Outsourcing

CIS Outsourcing
Catches On By Warren Causey
While business process outsourcing has been gradually expanding in
utilities over the years, an alternate form of customer care outsourcing, the application
service provider (ASP) model, has caught on since the turn of the century. In most cases,
ASP vendors operate customer information systems (CISs) and/or call centers for utilities,
although some other services are beginning to come on-line, including such functions as
work management.
Prior to Jan. 1, 2000, there were approximately 1.67 million monthly customer bills
being rendered by utility companies or energy service providers (ESPs) on an outsourced
basis, says recent research from Energy Central/Warren B. Causey Ltd. (WBC)
Approximately half of those customers being served also received customer service
care through call centers that were outsourced by the utility or ESP.
By the end of 2004, that same statistic stood at approximately 21 million. An
unknown, but probably higher, percentage of utility customers also now receive their
customer care through outsourced call centers.
The numbers described above represent an average growth rate of approximately
54 percent per year, or approximately 1,151 percent over the five- year period. Expressed
another way, there now are 12.6 times as many outsourced customers as there were at
the end of 1999, as shown in the chart below.
54 ENERGYBIZ MAGAZINE May/June 2005