For 27 years, the CIS Conference has been serving utility
professionals and vendors by providing them with incomparable
educational and networking opportunities as well as exposure
to industry experts and market leaders showcasing state-of-the-art
technologies and services. The 28th Annual CIS Conference
in Miami Beach, which runs this year from May 4-7, kicked-off
to a heady start with more than 50 scheduled workshops and
over 100 exhibitors. An all-star keynote speaker lineup
includes addresses by Donna Shalala, former secretary of
health and human services in the Clinton administration,
now president of the University of Miami; Dave Barry, humor
columnist at the Miami Herald; and Armando J. Olivera, senior
vice president of Power Systems, Florida Power & Light.
This year's conference promises to set the standard for
CIS and CRM thought leadership in the utility industry for
some time to come.
For several months before today's start of the conference
the thrill about this event has been evident. Discussion
topics of great interest include the increasing number of
CIS and CRM projects at North American utilities; the importance
of two-way dialogue-based customer interaction; and increasing
competition and impending shakeout/M&A of CIS and other
information technology vendors. The Utility Customer Care
Solutions (UCCS) survey co-developed and published by InfoNetrix
LLC and UtiliPoint International substantiates that there
is finally movement among utilities in seeking new CIS and
CRM capabilities and planning projects or upgrades. The
survey reveals that in the first quarter of 2004 there were
more than 59 active CIS/CRM projects, RFPs or projects being
initiated whose total value is more than $84 million. Leveraging,
customer care systems and infrastructure at utilities have
also seen increased activity.
During the 1990s utilities had emphasized the computing
and IT infrastructure side of the customer service equation.
Today, technology suppliers like EnvoyWorldwide, a supplier
of real-time notification and alerting services, are leading
the charge in enabling utilities with applications that
leverage utilities growing CIS/CRM infrastructure.
This year, there has certainly been no shortage of M&A
rumors, new product and service announcements, and partnership
announcements. UtiliPoint expects that everyone in attendance
at this year's show will get a good sense of where things
in the market will be going. In addition, through other
IssueAlert articles like this one, UtiliPoint will certainly
help to put these matters into industry relevant context
and business perspective.
“The industry has been alive with discussion about
the continuing emphasis on customer service and the goal
of bringing the total power of the enterprise to each and
every customer interaction,” says Christopher Perdue,
director of market research for UtiliPoint International.
The idea that excellent customer service is of key value
to utilities has been steadily evolving over time. Although
the story about the importance of robust, enterprise pervasive,
customer service has changed very little over the past several
years, there is a palpable change in the air. For starters,
utilities by and large now have the capability to deliver
on many of the customer service capabilities that were merely
hypothesized several years ago. Further, the utility industry
in an ongoing effort to cut costs and increase operational
efficiency are finding themselves often for the first time
in a position to evaluate and benchmark the real quality
and business impact of better customer service as well as
identify the gaps that need to be filled going forward.
The CIS Conference has always been a source of the latest
information, a wellspring of insight, and an unbeatable
networking opportunity. Utilities, technology vendors, journalists,
consultants and analysts have been innovating a lot over
the past year and there is much to discuss. There are a
myriad of business opportunities and extracurricular pleasures
to be enjoyed this week at CIS Miami Beach. We look forward
to sharing our experience and insight with you and welcome
your input and feedback. Please contact us during the show
at contactus@utilipoint.com.
