Oct 10, 2017   SOURCE: BusinessWire

FirstFuel Launches New Platform Integration Capabilities, Enabling Utilities to Increase Customer Reach and Drive Bespoke Engagement

FirstFuel Software today launched new integration capabilities within its industry leading Business Customer Engagement Platform that empower utilities to facilitate seamless, consistent and omni-channel customer experiences. With the new application programming interfaces (APIs) and widgets, utilities can incorporate bespoke energy intelligence into customer-facing applications and internal systems, improving the customer journey across all communication channels.

According to Navigant Research, utility spend on customer engagement is expected to increase by more than 20 percent to $774 million by 2022. Driving this spending surge are increasing utility customer expectations for personalized, accessible and digestible energy insights to meet a variety of needs such as lowering bills and navigating new energy options including solar. The business customer segment is a particularly important focus for utilities, accounting for 60 percent of utility load on average.

FirstFuel’s platform integrations extend business customer engagement capabilities and insights in partner deployments.

“Energy consumer expectations are higher than ever. At Oracle, we’re dedicated to enabling utilities to meet their customers’ growing expectations by delivering world-class web and mobile experiences that improve satisfaction and motivate self-service. And now, FirstFuel’s expanded widget and API capabilities further enable our clients to quickly and easily extend their customer experience investments to their business customer base,” said Scott Neuman, Group Vice President, Global Operations & Marketing at Oracle Utilities.

FirstFuel’s new features add to its platform, which draws from an ever-growing dataset of over four million business energy meters. These features include:

  • Application programming interfaces and widget integrations. As utilities focus on enhancing the customer experience, these new functionalities enable utilities to embed personalized customer insights directly into existing digital applications, such as websites and native mobile applications. Placing customer insights at the core of key customer touch points, utilities can increase business customer satisfaction and engagement by delivering a seamless, tailored experience to all segments through web, email, telephone and face-to-face communication channels.
  • Rate engine tools. New, more complex rate options such as time of use tariffs mean that today’s business customers have a multitude of options when it comes to selecting the right rate plan for their business. This new suite of functionalities enables utility customer service representatives to easily help customers make sense of complex rates, select the right rate and determine how future changes in energy use will impact costs. These insights are also available via a self-serve digital portal that business customers can access directly from their utility website.
  • ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager for multi-tenant businesses. More than 20 cities in the U.S. have established ENERGY STAR reporting requirements for businesses, and utilities are increasingly being asked to provide data to help meet these mandates. Building on existing functionality, this new capability enables multi-tenant business owners to easily aggregate anonymized information about their tenants, meet reporting requirements with the click of a button, and obtain their Energy Star score.

As FirstFuel continues to invest in its industry-leading platform, the company has hired Janet Lee as Vice President of Product to set the product strategy and roadmap. Lee brings more than 20 years of experience in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), product management, analytics and customer engagement from her tenure at Timetrade, Oracle, Lattice Engines and Marcam. In 2013 and 2014, Lee was recognized as one of 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management. Under her guidance, FirstFuel will continue to focus on expanding the accessibility of its world-class energy insights, helping utilities and their customers get more value out of their data.

About FirstFuel Software
FirstFuel Software is the global leader in business customer engagement for utilities, using advanced analytics to help 30 energy providers in North America and Europe improve business customer satisfaction, drive sales and revenue, and reduce service costs. Combining data science, building science, and software, our business customer engagement platform derives intelligence from over 4 million meters, transforming energy providers into trusted advisers to their business customers. Our SaaS solutions deliver accurate, insightful, and cost-effective results at scale. Founded in 2010 and privately held, FirstFuel is headquartered in Lexington, MA. For more information about FirstFuel, please visit www.firstfuel.com and follow us on Twitter @FirstFuelSW.