Utility Management

Customer Information System Best Practices | WWD Weekly Digest

April 8, 2021

As water and wastewater utilities adopt increasingly more digital solutions to their repertoire, sharing data and information with customers is critical. Not only do customers demand transparency, they also demand immediate access to information like they would receive from consumer services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. But where does a water or wastewater system begin with addressing these customer demands?

In the April issue of WWD, Michelle Gillum, director of marketing for VertexONE, authored an article about the principles of CIS system planning. In this interview, Matt Lindgren, senior vice president of product delivery for VertexONE, and Peter Eiland, solution architect for VertexONE, discuss how to build a better customer information system (CIS) that will meet customers’ wants and needs. They highlight the need for transparency, the importance of securing data, the reliability of the systems, and how to reach customers on tablets and mobile devices. Perhaps more importantly, they discuss how all of these features intersect with the IT department for a utility and some best practices for utility managers to ensure they are making promises their IT department can keep.

Intro: (0:00)
What is a customer information system (CIS)?: (0:34)
How customer demands have influence CIS systems: (3:20)
Using technology to meet customers where they are: (6:11)
Ensuring systems are secure and reliable: (8:21)
What is software as a service (SAAS)? (10:40)
The criticality of the IT team’s role and understanding its limitations: (11:20)
Outro: (15:05)