million USD
Top Utility Companies in the US by
Revenue (in million USD)
Source: statista

Fragmentation of
CX Platforms

Fragmentation of CX Platforms
CX & CE Market Landscape & Players Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital
Experience Platforms 2022

CX Performance vs Broader Markets (2018)
Source: nfluencepartners

Utility Sector & CX

Utility Sector CX
A Complete Customer Platform
CX Industry Framework
Adaptive Data Mastering – API Orchestration
Marketing
Campaign Mgmt,
Omni-Channel Comms,
Segmentation & Targeting
Service
Chat, Digital Assistant,
Knowledge, Policy
Automation, SR Mgmt
Core Ops
Rating & Billing
Collections
Settlements
Meter & Device
Management
Sales
Commerce, CPQ,
Sales Performance Mgmt,
Contract Mgmt
Data 360
Data Intelligence & Analytics
Product Data – Customer Data – Utilities Data Model
Launch
Design Time
Simplified NPI
Product Lifecycle
Management
Cloud Infrastructure
Ideation &
Product Design
Marketing
Campaigns
Commerce Field Service
Agent Service
Self-Service
Dashboard
Sales & Account
Management
Connected Experiences

CX Use Cases – Field Service
1
4
2 3
5
Worker is replacing water valves at
a municipal building
Each valve requires
specific instructions for
proper replacement
Workflow takes into account
the fixes, features & functions
Guides worker through
recommended steps to
complete job
After job completion, field
service utility worker adds
updates in real time
Advantages:
• Simplify workflows to improve first-
time fix rates
• Avoids cobbled-together paperwork
• Lower fuel expenses & less time in
the truck
• Customers receive service faster,
which improves satisfaction
• Inventory review & management
prior to arrival
Simplify workflows to improve
first-time fix rates:
Example: Water utility company uses Oracle Field Service to
track the status of workers replacing water valves

CX Use Cases – KM Platform
Employee Onboarding:
• KM provides quick guides to new hires
to speed up their knowledge &
onboarding
• Ensuring that every employee is level
set from day 1
Customer Support (Agent’s Perspective):
• Reduces time spent in searching for
answers for customer queries
• Employee morale is improved as agents
spend less time reinventing the wheel
Self-Service (Customer’s Perspective):
• Helps customers resolve issues on their
own, available 24x7
• Nicely curated documents, articles &
FAQs help customers know you as a
brand & care about their problems
• Provides service agents relevant &
accurate data based on query from
customer
• Establishes a central repository of
documents, reports & other relevant data
• Enhances collaboration between teams,
agents & customers by leveraging KM to
quickly access, share & store data
• Reduces cost for service, enhances CX for
customers
Advantages:
Example: Propane supplier uses data gathered from a knowledge
management (KM) platform to improve their customer service

CX Use Cases – IA
USE CASE:
IA can provide personalized answers to
customer questions:
• Provided extensive self-serve features &
seamless integration with backend
systems through implementation of IA
• Resulted in increased traffic on customer
portal & reduced the number of queries to
call center
Advantages:
• Reduces amount of time spent on business process (call center
team), reduced cost
• Used for self-service or agent recommendation of household
energy saving techniques, tailored to the customer’s energy
usage, personalization
• Service calculations or customer onboarding, as well as self-
service customer inquiries
Example: Large electricity provider has
established a consistent UX across
multiple communication channels

CX Use Cases – Service
Enables customer service agents to
view customer data in a single view
Allows customers to submit service
inquiries, schedule appointments, &
manage their accounts online
Enables utility companies to provide
personalized experiences by
automating common customer
service tasks
Smart Grid Management
Collating & storing a large
quantum of data generated
from smart meters & grids
Offers highly distributed & scalable
computing resources to host smart
grid applications
Advantages
Example: Green energy company uses Oracle Service Cloud to
manage the data received from its smart meters & grids

CX Use Cases – Sales
Build personalized, customer
experiences (CX) to generate sales:
• Helps sales teams to sell beyond the
commodity
• Implements predictive analytics to
forecast demand
Monitors usage to reduce
operational costs
Utilizes customer data
for personalized sales
offers
Transforms insights
into sales
Boosts customer
value
Advantages:
Example: Wastewater treatment systems supplier uses Oracle
Sales to automate customer segmentation & targeting for sales

Enables Rapid Sales Force
Utility Training:
• Newly hired salespeople
become productive quicker
via guided selling.
• Automatically incorporates
parts list revisions, pricing
changes, discounts &
product modifications
quoting processes
Minimizes Risk & Maximizes
the Value of Short Product
Lifecycles:
• Protects & maximizes
margins on sales
• Leads to scalable, repeatable
& predictable revenue
Real-Time Response to
Dynamic Markets:
• Provides centralized
maintenance of price lists,
product configuration rules,
technical documentation &
warranty information
Advantages:
• Reduces time to generate
proposals
• Provides personalized
offers
• Empowers sales,
accelerates pricing, &
improves margins
CX Use Cases – CPQ
Example: Solar power company uses CPQ (Configure,
Price, Quote) to ensure accurate, profitable pricing
across multiple channels.

SoftClouds, Utility &
CX Implementations

SoftClouds, Utility & CX Implementations
Implementation 1
Fortune 1000 Public
Utility based in
Pacific Northwest
Implementation 2
American Investor-
Owned Utility Gas &
Electric Company
Implementation 3
Vertically
Integrated Energy
Company

Implementation 1 –
Fortune 1000 Public Utility based in
Pacific Northwest

• A Fortune 1000 public utility based in Pacific Northwest
• Vertically integrated energy company
• Engages in generation, wholesale purchase, transmission, distribution & retail
sale of electricity
• Total utility plant assets $12.15 billion
• Retail revenues $2.08 billion
• Targeting 80% carbon free by 2050
Source: oregon.gov
Implementation 1 – An Intro

Implementation 1 - Business Challenges
• Outdated knowledge management platform (Verint)
• Inefficient business process flow & difficult workflow management
• Limited knowledge management functionality
• Very minimal reporting & analytics
• Poor search experience (no filtering or sorting)
• Difficult integration with legacy systems
• Limited features & support (not upgraded since 2018)
• Not extensible towards the future, lacks:
• Intelligent advisor
• Digital assistant
• Self service
• Call center rerouting

Implementation 1 – The Solution & Architecture
External System
Verint DB
Company’s
Active Directory
Oracle C2M
OSvC Desktop
OSvC BUI
OSvC Customer
Portal
OSvC Knowledge
Management
Oracle Service Cloud
Company
Page
SSO Login
SSO Login
One Time Data
Migration
SSO Integration
Knowledge Base
Widget Integration
User1
User2

Implementation 1 – The Results
• Faster access to customer info – personalized web UI/UX reduced clicks & open 24x7
• Unified & structured content with branding guidelines
• Automated migration (95% articles migrated from Verint to Oracle Service Cloud)
• Improved search - advisors can quickly access data from multiple channels
• Removed manual formatting with standardized templates
• Easy content rendering with OKA to C2M widgets
• Integrated business intelligence - supports knowledge-based operational decisions
• Produces proactive & insightful analytics
• Customizable reports & dashboards

American Investor-Owned Utility Gas
& Electric Company

• American investor-owned utility gas & electric company
• Hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, & natural gas
• Assets $103.33 billion
• Revenues $20.06 billion
Source: oregon.gov

Implementation 2 – Business Challenges
• More manual overhead in release management
process
• Inefficient release process for parallel development
• Insufficient frequency release for quick
deployments
• No automated deployments
• No standard process to resolve merge conflicts for
teams
• Common release calendar maintenance issue

Implementation 2 – Release Management Process
Git
Copado
ALM
Create US
Commit
Selected
Comp in
US
Quality
Gates
Pull
Request
Select US
to Promote
Promotion
Created
Deploy to
Next Env
Create/
Modify
Comp in
SFDC/IDE
Feature
Branch
Created
Pull
Request
Review
Promotion
Branch
Merge &
Review
Merge to
Target
Branch
PM/Scrum Master
Developer/Admin/Architect Release Team
Uncontrolled Env Controlled Env

Consolidated release plan with well-
established cadence helped project
teams for better release
Streamline deployments with
automated processes
Integration with ALM systems provide
accurate date of release items
Improved quality on delivering
solutions on time
Efficient parallel deployments
Regular refresh, backup
cycle & replication of data
improved

Vertically Integrated Energy Company

100%
Clean power for Con Edison
facilities by 2030
Public utility based in New York,
founded in 1823
Vertically integrated energy company
Engages in generation, wholesale
purchase, transmission, distribution &
retail sale of electricity
Total assets $63.11 billion
Revenues $13.06 billion

Implementation 3 – Business Challenges
• Outdated knowledge management platform
• Lack of customer assistance - employees don’t have an
easy way to access info (use SharePoint)
• Inefficient business process flow
• Difficult workflow management
• Limited knowledge management functionality
• Very minimal reporting & analytics
• Poor search experience (no federated search, filtering or
sorting, etc)
• CC&B integration with existing platform isn’t possible
• Employees have to look for data in multiple applications

Implementation 3 – Solution & Architecture
External System
eInfo, SharePoint, CORE
& others
Company’s Active
Directory
Oracle CC&B
OSvC Desktop
OSvC BUI
OSvC Customer
Portal
Oracle
Knowledge
Advanced
Oracle Service Cloud
Company
Page
SSO Login
SSO Login
One Time Data
Migration
SSO Integration
Knowledge Base
Widget Integration
User1
User2

Single source of knowledge for
entire organization
Relevant content displayed based
on user profile
Advisors quickly access data from
multiple channels
Knowledge-based operational
decisions improve ROI
Improved content rendering with
new widgets
Increased user adoption &
productivity
Results

Future of CX in Utilities

Utility – Future, Technology & Use Cases
Virtual Assistant (VA)
Peer-to-Peer
Transactions
• Sensors
• Smart Meters
• Analytics
Use Case:
• View real-time & historic
consumption
• Receive usage & outage
alerts
• Smart Appliances
• AI
Use Case:
• Omnichannel VA for managing
energy use & optimizing
attributes
• VA combines customer habits
with external data (weather)
• Machine Learning
• Regulation &
Market Structure
Use Case:
• New revenue streams
• Helps to balance grid & optimize
supplies
• Blockchain
• Real-Time Demand Response
• Internet of Things
Use Case:
• Sales, installation & maintenance of
solar, storage, microgrids,
EV chargers
• Achieve net zero energy
Beyond Electricity
FUTURE
TECHNOLOGY
Personalized, Data-Driven
Experience

Top Technologies Driving Utilities
Facilitates
missions for
achieving
smart/clean-city
initiatives & net-
zero commitments
Text Here
Artificial
Intelligence
Internet of Things Extended
Reality
Digital
Twins
Predictive
Analytics
Self-Service
Customer Portals
Drone
Technology
Offers better
security, consumer
side analytics,
remote surveillance,
asset management,
workforce, resource
& infrastructure
Boosts operational
efficiency,
improves customer
service, shortens
repair times &
reduces training
expenses
Allows utilities to
plan, execute &
optimize daily
operations visually
Reduces outages
& maintenance
costs to improving
demand response
by using real-time
data analytics
Creates a customer-
centric business
model for
personalization
Helps inspect,
monitor & maintain
utility assets

SoftClouds & Our Services
UI Design
Solution
Architecture
Analytics
Health
Check
Data
Migration
Upgrade Integration Training
Managed
Services
WHAT WE DO?
Provide CX digital transformation
services to help our clients
accomplish their strategy &
operational goals.
WHO WE SUPPORT?
Executives seeking to define new
service revenue streams, improve
customer/employee
experiences, reduce risks & decrease
operating costs.
WHO WE WORK WITH?
We bring the power of our domain
experience & solutioning expertise on
technology platforms to deliver
solutions that drive business value.

Rene Varro
Director of Marketing
408.772.5164
renev@softclouds.com
www.softclouds.com

Thank You

CX for Utility Companies - Uses Cases & Future | SoftClouds

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