Palm Utilities deploys Oracle utilities customer care and billing

Palm Utilities, which currently has 7,000 customers and is expected to grow to 250,000 in four years, implemented Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to help manage many of its complex billing scenarios. For example, in multi-story buildings where common areas, such as entrances, staircases and garages, do not have separate meters, Palm Utilities uses a specific formula to calculate the energy consumption charge, and then pro-rate and bill it to individual apartment occupants. The Oracle application enabled the company to develop an interface to manage this calculation and charge allocation to shorten the collection cycle and maintain the highest level of customer service. Further, Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing allowed Palm Utilities to solve almost 90 percent of customer issues within the first contact.

In addition, Palm Utilities uses a responsible business model emphasizing reliability, energy efficiency and cost effectiveness to provide services to many of the largest and most prestigious developments in the Arabian Gulf. With Oracle, Palm Utilities is able to effectively and efficiently manage each facet of the customer care process including metering, billing, collections and credit management for the company's chilled water supply, portable water supply, sewerage services, treated effluent services and polished water (virtually tasteless and odorless water with all dissolved solids removed) services.

Palm Utilities has already installed automatic meter reading (AMR)-enabled modules at most customer premises to ensure timely and accurate meter reads. Integration with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is critical to reducing time-consuming manual billing processes, ultimately leading to lower costs. In addition, the integration will allow the company to pull real-time usage data from meters into the customer care and billing application - leading to fewer estimated customer bills and enhanced customer satisfaction.