Xcel Energy Bills 5M US Households with Genero

The new solution consolidates two disparate systems running across 10 states onto a single platform and creates a unified system that gives Xcel Energy its first-ever global view of the five million customers it serves.

The scalable Customer Information System (CIS) from Peace Software also performs sophisticated customer analysis that enables Xcel Energy to perform various quality checks to ensure bill accuracy. The CIS supports a vast array of both simple and complex pricing plans across Xcel Energy’s multi-state territory.

The initiative had its roots in the 2000 merger of Denver-based New Century Energies and Minneapolis-based Northern States Power Co. The resulting company, Xcel Energy, inherited two dissimilar customer-care systems that posed challenges in dealing with 10 sets of state regulations and millions of customers.

Now, Xcel Energy can provide a standardized experience when its customers call for assistance. The project was divided into three phases: in July 2003, 220,000 Colorado customers were converted to the new system. In May 2004, 2.7 million customers across Colorado , Kansas , New Mexico , Oklahoma and Texas were added to the platform. Recently, the remaining 2.4 million customers in Michigan , Minnesota , North Dakota , South Dakota and Wisconsin were converted to Peace CIS.

Raymond E. Gogel, vice president and chief information officer of Xcel Energy, said, “At Xcel Energy, we use information technology to find new ways of doing business that benefit our customers. Our strategic partnership with IBM and deployment of Peace CIS are critical to that effort. We now have a single view of the customer across our entire service territory, and new advanced system capabilities to deliver superior service in a highly efficient and consistent manner.”