Palm Utilities Deploys Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Manage Billing and Payment Processes for Growing Customer Base
News Facts
• Palm Utilities, the holding company for Palm District Cooling (PDC) and Palm Water (PW), which provide district cooling and water services in the Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), has deployed Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to help support its quickly expanding business.
• 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.
Supporting Quotes
• “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 reduce risks and costs,” said Bastian Fischer, Vice President & General Manager EMEA, Oracle Utilities.
• “We are committed to providing exceptional customer service as we grow. Oracle supports our ongoing focus on customer care and streamlining operations, and we expect the solution to provide for additional improvements for many years to come as we aggressively expand our business,” said Murtaza Chevel, CFO, Palm Utilities.
Supporting Resources
• Oracle Utilities
• Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
