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UtilitY WEEK | 11th - 17th April 2014 | 11 Research of where improvements need to be made. Utilities do give themselves mediocre scores in a number of areas – particularly customer- facing activities they are less familiar with. The utility executives surveyed demon- strate a clear understanding that achieving greater customer centricity will be demand- ing, complex and multi-faceted. It will need to be underpinned primarily by technology and business process improvements but will also involve far broader business changes: listening to and acting upon feedback from actual customers, creating the right corpo- rate culture; and training and empowering staff appropriately. Obstacles to achieving a more customer- -centric utilities sector persist and in some cases are formidable. There is a clear mes- sage to regulators and government that they could do more to incentivise firms to really think and act with customers front of mind. But therein may lie the rub. Today's political – and hence regulatory – agenda is fiercely price-focused. While all eyes are on driving bills down, it is difficult to see how regulated utilities, even those with the best intentions, will be allowed to make all the investments possible to become truly cus- tomer centric. Realistically, regulated energy and water companies will have to select carefully which tools, systems, business process changes and cultural adjustments will yield the most – and the most certain – benefit and set their sights on those. The full report is available to down- load at: http://www.wipro.com/ customer-centricity-for-utilities/ Wipro comment: buckle down to improve technology implementation success Coming out of a draining recession in 2008, utilities have been preoccupied with cost ef- ficiencies. This explains why they have only now begun to focus on customer centricity. There are other drivers for the customer- centric focus as well: regulatory changes, efforts to find new ways to differentiate, positive response to rising utility costs and so on. Then there are technological drivers. Mo- bile technologies and social platforms have grown rapidly. A generation of customers who have never used anything but a mobile device for self-service and for bill payments is emerging. Utilities face considerable pressure to serve these customers using technology. The problem is that utilities don't have a great track record here. Typically, technology projects in utilities have long implementation periods; they are complex and inflexible; they frequently suffer from budget over runs. In 2014-15, utilities will have to buckle down. They will need to improve upon the success metrics for their technology investments. wHicH of tHE followiNg it applicatioNs NEEd to improvE if your compaNy is to bEcomE morE customEr cENtric? plEasE raNk tHE followiNg, witH tHosE tHat rEquirE tHE most improvEmENt towards tHE top. application average rank Customer relationship management 3.1 Customer self-service portals 3.2 Call centre technology 3.8 Field operations 4.2 Data management analytics 4.3 Billing 5.3 Asset planning investments 6.1 New connections 6.2 to wHat ExtENt do your ExistiNg it systEms HElp you to bE rEspoNsivE to customEr NEEds? iN tErms of staffiNg aNd a customEr-cENtric corporatE culturE, How would you ratE EacH of tHE followiNg arEas as rEgards rEquiriNg morE attENtioN aNd iNvEstmENt witHiN your compaNy? Board level leadership Key Performance Indicators Training Incentives Staff empowerment Recruitment 1 Little/no investment 2 3 4 5 a lot of attention/investment average rank 2.4 2.8 2.4 3.7 3.3 overall water Electricity gas 2.6 2.8 2.8 2.9 3.1 9% 9% 9% 9% 9% 45% 36% 36% 18% 45% 36% 9% 27% 64% 27% 27% 9% 27% 45% 9% 36% 18% 27% 9%