| Dear Anita, Thank you for your questions. Feel free to reach me if you have any follow-up questions. Q1. What kind of role can CRM play in the energy sector? A1. The term ?energy sector? is quite broad. If this were to address the utility industry, then utilities heavily require CRM processes for their stakeholder-facing areas to address processes such as: - new service request to connection
- service modifications to completion
- service cancellation to disconnection
- billing inquiry to resolution
In addition, the need for master data management of not only customer records, but also assets and locations becomes significantly important. These customer-facing processes should apply across all channels including in-person, phone, Web, kiosk, and machine-to-machine interactions. Now, if you meant the energy sector that includes aspects of both upstream (exploration) and downstream (delivery), then CRM may take a more B2B focus, looking at stakeholder interaction among partners, customers, and suppliers. Key processes to address include: - Identifying top stakeholders - partners, suppliers, and customers
- Improving cross-sell and upsell opportunities
- Proactive maintenance of key assets
- Manage contract compliance
One other factor is the state of regulation. The focus for non-regulated energy entities is the targeting and acquisition of new customers, while regulated companies use CRM for service differentiation and customer satisfaction. Q2. What do you think is the leading customer relationship system in energy companies? A2. On a broad basis, you would look at systems from Oracle and SAP. SAP has industry-specific solutions for utilities and energy focused on customer care and service. Oracle achieves this through a series of acquisitions from products such as Siebel, SPL, and PeopleSoft. Industry specialist AspenTech offers solutions more geared towards upstream/downstream energy concerns and offers fulfillment solutions, fleet operations management, and customer order credit management. Q3. Who makes the decision with regard to customer management in general at an energy company? A3. We often see that decision coming from the VP of customer service in regulated environments and VP of sales in deregulated environments. Now the best-case scenario involves both the IT and business leaders in the decision making. Q4. Which factors can we use to identify the most relevant CRM vendors? A4. We tell our clients to focus on their key stakeholder-facing processes. Identify the key scenarios and then talk to references. References remain the single most important factor in determining how the solution works, what kind of relationship to expect from a solution provider, and what to expect in terms of a vendor's baseline expertise. Also, use this opportunity to explore how the vendors can support your differentiating scenarios out of the box. If they can't meet your scenarios, find out if the vendors can provide you with the tools to allow you to configure — not customize, but configure — a solution to work the way you want it to. |