Arlington Water Utilities Successfully Integrates the ONLINE Utility Exchange via Systems & Software's enQuesta CIS Solution
New Partnership Offers Arlington Water Utilities a Comprehensive Solution to Eliminating Bad Debt.
Winterville, NC, March 05, 2012 --(PR.com)-- ONLINE Information Services and Harris Computer Systems announced today that Arlington Water Utilities successfully integrated the ONLINE Utility Exchange with Systems & Software's (S&S) enQuesta CIS, to offer a comprehensive solution to eliminate bad debt.
Arlington Water Utilities, a municipal utility providing water, wastewater and storm drainage services to 365,000 residents has been a strategic partner with S&S since 2001. Through the integration between enQuesta and the ONLINE Utility Exchange, Arlington's CSR’s can validate applicant identity and receive a real-time response that is stored with the customer's record when an account is created. This provides Arlington with better risk-management, reducing future collection activities and expenses. These cost savings ultimately serve the best interests of Arlington's ratepayers.
As the only total solution for eliminating utility bad debt, the ONLINE Utility Exchange allows clients to instantly assess the delinquency risk applicants pose and charge an appropriate deposit to protect their organizations. Powered by ONLINE’s Exchange Database, the ONLINE Utility Exchange offers exclusive, real-time access to the payment experiences of utilities throughout the nation to help stop bad debt. Unlike traditional credit reports, the ONLINE Utility Exchange report is color-coded for easy readability and provides exclusive access to the Exchange at no charge.
Raja Mukherjee, General Manager of S&S, is delighted to see the S&S partner portfolio continue to expand. "We are very excited to have forged this partnership with ONLINE Utility Exchange. We feel this integration will allow our customers to better manage their customers' outstanding debt and aid in the adherence to Red Flag rules. We look forward to many more projects with ONLINE."
ONLINE’s President, JW Blair, adds, “Partnering with S&S has been a pleasure and continues ONLINE’s mission to provide utilities with the tools and resources they need to eliminate bad debt. We look forward to helping S&S clients improve their business operations and congratulate Arlington on their successful implementation of the ONLINE Utility Exchange.”
Laurie Foreman, Customer Service Manager at Arlington Water, commented, “In August 2011, the City of Arlington Water Utilities successfully implemented the ONLINE Utility Exchange’s SSN validation service module. S&S’s staff thoroughly worked with us throughout the process of working with the ONLINE Utility Exchange, the integration with enQuesta, and the implementation.”
Foreman added that “this service has allowed us to strengthen our Red Flag Rules of customer name and Social Security number validation. If the information the customer provides us over the phone does not match, the customer is required to come into the office and present proper identification and Social Security card. Since implementation, we have averaged about 1,007 ONLINE Utility Exchange reports per month. In addition to strengthening our Red Flag Rules, our long-term goal is that this accurate data will benefit us in collecting outstanding balances on inactive accounts.”
Foreman was very impressed at the ease of integration between ONLINE Utility Exchange and enQuesta. “Of all of the new features that we have implemented over the years, this one was the most seamless. The integration that S&S developed with ONLINE Utility Exchange made the procedures of incorporating this new step during the activation of new accounts extremely easy. We set up all activation work orders which were mandatory for the ONLINE Utility Exchange process to be fulfilled. S&S also automated the process of creating the work order that auto-populated the information retrieved from ONLINE Utility Exchange, saving customer service the time it used to take to populate the work orders manually.”
About Arlington Water Utilities
Arlington Water Utilities serves residential and business customers in Arlington, Texas. Arlington Water Utilities provides water, wastewater, storm drainage and refuse billing services for over 100,000 customers. For further information on Arlington Water Utilities, please visit www.arlingtontx.gov/water.
About ONLINE Utility Exchange
Established in 1956 as a credit bureau and collections agency, ONLINE Information Services, Inc. is currently the nation's leading developer of risk management and debt recovery solutions for the Utility, Property Management, Healthcare, and Mortgage industries. Servicing Utilities throughout the nation, the ONLINE Utility Exchange is a utility-specific credit bureau with the single goal of providing the tools necessary to eliminate bad debt. For more information, visit their website at www.ONLINEUtilityExchange.com.
About Systems & Software, Inc.
Since 1973, S&S has been an industry leading CIS provider to municipal and investor-owned (IOU) electric, water and gas utilities. With an unrivaled track record of success, the company's web-based enQuesta software drives advanced business performance, including utility billing, revenue management, mobile workforce management, GIS integration, electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), automated meter integration (AMI/MDM), time-of-use (TOU) billing, asset management/work management integration, customer self-service web portal, and business intelligence and reporting. Based on service-oriented architecture (SOA), enQuesta is specifically designed for utilities and is proven to increase efficiencies and revenues, as well as enhance customer service. For more information about S&S, and enQuesta, please visit www.ssivt.com.
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Arlington Water Utilities, a municipal utility providing water, wastewater and storm drainage services to 365,000 residents has been a strategic partner with S&S since 2001. Through the integration between enQuesta and the ONLINE Utility Exchange, Arlington's CSR’s can validate applicant identity and receive a real-time response that is stored with the customer's record when an account is created. This provides Arlington with better risk-management, reducing future collection activities and expenses. These cost savings ultimately serve the best interests of Arlington's ratepayers.
As the only total solution for eliminating utility bad debt, the ONLINE Utility Exchange allows clients to instantly assess the delinquency risk applicants pose and charge an appropriate deposit to protect their organizations. Powered by ONLINE’s Exchange Database, the ONLINE Utility Exchange offers exclusive, real-time access to the payment experiences of utilities throughout the nation to help stop bad debt. Unlike traditional credit reports, the ONLINE Utility Exchange report is color-coded for easy readability and provides exclusive access to the Exchange at no charge.
Raja Mukherjee, General Manager of S&S, is delighted to see the S&S partner portfolio continue to expand. "We are very excited to have forged this partnership with ONLINE Utility Exchange. We feel this integration will allow our customers to better manage their customers' outstanding debt and aid in the adherence to Red Flag rules. We look forward to many more projects with ONLINE."
ONLINE’s President, JW Blair, adds, “Partnering with S&S has been a pleasure and continues ONLINE’s mission to provide utilities with the tools and resources they need to eliminate bad debt. We look forward to helping S&S clients improve their business operations and congratulate Arlington on their successful implementation of the ONLINE Utility Exchange.”
Laurie Foreman, Customer Service Manager at Arlington Water, commented, “In August 2011, the City of Arlington Water Utilities successfully implemented the ONLINE Utility Exchange’s SSN validation service module. S&S’s staff thoroughly worked with us throughout the process of working with the ONLINE Utility Exchange, the integration with enQuesta, and the implementation.”
Foreman added that “this service has allowed us to strengthen our Red Flag Rules of customer name and Social Security number validation. If the information the customer provides us over the phone does not match, the customer is required to come into the office and present proper identification and Social Security card. Since implementation, we have averaged about 1,007 ONLINE Utility Exchange reports per month. In addition to strengthening our Red Flag Rules, our long-term goal is that this accurate data will benefit us in collecting outstanding balances on inactive accounts.”
Foreman was very impressed at the ease of integration between ONLINE Utility Exchange and enQuesta. “Of all of the new features that we have implemented over the years, this one was the most seamless. The integration that S&S developed with ONLINE Utility Exchange made the procedures of incorporating this new step during the activation of new accounts extremely easy. We set up all activation work orders which were mandatory for the ONLINE Utility Exchange process to be fulfilled. S&S also automated the process of creating the work order that auto-populated the information retrieved from ONLINE Utility Exchange, saving customer service the time it used to take to populate the work orders manually.”
About Arlington Water Utilities
Arlington Water Utilities serves residential and business customers in Arlington, Texas. Arlington Water Utilities provides water, wastewater, storm drainage and refuse billing services for over 100,000 customers. For further information on Arlington Water Utilities, please visit www.arlingtontx.gov/water.
About ONLINE Utility Exchange
Established in 1956 as a credit bureau and collections agency, ONLINE Information Services, Inc. is currently the nation's leading developer of risk management and debt recovery solutions for the Utility, Property Management, Healthcare, and Mortgage industries. Servicing Utilities throughout the nation, the ONLINE Utility Exchange is a utility-specific credit bureau with the single goal of providing the tools necessary to eliminate bad debt. For more information, visit their website at www.ONLINEUtilityExchange.com.
About Systems & Software, Inc.
Since 1973, S&S has been an industry leading CIS provider to municipal and investor-owned (IOU) electric, water and gas utilities. With an unrivaled track record of success, the company's web-based enQuesta software drives advanced business performance, including utility billing, revenue management, mobile workforce management, GIS integration, electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), automated meter integration (AMI/MDM), time-of-use (TOU) billing, asset management/work management integration, customer self-service web portal, and business intelligence and reporting. Based on service-oriented architecture (SOA), enQuesta is specifically designed for utilities and is proven to increase efficiencies and revenues, as well as enhance customer service. For more information about S&S, and enQuesta, please visit www.ssivt.com.
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ONLINE Information Services, Inc.
Christoph Turner
866-630-6400
ONLINEInfoServices.com
Christoph Turner
866-630-6400
ONLINEInfoServices.com
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