It’s been a busy but inspiring spring here at XStreamReports. One of our talented consultants, Mika Manner, attended two Exstream events, one of which was the OpenText Innovation Tour in Stockholm. The setting for this event was at the Grand Hotel, Stockholm, with beautiful scenarios close to the Royal Palace.

Overall a lot of focus was put on the prioritization of Security from the OpenText leadership, coverage of the recent release of 16.4 with its updates and features, and OpenText Cloud was a hot topic as well. We invite you to a short recap of each area:

Security prioritizing by Mark Barrenechea, Vice Chair, CEO & CTO, OpenText
GDPR, Security breaches, Military Airplane manufacturer, Cambridge, Facebook
Mark Barrenechea talked about how many companies have been looking at data security as a non prioritized matter, and shared several examples where the that has lead to data-breaches that have caused a lot of damage to those companies and its’ customers. One of them being the Cambridge Analytics/Facebook case that was heavily covered in media recently. Another example was Boeing, they were hacked and as a result became vulnerable for attacks.

Mr. Barrenechea pointed out that companies have to raise the priority of security from position 7, as it is today, to be number 1 to be able to mitigate these risks and limit the possible damage that can be seen as a result.

Together with Mats Hultin, CIO of SAAB, Mr. Barrenechea also discussed and shared how digital information has changed, and how today everything is more real-time and more intelligent, with the usage of OpenText Magellan and Cloud Solutions.


OpenText Cloud, what is it with
Savinay Berry, VP Cloud Services OpenText
Hybrid solution is here to stay for a long while
Mr. Berry presented an overview and explanation of what the OpenText Cloud is, but also what it is not; it is not to be considered as a competitor to Azure or Amazon Cloud. OpenText Cloud is not a hardware in the cloud provider. It is instead a SaaS solution where customers will be able to use OpenText Cloud Services for communicating with businesses and customers in a simple, centralized and flexible way. The new release of version 16.4 is the most advanced cloud ready version of Exstream. Although the focus on cloud solutions is now really getting into speed, it is important to remember it is still in the early stages. The hybrid solution where some of the software remains on premise will be here to stay for a long time according to Mr. Berry.

Omnichannel focus in new Release 16.4

In the breakout sessions focusing on the Experience track, we were presented with the new features of Exstream (former HP Exstream and StreamServe) available with 16.4, on examples for how those features can be used. For example, you can use voice and image recognition using the AI to maximize the business communication, or with the voice recognition you can use the AI instead of human operators to assist with customer communication. For the image recognition example, object identification was showcased where an image with a family was shown where the AI recognized if the people in the image were male or female, and water and trees.

Upgrading and benefits of Release 16.4
Christian Askland, Director of Product Management at OpenText, went through the upgrading procedure and the benefits of upgrading to 16.4. For instance there are some really nice new features like mail tracking and job visualization where you will get detailed information on how the job went. There is also support for more analytics with of the usage. For example reports related to processing volumes connected to the transaction based license. Other features to highlight is the ability to use images and rich media from Media Management integration, I.e. common CAS Browser, assured delivery of communications with OpenText notifications and even more features making it possible to deploy changes to documents without involving the IT department.

Conclusion with a presentation of future releaseplan
We were shown a releaseplan with even more AI functionality, like having video recognition, to be included in the future of OpenText CCM.


OpenText Innovation Tour was a great event, OpenText hosts it in multiple cities every year, and we hope to see you at one of these events next year!


By Mika Manner, XStreamReports/XSR Sweden.

I had the pleasure of recently attending the 10th SAP for Utilities Conference in beautiful Huntington Beach, California at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa. With more than 1000 attendees this was a great chance to meet customers, IT professionals and see where the future for SAP CCM in the utility industry lies. In addition to great industry networking and insights, it was an excellent location and service adding to a great overall experience.

I was also interested in getting some insights on project planning and this event was a perfect place for that. There were a lot of interesting presentations and insights to walk away with, and here are a few highlights to share:

What is going on and what to expect?
When attending presentations, the data analytics and business intelligence efficiency theme was apparent. The need for information to be provided in real-time is crucial for both companies and for its’ customers. Some of the main issues that came up hindering this was slow transfer of data and lack of multi-channel information options. Like in the case of Oklahoma Gas and Energy, Puget Sound Energy and DTE Energy, a lot of the information flow was restricted to a few options, mostly using callcenter, but also mail to communicate with the customers. During major outages this would lead to very long waiting in phonequeues and because of that cause a lot of irritation for the customers. This had an impact not only on their customers experience and as such customer relations, but also on the maintenance plans for these companies.

A good example on how to improve the information flow speed was shared by E-ON, where they installed a cloud based solution in Microsoft Azure coupled with using SAP HANA as their data platform. Then implement multiple output channels for mobile, tablet and a web-portal services to get real time information distrusted. This allowed them to go from having a system response time from 10-600 seconds to less than 5 seconds. Replication of data load between SAP BW and SAP HANA is now done in real time, resulting in 1 minute compared to the previous 24 hours – huge improvements!

We are going to see more and more solutions going over to be cloud based, if not fully then partly, and thus have a huge impact on both efficiency and cost reduction. Multi-channel options for self-service will be a norm in the future and already it’s apparent it is expected by customers.

We at XStreamReports are very familiar with this, creating multi-channel solutions using StreamServe/OpenText technology, like the new Exstream product, to achieve document presentment both internally and externally. By doing so we maximize our clients investment and utilization of their software to provide their customers with an outstanding Customer Experience.

Project management ideas
A key factor in a successful project and implementation is keeping everyone involved informed. Everyone involved does not only mean the key persons working on the project, but also employees/users that will use the system as well. Having seen projects where users have almost been forced to work with a new system is not beneficial to anyone. I’ve seen cases where employees have resigned due to this. Involvement and training are key factors for a successful project. This was showcased in a presentation where Accenture worked with DTE Energy where they also brought in extra staff to cope with the system transition, proving essential.

Doing a thorough analysis of the project, avoiding scope creep and not being afraid to postpone parts of project that are not vital for the Go-Live are other valuable thoughts to remember to keep in mind for long-term success.

Micro-grids vs Macro-grids
With the devastating events of Hurricane Harvey and Irma, the topic of how to handle major power outages was a timely topic and utility companies are working hard to find ways to minimize impact on its’ customers in such events. Solutions were presented involved the use of micro-grids instead of todays’ macro-grids to make power delivery more reliable. The solution basically is to use a self-sustainable power plant that is using solar panels. So if there is a major power outage on the normal grid it will ensure power to the customers within that grid.

Fireside with President G W Bush
One of the most attended and interesting events was the fireside talk with President George W Bush. It was a very entertaining insight on his life as the President, and life after. He shared stories about his family and insights in to politics. He had a way to express himself that brought an audience to laughter with words like “Misunderestimate me” or “Nucularenergy”. He told us that meeting other high ranked politicians was like going to a school reunion. Not a lot of fun. Also that his daughter had not agreed with him on running for President by saying “OK, go ahead and ruin my life”.

In short this was a great conference with many fantastic people.

Thank you!

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Thoughts on mobility solutions at SAP for Utilities conference in Huntington Beach, CA.

City of San Diego (COSD) and Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OGE) have understood the value of using mobile solutions when it comes to customer satisfaction. Businesses that have many end customers that are dependant on getting information from a service provider when things go wrong, like in a case of a major power outage, could cause a really big strain on the callcenter of the company. Having for instance tens of thousands of people trying to get information at the same time will make the end customers very disappointed.

Using the implemented real time, two-way communication platform Smart Customer Mobile (SCM) not only takes care of this but also provides the customer with useful information about real-time and usage history, billing, service requests, savings tips and a lot more. The customer only needs to login to a website and start the communication. In future upgrades this will also include on-line payment ability as this is not already implemented.

There are many benefits to this as it reduces customer calls to the callcenter drastically, increases customer satisfaction and ultimately helps to achieve what a lot of businesses are chasing today – a great customer experience (CX). This is of upmost importance, since a dissatisfied customer might leave and also spread the word to others, making marketing to get new customers more challenging.

In short, ensuring your business provides a mobile solution is a win-win scenario for both the company and the customers.

I am impressed.

– Mika Manner, XStreamReports