Palm Utilities, a subsidiary of Istithmar World PJSC, a major investment holding company incorporated in the Dubai World Group, announces that it has recently deployed the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing solution as the company continues to strengthen its support facilities for its quickly expanding business operations. The new solution will benefit Palm Utilities' current 7,000 customers and will provide the required flexibility to accommodate an expected 250,000 new clients within the next four years.
Palm Utilities' successful and seamless implementation of the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing solution has likewise earned recognition from its peers in the industry, resulting to a nomination for the 'Implementation of the Year' award in Energy & Utilities. Palm Utilities joins an impressive list of candidates, which includes Kuwait Oil Company, Petroleum Development Oman, SABIC and Saline Water Conversion Corporation.
The Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will allow Palm Utilities to solve almost 90 per cent of customer issues within the first contact, helping maintain the highest level of customer service. In addition, Palm Utilities will also be 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 (a virtually tasteless and odourless water with all dissolved solids removed) services.
“Palm Utilities is committed to ensure 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 delivers extra value in terms of streamlining operations and promoting long-term sustainability. With Oracle's support, Palm Utilities looks forward to sustain 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, Keith Levers, Chief Executive Officer, Palm Utilities.
Quentin Grady, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Utilities said: “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.”
The new solutions are expected to consolidate Palm Utilities' reputation as a responsible business model that emphasises on reliability, energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness in providing services to the largest and most prestigious developments in the Arabian Gulf. Integrating the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing with Palm Utilities' automatic metre reading (AMR)-enabled modules, which are pre-installed at most customer premises, will also dramatically reduce time-consuming manual billing processes and ultimately result to 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, which delivers fewer estimated customer bills and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Moreover, the Oracle application will be beneficial for clients in multi-storey 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 Utilities Customer Care and Billing system supports Palm Utilities objective of providing the highest level of customer service with flexible billing and collection options,” said Suhaib Ahmed, Billing & Credit Control Manager of 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 waste water treatment through Palm Water. On top of its expansion activities within the UAE, Palm Utilities has also revealed plans to pursue new core business activities within other utilities, including sustainable energy and environmental waste management. The company also plans to expand its operations overseas and has initiated talks for new business prospects with potential partners in the Middle East, India and the rest of Asia.
