The way people do their computing is changing: mobile device usage is growing steadily every day, indicating a preference to be connected anywhere and at any time. Input is also shifting from the traditional methods – keyboards, mice, 
trackpads – to more casual and natural touch interfaces. Apple has sold over 250 million iOS devices worldwide, while Google’s Android OS is growing at 886% year on year and now activating over 160,000 devices a day, across 60 device types in over 40 countries (Source: Sybase, an SAP mobile intelligence company).
Utility companies now have the power to reach this rapidly growing segment of new users through iFactor Consulting’s suite of mobile device applications. iFactor’s mobile applications offer utility customers the ability to log in to their accounts and pay their bills, see their usage in an animated meter, sign up for account alerts, view and report outages, or even submit a photo read of their meter, all in a user interface that is made specifically for mobile screens and touch input. Each feature is modular to allow for custom applications which can start with a utility’s current needs and expand over time.
Bill pay stands out as the pivotal feature in iFactor’s mobile apps.
Monthly plan customers can view and pay their bills, while prepaid customers can view their remaining energy and add credits. Information is transacted through an industry-leading payment gateway using strong 1024-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, which means customers’ data is kept safe. Customers can pay within seconds via credit card or ACH transfer from a checking account. Thanks to our focus on mobile apps, your solutions can continue to keep pace with the rapidly changing mobile payments space.
Push notifications built into the apps add even more value. Integrated with iFactor’s Notifi platform, notifications go beyond traditional SMS messaging by offering actionable content at a lower price. They give utilities another way to push important account alerts to customers in near real-time: an AMI customer can be alerted that they’ve hit a preset usage goal; a prepaid customer can be alerted that their service is about to be shut off. Notifications can also contain bill due and bill overdue reminders, outage updates, payment returned alerts, and more.
Utilities are striving to improve customer service, 
lower costs, and create strong, persistent customer relationships. Leveraging mobile technology to deliver self-service provides a means to engage with customers on a channel they prefer, while providing an opportunity to reach them more frequently and for much lower cost than traditional mail and phone channels. At that same time, mobile apps provide a new customer experience which can help drive a perception of the utility as “high tech”. Thanks to this powerful combination, iFactor’s mobile solutions can become key contributor to a wide array of short term and long term goals in your organization.
A few weeks after Hurricane Irene slammed the east coast, iFactor gathered together a focused group of utility representatives to share ideas and information on how they managed their communications process during this major storm. Participants used this opportunity to discuss the use of outage maps, online outage reporting, texting, and other communications avenues during large events.
Utility representatives also shared some interesting Hurricane Irene statistics with us, including:
- About 50% of LIPA’s customers were affected: 523,000 out of 1.1 million.
- Utilization of LIPA’s website quadrupled during the storm.
- On Monday ConEd’s call center volume reached 3,000 calls per hour.
- ConEd had 281,000 site views from August 26 to September 2, while they usually get about 1,000 views per day.
- Central Hudson experienced significantly more damage than the worst storm in their history, but a lower number of customer outages.
- During the storm, Pepco had close to 500,000 page views on the reporting page of their website, and about 350,000 page views on their Storm Center map.
- This was the largest number of outages that National Grid has ever seen: about 1.4 million outages at one point.
We were also happy to hear excellent feedback from iFactor customers:
“We were able to make several adaptations to our system on the fly, and iFactor was very supportive in helping us get them into production and helping our customers get the information they were looking for.” – LIPA
“Outage mapping worked flawlessly. Our systems behind the outage map continued to work by and large, but for short times were overwhelmed. We never took the map offline, though.” – ConEd
“Our internal site is very important for customer service reps. Dispatchers are able to use the site to provide pertinent information to customers. This is a truly a significant and important feature that allows us to give really good information to customer service representatives. The internal site is a huge part of communication for us.” – Central Hudson
“iFactor has been incredibly supportive in helping us during Irene and since then on things we’ve followed up on.” – National Grid
Finally, we captured some great “lessons learned” from utilities as they reflected on communicating with their customers during the storm:
- While LIPA had never anticipated such a huge increase in web traffic during a storm, this highlighted the fact that their customers have access to the web even when their lights are out: “They might not have it at home, but maybe they’re going to the library, to work, or using a mobile device.”
- National Grid realized the importance of online information as customers clamored for updates: “The more information customers can get online, the less they hit our phone lines and keep the phone lines jammed up. That’s why it’s so important for us to have these web systems and keep them updated.”
- ConEd saw the same benefit of online and mobile outage data: “The outage map is a terrific tool in providing information and deflecting calls from government representatives, media, and customers who might otherwise call and ask what’s going on. When you enhance transparency with these types of tools it satisfies these types of inquiries.”
- LIPA used iFactor’s ETR Manager to control what outage information was displayed on their Storm Center map during the hurricane. This tool becomes very helpful during major storms, as many utilities’ outage management systems aren’t able to provide an accurate depiction of what’s happening at all times.
- Central Hudson relied heavily on their Storm Center alert banner and admin tool, using the former to communicate their general restoration goal quickly and easily to the media, and using the latter to manually update outage information and display dry ice distribution locations.
- Central Hudson also recorded the Hurricane Irene event on their Storm Center site using the Event History Manager tool, which will provide great data for their post storm analysis.
As a record setting storm during a time when customers are demanding more information through online and mobile channels, Hurricane Irene provided a great opportunity for utilities to gauge their readiness to respond to these customer needs. iFactor is able to offer utilities the tools needed to satisfy these customer demands with products that allow customer communication via the web, texting, and mobile access.
Santee Cooper is now offering their customers near real time outage information with iFactor Consulting’s Storm Center product. 
Storm Center, an interactive outage map available on Santee Cooper’s website (http://stormcenter.santeecooper.com) and also accessible on smartphones, displays both individual outages and outage summary information by county. The map provides users with critical details for outages, including number of customers affected and estimated restoration time. Santee Cooper customers can also use the site to report outages and check outage status. With Storm Center, customers, the media, emergency responders, and public officials have quick and easy access to vital outage information 24 hours a day.
“During storms and other outage times, we understand customers want to know Santee Cooper is not only aware of the outage, but that 
we are actively working to safely restore power,” said Mike Poston, vice president of retail operations. “This tool helps put the critical info they need right at their fingertips.”
Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, and the state’s largest power producer. The ultimate source of electricity for 2 million South Carolinians, Santee Cooper is dedicated to being the state’s leading resource for improving the quality of life for the people of South Carolina. For more information, visit www.santeecooper.com.
Minnesota Power recently implemented the outage communications module of iFactor’s mobile device applications, a suite of reusable software modules that allows utilities to quickly deliver self 
service solutions to their customers. The free smartphone app is available on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices, and is available in the app store for each specific device. Minnesota Power is among a small number of utilities in the nation to offer near real-time outage information in a free smartphone app.
With this new app, customers will have access to the same outage information provided on the Minnesota Power online outage map, Storm Center, which is also powered by iFactor. Outage data is displayed using an interactive Storm Center map, and summary information by county is available in a chart format. Data from the Storm Center site is delivered directly to the app from the utilities’ outage management system, including estimated restoration times once the outage is assessed by field crews. 
Minnesota Power, an operating division of ALLETE (NYSE: ALE), serving customers since 1906, generates, transmits and distributes electricity in a 26,000-square-mile region of Northern Minnesota. The company provides retail electric to 146,000 customers, including some of the largest industrial customers in the country and provides wholesale electric service to 16 municipalities. More information can be found at: www.mnpower.com.
