• Integrated solution streamlines billing and payment processes and provides flexibility to serve up to 250,000 new customers in four years
DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 21, 2008 -- Palm Utilities has recently deployed Oracle® Utilities Customer Care and Billing as the company continues to strengthen its support facilities for its quickly expanding business operations, Oracle and Palm Utilities -- a subsidiary of Istithmar World Public Joint Stock Company, a major investment holding company incorporated in the Dubai World Group -- announced today. The new solution is expected to benefit Palm Utilities' current 7,000 customers and provide the flexibility to accommodate an expected 250,000 new clients within the next four years.
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will help Palm Utilities to solve the vast majority of customer issues within the first contact, helping maintain the highest level of customer service. In addition, Palm Utilities will have the ability 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 (a virtually tasteless and odorless water with all dissolved solids removed) services.
The new solutions are expected to underscore Palm Utilities' reputation for emphasizing reliability, energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness in providing services to the largest and most prestigious developments in the Arabian Gulf. Integrating Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing with Palm Utilities' automatic meter reading (AMR)-enabled modules, which are pre-installed at most customer premises, will also help dramatically reduce time-consuming manual billing processes and ultimately enable lower costs. The integrated solution will also allow Palm Utilities to pull real-time usage data from meters into the customer care and billing application to deliver fewer estimated customer bills and enhance customer satisfaction.
Moreover, the Oracle application can benefit clients in multi-story buildings whose common areas such as entrances, staircases and garages do not have separate meters, requiring Palm Utilities to use a specific formula to calculate the energy consumption charge, and then pro-rate and bill it to individual apartment occupants. Oracle enables Palm Utilities to develop an interface to manage this calculation and charge allocation to shorten the collection cycle, ultimately benefiting the end-users.
"Oracle is pleased to work with Palm Utilities as it leverages Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to manage its complex billing environment and its rapidly growing business. Oracle enables Palm Utilities to harness its customer data, providing a complete view of customer and billing information to support more responsive customer service and faster bill processing. Because it is based on open standards, the application also easily integrates with other Oracle and third-party applications to help reduce risks and costs," said Quentin Grady, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities.
"Palm Utilities is committed to ensuring exceptional customer service as we expand our business and our client base. In this regard, Oracle delivers solutions that complement our focus on customer care and also provides extra value in streamlining operations and promoting long-term sustainability. With Oracle's support, we look forward to sustaining our aggressive expansion program without being bogged down by the complexities involved in handling customer-related issues such as billing and customer-care support," said Ahmed Butti, director general of Dubai Customs and chairman, Palm Utilities.
"Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing supports Palm Utilities' objective of providing the highest level of customer service with flexible billing and collections options," said Suhaib Ahmed, billing and credit control manager, Palm Utilities.
Palm Utilities has been established to address the region's unique requirements in the distinctly critical areas of district cooling through Palm District Cooling, and wastewater treatment through Palm Water.
Oracle Utilities delivers the proven software applications that help utilities achieve competitive advantage, business performance excellence and a lower total cost of technology ownership.
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