Gas South is based in Atlanta and is the largest natural gas provider in the Southeast, serving more than 444,000 residential, business and governmental customers throughout 14 states.
The customer information system, or CIS, platform is a mission-critical system through which a utility delivers an exceptional customer experience. Extremely complex and highly integrated, a CIS serves as a utility’s brain and billing powerhouse. Given that these platforms are so foundational, they are not replaced as frequently as other systems, and implementing a new CIS can be a risky process that takes time. However, as customer and employee needs evolve, utilities must evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of their current CIS platform and affirm if it is best suited for their future needs.
A major component of future success for utilities is the application of a modern and intuitive CIS. When deciding to choose a new CIS platform, it is critical for companies to first create selection criteria and then establish a process. Utilities must be responsive and know when to adopt more flexible platforms so that they can improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Following two years of planning, Gas South changed its CIS platform. For customers, the new platform provides a more personal experience, and for marketers, it delivers a data-enriched view of their natural gas customers. The following outlines learnings from the preliminary stages of this process through implementation, including challenges and what it took to overcome them.
Gas South had two primary reasons to switch from its current platform. First, its existing system required a significant capital investment to upgrade. Second, the company wanted a solution that would be best suited for longevity, future growth and expansion over the next 10 to 15 years. After evaluating its needs, the company decided to move from its on-premise CIS to a new software as a service, or SaaS, offering.
For Gas South, the new platform offers attractive advantages and benefits. The cloud-based platform improves system uptime and functionality compared to the on-premise solution and is more adaptable to the markets Gas South serves today and hopes to serve in the future. It allows Gas South to process transactions more effectively to and from local distribution companies, which reduces operational exceptions that would impact the customer experience. The new platform also allows Gas South to be more agile in meeting customer needs, including adding new markets from the utility’s acquisition of Infinite Energy in 2020. Additionally, as more of the tool’s functionality is applied, it is expected to significantly increase automation and reduce the need for manual billing, which is still necessary for some customers.
Once Gas South selected a new platform, it began outlining the steps for the transition. In 2020, Gas South kicked off Project Iris, a multiphase approach to define requirements and set up the new platform across the company. During the first half of 2022, the team worked together with the software company and the other partners to begin the implementation plan. Gas South officially assigned 16 employees to Project Iris, but 108 people—nearly 33% of the company—were directly involved in some capacity.
Project Iris was successful but not without its challenges. Because Gas South was an early adopter of the new platform, not many other customers had extensive experience with implementation. Rather than learning from other business case studies, Gas South set its own precedents. Due to this challenge, the team underestimated the need for customization. Additionally, Gas South was concurrently completing the Infinite Energy acquisition. This strained some of the resources assigned to Project Iris. The acquisition also introduced unplanned requirements into the scope of the project, including new markets, which impacted the triple constraint of scope, time and cost. Another challenge for Gas South was ensuring it allotted enough resources to cover the day-to-day responsibilities of the core team working on the project.
Given these challenges, Gas South worked to remain flexible, creating processes and solutions as issues arose. The company established a pattern of continuous testing during development, ensuring that it identified issues and resolved them quickly. Gas South made certain that it kept all teams aware of changes and that there was full transparency on any issues.
The most critical process for preparing for the platform change was the dress rehearsals. Gas South established these to practice go-lives, troubleshooting and testing for success. Before going live, the team completed three dress rehearsals, which went so well they canceled a scheduled fourth rehearsal.
After following the step-by-step strategy, the new SaaS system went live Aug. 27, 2022, and Gas South is effectively using it today. The implementation of the new CIS platform is having an immeasurable impact on setting the company up for the future and is impacting all areas of its business.
The new platform provides customer functions and flexibility not available before the transition and allows Gas South to take advantage of upgrades and enhancements on a quarterly basis that align with the emerging needs of our customers. Gas South is now well positioned to offer a wider mix of products, plus more automated billing with more flexibility. Most importantly, customers will benefit from a more reliable system.
Gas South’s successful transition from an on-premises system to the new Saas platform acts as a case study for other utilities considering changing their CIS platforms. Other companies can learn from Gas South’s key takeaways, including investing in its people so they have the resources and time to dedicate to the implementation. Team members should also check in regularly with their project partners and each other to troubleshoot and lean on their shared expertise. Finally, they need to align with their project partners on what requirements may be unique to their market and set clear roles, responsibilities and expectations.