Case Study: Antigua Public Utilities Authority
Antigua, commonly referred to as "a little bit of Paradise", is the largest of the British Leeward Islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Every year, more than 200,000 visitors escape from the rat race to bask in the sunshine, feel the warm winds caress their skin, scuba dive amongst the coral reefs, comb the sandy beaches and enjoy the island hospitality for which Antigua is famous. But even Paradise needs water, electricity and telephone services—and, consequently, a cost-effective and competent billing and customer service system.
Scenario
The APUA needed to find a financial system that would allow them to incorporate activities for their water, electric
and telephone utilities for some activities, and separate them out for others.
Company Profile
Antigua Public Utilities Authority supplies water, electric and telephone service to 60,000 customers.
Benefits
Cogsdale CSM gives APUA the flexibility it needs to improve its business processes, serving its customers efficiently
and effectively.
Migrated from Harris Computer Systems PUB Software Demographic Information
Number of users: 103
Number of customers: 60,000
The Antigua Public Utilities Authority provides water, electric and telephone services to approximately 68,000 year round residents as well as to the nation's hotels and resorts. Established in 1973, the APUA was using a financial package from Harris Computer Systems, but Information Systems Manager Curtis McKay was becoming increasingly frustrated with the software's limited reporting capabilities, inability to accommodate the billing challenges the APUA faced daily and declining customer service. Beyond the already complex requirements of a utility billing system, the water, electric and telephone services offered by APUA are sometimes dealt with as one company, at other times each of the services is accounted for separately.
"Although we purchased all of the upgrades, Harris was becoming increasingly unwilling to modify the software for us," McKay explains.
In 1998, the APUA decided it was time to look at implementing a new system. "What really pushed us was the millennium issue," says McKay. "We were concerned about our Y2K compliance, and since we were already dissatisfied with the platform and wanted to upgrade, we decided to find a vendor with a more standardized platform and better support."
With the millennium clock ticking and a shopping list that included flexibility, advanced reporting capabilities, tight integration, and the best support available, the APUA set out on its quest for a better system. As well as vastly improved functionality, McKay wanted the utility operating within a Windows environment. "Our old system was passé," McKay laughs.
Confident that Great Plains, with Microsoft's outstanding technology behind it, would give the utility the reliability it needed, the APUA implemented the software in the fall of 1998 and ran parallel systems through the billing cycles for October and November for testing and data verification. Although the transition was smooth and the resulting system was a vast improvement on their previous financial system, McKay knew that the utility needed to integrate a more specialized financial and customer service management system with Great Plains to have the capability the APUA needed. In early 1999, the APUA added Cogsdale Customer Service Management software to accommodate the utility's esoteric billing and reporting requirements. Cogsdale CSM takes over where Great Plains leaves off, providing functionality developed specifically to meet those demands.
Cogsdale Customer Service Management software is customized to suit the requirements of individual municipalities and utility companies. McKay cites the changes that Cogsdale made to the APUA's package as a prime example of the Cogsdale developers' willingness to modify Cogsdale CSM to ensure that APUA got the best out of its investment. In additional to the common adaptations required with software installations, McKay wanted to facilitate the collection of reconnect charges. "Sometimes people come in to pay their bills and don't realize that their service has already been disconnected. We wanted a pop-up window to appear when the cashier was accepting payment from a customer whose service had already been disconnected to notify them of the additional reconnect charge. Cogsdale modified our Collections module to do that."
Since the APUA installed the integrated Great Plains and Cogsdale CSM system, McKay says life has become much easier for both customers and employees. With previously time consuming tasks being performed by the system, his staff is free to work on other projects. Morale has increased, customer service has vastly improved, and the APUA now has a system that can be modified to meet its needs easily and effectively.
McKay rests assured that the system he purchased more than four years ago will continue to offer the high level of functionality and customer support that his organization needs; and the APUA's yearly support contract guarantees that all upgrades and new releases of the software are provided at no additional cost.
The stability of the SQL platform, functionality, integration, and first class customer service that are all part of Cogsdale CSM translate into an investment that McKay believes the APUA will continue to reap rewards from well into the future. "Past experience has given me a great appreciation for Cogsdale and Cogsdale CSM. We will be using this system for a long time to come."
Source: Cogsdale Corporation