Since OpenTexts recent acquisition of Exstream from HP Inc. there has been a lot of speculation regarding the future of OpenText CCM. With the Exstream and CCE/StreamServe products being so similar, many have been waiting to find out if they would decide to phase out one product, keep both alive or the thought to be most likely scenario – would the two be merged into one product, and if so, how would the products/features be merged? The answer has now been revealed, OpenText recently shared their future vision and roadmap for their CCM platform at the StreamServe User Group (SURG) event in Sweden.

The future of OpenText CCM brings together two market leading Customer Communications Systems into a single platform, that will deliver interactive, automated and unified communications supporting the evolution from CCM to holistic Customer Experience Management.

This also means yet another name change, Exstream will be the brand name for this solution. Both CCE and Exstream customers will be able to upgrade to Exstream 16 as soon as April 2017. OpenText presents this solution as a combination of CCE’s transactional processing model and integration strengths, paired with Exstream’s high-throughput engine to leverage accelerated benefits to each customer base.

For our CCE/StreamServe customers, here are some highlighted benefits you’ll receive upon upgrading to Exstream 16:

  • New document processing options with the powers of the Exstream Engine
  • Exstream 16 will provide an automated upgrade process for Design Center projects and StoryTeller templates
  • Existing content will be preserved through the Common Asset Service (CAS)
  • One single, strategic CCM Roadmap backed by a Global CCM expert RnD team

To us, the roadmap shared by OpenText is an exciting one and opens the door for additional value for our customers with an even  more powerful CCM solution. We are preparing for supporting our customers to make the upgrade, and excitedly wait for more details being released regarding OpenText Exstream 16.


SAP4UTL was a great opportunity to get insights from SAP and customers on re-imagining Utilities. Henry Bailey Global Vice President, Head of Utilities Industry Business Unit SAP, presented the future roadmap for Utilities and the new Customer Engagement model is an integral part of the future envisions by SAP. He referenced the importance of the customer experience and customer engagement via SAP Fiori and SAP Hybris. This highlights the perfect fit for Document Presentment Live from OpenText with flexibility to personalize all communications with end clients after SAP S/4 HANA processing and before final publishing to web, print or other distribution channels.

SAP HANA will help improve Predictive Analytics for Customer Communication and other cloud based solutions. The addition of SAP Predictive Analytics is a great step towards embracing the forecasting, identification and predications of customer behavior for personalized customer communication in realtime. CCM can now access SAP HANA for this data and make every Utility bill personalized based each accounts historical customer data.

We see many utility companies embarking in this direction and Predictive Analytics will be an invaluable addition, that will allow them to better understand their own data and customers, and as such, having the right information they need to provide the best customer experiences with; more effective bills and other customer communications, creating powerful personalized campaigns addressing customers individually, and reduced call center costs to just list a few. Ultimately allowing our clients to provide better services for their customers while benefiting from overall improved efficiency, optimized business processes and reduced costs.

A great conference with lots of industry knowledge and insights to be shared. We’re excited about the opportunities ahead in Utilities and look forward to seeing the advances made in the next year until we meet again at the SAP for Utilities 2017!


We’re excited to announce that the XSR Site 2.0 went live today.
In addition to great updates to existing content, we’ve now added a range of Services that provide more details for our existing and potential clients to explore, as well as News section where you can stay up to date on the latest news and events for XStreamReports.

We look forward to sharing future news and updates!

 


It was an exciting day at Tacoma Public Utility (TPU) when all of the great work on the new Utility Bill went live! On September 26th, TPU mailed the first redesigned utility bills, which were based on customer feedback and backed by the new technical solution with SAP and OpenText CCE implemented by XStreamReports.

XStreamReports team was on-site to help ensure a successful go-live with the OpenText StreamServe solution we’ve been implementing for TPU during 2016. The new Utility Bill design was an effort by TPU where they partnered with Cognizant and XStreamReports to embark on a strategic program to deploy a next generation Customer Communication Management (CCM) solution. A solution that resulted in greatly improved flexibility for customer segmentation, tailored communications and ease of use for their business team to dynamically change customer communications.

We’re excited to have been part of the journey with TPU, and thrilled for their successful launch of the new Utility Bill design!

Stay tuned for more information, Case Study launch coming soon.