Are you a LIPA customer? Is your power out? Now you can text it in! iFactor Consulting recently completed the implementation of Notifi – the only customer communications software built specifically for utilities. Notifi will facilitate proactive and interactive communication via 2-way SMS text messaging and email for all of LIPA’s 1.1 million customers in Long Island, NY.
Notifi’s 2-way text messaging and utility-specific workflows allow LIPA to implement customer communications directly to mobile phones. Customers can initiate interactive SMS conversations with LIPA’s Outage Management System anytime, anywhere to report outages and get up-to-date information about the power status of their accounts. The company has chosen the SMS shortcode “myLIPA” to make it easy for customers to remember who to text when their power is out.
Notifi is also integrated with LIPA’s My Account web self-service portal (www.lipower.org/myLIPA) to allow customers to manage their subscription preferences online. By allowing each user to control their contact preferences separately for each of their accounts, LIPA will use Notifi to provide critical targeted information to their customers.
“We are pleased to work with iFactor Consulting to become the first electric utility in New York State to offer LIPA customers the capability of reporting outages and receiving outage updates through text messaging,” said Michael Hervey, LIPA chief operating officer. “LIPA will continue to look for new ways such as this mobile texting application to push the technology envelope and deliver information to our customers through multiple channels.”
About LIPA
LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric provider, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System on Long Island and provides electric service to more than 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA is the 2nd largest municipal electric utility in the nation in terms of electric revenues, 3rd largest in terms of customers served and the 7th largest in terms of electricity delivered. In 2008, LIPA outperformed all other overhead electric utilities in New York State for frequency of service interruptions, and ranked second for duration of service interruptions. LIPA does not provide natural gas service or own any on-island generating assets. More information about LIPA can be found online at: http://www.lipower.org.
About iFactor Consulting
iFactor Consulting is the leading provider of intelligent web and mobile solutions designed exclusively for the utility industry. Their integrated suite includes industry leading interactive outage maps, custom smartphone application development, proactive and interactive utility notifications via text, voice & e-mail and an interactive street light outage solution. They also offer consulting services on outage management and outage communications. iFactor solutions enhance the overall customer “outage experience” and fully integrate with OMS & CIS systems.
For More Information
iFactor Consulting Contact:
Jamie Downing
800-631-9839
jamie@ifactorconsulting.com
The evolution of proactive communications at utilities continues to move quickly, and Notifi’s set of features for customer preference management and automatic messaging is proving to be a home run in helping utilities address these needs. When we complete the currently active projects, there will be more than 20 million Americans with the ability to get outage and energy information from their utilities through 2-way texts and proactive messaging powered by Notifi. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg as utilities see the powerful results that can be achieved through both broadcast and transaction communications with customers on channels like 2-way SMS and mobile apps. I recently saw a customer satisfaction presentation which showed a 100 point jump in customer reliability scores when utilities offered proactive communications about outages. When you pair that up with cost savings through the use of a low cost channel, it is clear there is a great opportunity to build new connections with customers.
In addition to implementation work, the iFactor team has recently completed development of Notifi 2.2 which adds several exciting new features to the platform. These include enhancements to the administration website for better reporting and analysis, additional program support around billing and payment activities, performance and scalability improvements, and support for smartphone app alerts as a new type of subscription. The Notifi platform continues to expand its capabilities for rich customer preference management across a variety of subscription types, program types, and other aspects of utility information. We will also be releasing a customer preference management website widget for the product early next year, which will allow Notifi customers to quickly integrate Notifi communications preference management into your existing web self-service pages, providing a seamless customer experience and quickly adding the power of Notifi to your customer outreach offerings.
Notifi is quickly becoming a key centerpiece in iFactor’s overall EnergySuite platform for utility customer communications. This is thanks to the evolving demands from customers for more proactive communications with everyone they do business with, a desire to be able to reach those businesses on their terms, and strong efforts from utilities to keep pace with the change in technology and customer needs. We are working to enable this through cross channel integration across our products, with features such as signing up for texting from an outage map website or IVR system, and enrolling in proactive alerts from within a smartphone application.
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.
Are you curious to know what iFactor has been up to over the last few months? Check out the summer edition of the Informer!
iFactor’s first annual users conference, iConnect, was a huge success. The meeting took place at the beautiful Embassy Suites Paradise Village Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. The weather was perfect and the views from the grounds were magnificent.
Over 17 iFactor customers were in attendance this year, with several clients attending virtually. The festivities began the night before at Chase Stadium with food, fun, and baseball. We had a full agenda, featuring a customer roundtable discussion on transparency in customer communications with interactive solution sharing and reviews. Attendees also enjoyed iFactor product reviews including smart phones and mobile applications, Storm Center, StreetLightOutages.com, and Notifi.
Throughout the day, each customer in attendance shared examples of their iFactor product implementations with the group and talked about the impact iFactor technology has had on their organizations.
After an exciting day of presentations and discussions, there was a cocktail reception poolside before we boarded the bus to the Mission Restaurant in Scottsdale for a fun-filled customer appreciation banquet.
Based on all of the feedback we received from the attendees, the conference was a tremendous success. To foster open communications amongst our clients, we’ll be continuing to expand our outreach with webinars, open conference calls and online collaboration.
Our marketing team is already planning iConnect 2012, so start making plans now to join us next year!!!
