WebFOCUS Supplies NW Natural With More Efficient Pipeline for Information

Snapshot

Organization NW Natural

Profile A leading natural gas supplier for Oregon and southern Washington

Headquarters Portland, Oregon

The Challenge Provide customer service representatives with easy access to real-time information

Results A state-of-the-art, Web-based information system

Information Builders Solution WebFOCUS, FOCUS Six (WebFOCUS Developer Studio)

For most of its 140-year existence, NW Natural has been the sole supplier of low-cost natural gas in its service territory – the Pacific Northwest. With the advent of utilities deregulation, all that began to change. Suddenly, the company had to strengthen its existing customer base and sharpen its competitive edge to secure its share of the market.

Getting Up-to-Date

To improve customer satisfaction, one of the company's first priorities was the overhaul of an outdated, paper-based information system, which stored data on the company's 475,000 residential and business customers who are served through 14,000 miles of mains and six district offices in two states. Managing and monitoring the flow of information through such a widely dispersed system had become a tremendous challenge. Sometimes it took days to answer simple customer inquiries concerning maintenance or service. "The customer reps had to wait for field technicians to send the paper reports, which could take at least a full day," explains Rick Biggs, Technical Support Analyst of NW Natural. "Even then, the paper had to be routed internally." Facing the threat of competition from other natural gas suppliers, the company realized that speeding up customer service was a must.

Information Instantly

NW Natural sought to develop a system that would allow service personnel to complete and submit their reports right from the field. Just as important, company employees back at headquarters would need quick and easy access to this information.

To meet these requirements, the company implemented a state-of-the-art, cost-efficient Web reporting system using FOCUS Six for Windows and WebFOCUS from Information Builders. FOCUS Six, a versatile desktop solution for enterprise-wide and departmental reporting, EIS applications, data analysis, and decision support, features a robust development environment which NW Natural used to create their Web reporting applications for use with WebFOCUS.

WebFOCUS also offers a robust Java-based toolkit for developing, testing, and deploying Web applications with just a browser. Providing access to more than 70 data sources, WebFOCUS enabled the company to integrate all their enterprise data. HTML-formatted reports are dynamically created by WebFOCUS, simplifying deployment of the information to thousands of employees across the enterprise via an Internet connection. "We didn't have to deploy any special software," Biggs points out. "The customer service people can just use any standard Web browser. It's an extremely cost-effective reporting system that is instantly available to any user in the company."

Starting in June 1997, the new system was implemented in stages over a period of seven months, and today is up and running smoothly, covering more than 50 service routes. When work orders are completed, service personnel in the field immediately input the information into new pen-based mobile computers. The data is then sent digitally via an updated voice radio network through land-based phone lines to the central office. There it's stored in a new Sybase database running on an IBM RS/6000 multiprocessing system and made instantly available to any user in the enterprise using WebFOCUS.

Customer Satisfaction and More

Now, when customers call NW Natural they get answers immediately, instead of in hours or days. "We can tell the customer exactly when the service technician was there, what the problem was, and what was done to fix it," Biggs says proudly. "That's much better than saying, 'I don't know. We don't have the information back yet.'" And by cutting out error-prone manual procedures, information is more accurate and reliable.

In addition to enhanced customer satisfaction, the company has benefited in many other ways. Workers spend their days more productively, instead of having to worry about time-consuming paperwork. Managers throughout every department get the information they need, when they need it, enabling them to make timelier, more informed decisions. Tracking such cost-of-business items as travel expenses, parts consumed, and employee hours has been simplified, making budgeting and forecasting a lot easier. Most important, NW Natural is more confident in its ability to flourish and grow in a new era of competition.