In the recent CIO Applications Utilities Special issue, XStreamReports was recognized as being one of the Top 25 Utilities Tech Solution Providers – 2017.

“This list gives you some of the most prominent organizations in the industry that provide sustainable solutions enabling utilities to enhance performance and environmental efficiency.” – CIO Applications

We’re happy to be recognized as a great solutions provider for utility companies to partner with to achieve their goals. We can offer custom best-practice Utility Bill Solutions for impactful communication, as an integrated end-to-end solution for automation, optimization and personalization of their high-volume document process. We’ve previously worked with companies like TPU (Tacoma Public Utility), FPL (Florida Power and Light), and Iberdrola (Previously EnergyEast) to reduce operational costs by streamlining the generation, collation, sorting and distribution of customer bills. You can learn more about our Utility Bill Packages here.

We look forward to partnering with more utility companies in the future to strengthen their Customer Communications.

Check out the CIO Applications article and Top 25 list, or you can read their coverage of XStreamReports directly here.


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


The utility industry is in the midst of a transformation towards a more digital and customer experience centric approach, and it is changing the way utility organizations are doing business.

Utility organizations are re-thinking and re-structuring their Customer Communication Management (CCM) to adapt to today’s customer expectations. Creating the ultimate customer experience across all platforms that is consistent throughout the large amounts of interactions created is of outmost importance across print, digital, interactive correspondence and dynamic online bills. To achieve this the organizations must start with ensuring they have the right solutions and processes in place, an expertly implemented solution platform is at the heart of ensuring success with their CCM.

This is where OpenText Exstream, formerly Communications Center Enterprise (CCE) and StreamServe comes in. It is the best solution for utility companies to successfully complete their digital transformation and improve their customer relationships. Through years of successful implementations for our clients we’ve seen how it not only helps in ensuring that the customer experience is optimized through all channels and platforms to improve the organizations digital strategy with information being accessible to customers in a consistent manner on websites, print, email etc. The organizations business users have user friendly web-based tools to easily change and customize messages as needed to be able to respond to customer and organizational needs alike very quickly, resulting in happier customers, a more efficient and agile organization with reduced costs and need for support. For those times when customers contact call centers/support, it can help reduce call center costs and facilitate those calls to be better handled as call centers can pull up exact copies of what the customer is looking at/having questions about.

2016 brought some exciting news and industry changes with OpenText making acquisition in this space and paving the way for organizations further empower their employees to provide the best customer experiences and increased efficiency. We at XStreamReports continuously work with existing and new clients to support them in their digital transformation journey, and  with 2017 being off to an exciting start, we’ll continue to see the utility industry transform and OpenText Exstream presenting an even stronger solution in the market.

If you think OpenText Exstream/CCE/StreamServe might be right for your organization, contact us to learn more!


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!


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.


We are attending SAP for Utilities in Huntington Beach on October 9-12th, to hear best practices from utility industry leaders & experts. Meet us there!

SAP for Utilities