ATLANTA – A slow moving economy and industry upheaval have created a tough market for utility industry customer information systems vendors in recent years, but leading players have managed to survive and even move forward. In fact, since January 2002, the top industry vendors secured new system installation agreements with more than 44 utilities and competitive energy retailers serving over 12 million customers in North America, says industry research firm Chartwell.
These findings are published in the all-new Chartwell Report on CIS Installations in North America 2003, which focuses on the state of the utility industry regarding implementation of customer management and billing systems.
The Chartwell Report on CIS Installations in North America 2003 reports that no software vendor yet dominates the overall utility market, although three companies – Indus Utility Systems, Columbia, S.C.; SPL Worldgroup, Morristown, N.J.; and SAP Public Services, Washington, D.C. – have a leading market share when assessing end-use customers supported by their packaged CIS and billing applications. A fourth company, Peace Software, will move into that group once ongoing implementations of its systems are complete, Chartwell reports.
While these industry vendors each carved a significant piece of the pie, Chartwell says the majority of North American electricity and natural gas customers are supported by legacy billing systems or systems built inhouse by utility staff or software integration firms.
The Chartwell Report on CIS Installations in North America 2003 also features vendors that have carved a niche for themselves, such as Advanced Utility Systems, Toronto; or Systems & Software, Colchester, Vt., which have both prospered with municipal utilities.
This new Chartwell report is based on an analysis of CIS and billing systems at 492 utilities and energy retailers, which serve more than 200 million electric, gas and water accounts in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Chartwell data is compiled from interviews with utility officials and industry vendors.
The 54-page report also includes case studies of two contrasting utilities that implemented customer management systems – Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Greater Sudbury Hydro – offering real-life examples of challenges in implementation and the rewards reaped from an advanced customer care and billing system.
This report is part of the Chartwell Customer Care Research Series. For information on Chartwell products, contact us (404) 237-9099. Press: Dennis Smith (404) 237-9099.
