Nov 8, 2019   SOURCE: BusinessWire

VertexOne and AltaGas Utilities Inc. Renew Future-Focused Utility Partnership

VertexOne, a leading provider of utility Customer Information System (CIS) solutions, today announced the renewal of its partnership with legacy customer AltaGas Utilities Inc. (AUI), to focus on deploying a CIS replacement project. With this partnership, AltaGas Canada Inc. (ACI) subsidiaries, AUI, Heritage Gas Limited (HGL), and Pacific Northern Gas (PNG) will upgrade to VertexOne’s new SAP S/4HANA system. This collaboration allows the three Canadian gas utilities to standardize and support changing customer and regulation requirements in the provinces they serve.

“VertexOne is excited for this partnership with AUI, HGL, and PNG as we upgrade them to the newest technologies for customer services and customer engagement,” said John Herron, Vice President of business development at VertexOne. “This project builds upon our two-decade partnership with AUI and PNG and we look forward to extending our business process as a service (BPaaS) for the next decade and beyond.”

Under this new contract, AUI, HGL, and PNG will move from VertexOne’s legacy systems onto its updated solution backed by SAP S/4HANA to standardize on industry practices and requirements to drive success in the following areas:

  • Customer Service and Technology: Customers will enjoy modern customer self-serve functionality that improves the customers’ experience and is adaptable to changing customer needs.
  • Business Processes and Technology: The utilities will enhance business processes by adopting industry-leading best practices and technology to deliver integrated customer service in an efficient and effective manner.
  • Deregulated and Regulated Billing: Enhanced system and data integrity for billing and increased ability to respond to process efficiency initiatives and mandatory requirements.
  • Cloud Based Hosting: Increased ability to maintain up-to-date technology, responsive system support, and business continuity through partnership with a dedicated provider.

“AUI, HGL, and PNG are embarking on an important business transformation project. The three utilities reviewed the market options and jointly came to the conclusion that VertexOne was the most comprehensive solution of products and services to meet our current and future needs,” said Mark Lowther, AUI President. “This project will allow for the evolution and transformation of our business practices to merge with industry standard practices. It will result in a flexible and user-centric set of systems that improves internal and external services through more efficient processes.”

The project began in October and includes VertexOne’s fully hosted and managed business process as a service. Once the new systems go-live, VertexOne’s BPaaS services will continue to provide customer and business value for decades to come for AUI, HGL, and PNG.

About VertexOne

Dedicated solely to the utility industry, VertexOne Business Services has been a recognized leader in customer experience solutions for the past 20 years. VertexOne serves nearly 10 million end customers for more than 30 electric, gas and water clients across North America. Through a wide range of innovative services and solutions—including the VertexOne™ cloud platform inclusive of CIS, MWM, MDM, and Customer Self Service—VertexOne helps utilities more efficiently deliver a compelling customer experience while also driving utility operations forward. VertexOne takes on the heavy lifting of keeping current with the rapid pace of technology changes, so utilities don't have to—leaving our customers more time to focus on core utility business while leaving the technology to us. For more information, visit https://www.vertexone.net.

About AltaGas Canada Inc.

ACI is a Canadian company with natural gas distribution utilities, including AltaGas Utilities Inc. (AUI), Heritage Gas Limited (HGL) and Pacific Northern Gas Ltd. (PNG) and renewable power generation assets. ACI serves approximately 130,000 customers, delivering low carbon energy, safely and reliably. For more information visit www.altagascanada.ca.

About AltaGas Utilities Inc.

AltaGas Utilities Inc. (AUI) is a provincially-regulated, natural gas distribution utility delivering safe, reliable, clean, and cost-efficient natural gas service to over 80,000 residential, rural, commercial, and industrial customers in more than 90 communities across Alberta. Commencing operations in 1954, with its Head Office is located in Leduc, Alberta, AUI operates its gas distribution systems with over 21,000 km of natural gas pipelines and over 700 pressure and regulating stations through a network of 16 district offices.

About Heritage Gas Limited

Heritage Gas Limited (HGL) operates a full regulation class natural gas distribution business in Nova Scotia. HGL serves several communities across the province from the corporate head office is in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and operation centers in Dartmouth, Amherst and Pictou. Heritage Gas brings affordable energy solutions to local industries, businesses and homeowners.

About Pacific Northern Gas Ltd.

Pacific Northern Gas Ltd. (PNG) owns and operates a natural gas transmission and distribution system in west-central British Columbia, and through its subsidiary Pacific Northern Gas (N.E.) Ltd. (PNG(NE)), owns and operates natural gas distribution systems and a gas processing plant in the province’s northeast serving over 41,000 customers across 16 communities. This includes approximately 3,000 km of distribution mains and services pipelines; and 1,200 km of transmission pipelines.