Mincom Launches Real-Time, AMI-Enabled Billing, CIS And CRM Solution

Mincom, a global software solutions provider for asset-intensive industries, recently announced the launch of Mincom Smart Billing, a cost-effective, AMI-enabled solution for dynamic pricing, billing and customer relationship management.

The launch of the new solution offering is in response to the increased deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), or "smart" metering, which is fundamentally changing the way Customer Information Systems (CIS) must operate.

Mincom Vice President Stan Royal said, "Smart metering requires smart billing. Smart meters, smart thermostats and consumer web services are opening a new channel of communication between energy providers and their residential customers for timely usage, pricing and billing information.

"This new channel of communication is real-time and event-driven. Especially in markets with demand response programs, a real-time CIS must integrate with either a meter data management system or the AMI network itself to enable alerting consumers of peak pricing, process residential interval usage, calculate daily charges and produce informative energy usage reports," he added.

Most legacy CIS platforms do not operate in real-time. Designed to only handle batch-oriented tasks, a traditional CIS would require substantial modification, or replacement, to handle real-time, asynchronous, or event-driven business processes.

Mincom Smart Billing solves the problem and preserves legacy CIS investment. Built on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the solution automates real-time business processes such as billing and customer care and readily integrates with both the AMI network and the legacy CIS, providing a robust and cost-effective solution.

Through AMI integration, Mincom Smart Billing drives the real-time customer communications channel and through CIS integration, the smart billing solution ensures business process continuity and preserves enterprise software investment.

Jon T. Brock, Chief Operating Officer of UtiliPoint International, said, "Electricity providers worldwide are under pressure to offer their customers cost-saving alternatives. One effective approach is dynamic pricing transparency that enables consumer choice among rate alternatives. However, in today's market environment there may be a limited business case or even a competing business case with AMI and/or meter data management to justify major CIS modification or replacement. By offering a low-cost solution with real-time performance, Mincom is heading in the right direction for utility clients."

Stan Royal said, "Our experience with challenging billing and CRM requirements for both regulated utilities and competitive retailers led to the development of Mincom Smart Billing. Our advanced software technology has allowed our customers to keep pace with advances in AMI. In fact, we've been named UtiliPoint's #1 Emerging Technology CIS provider for the past two years. This innovative solution reflects our continued strategy for investment and growth in the Utilities sector globally."

About Mincom
Mincom Limited is an international company based in Brisbane, Australia, with more than 25 years' experience in providing business solutions to asset intensive industries such as mining, utilities, transport, defense and government in more than 40 countries. The company has more than 1,300 staff in 18 offices across Australia, North America, South America, South East Asia, Africa, and Europe. Mincom Inc. operates in North America and is a subsidiary of Mincom Limited. For more information about Mincom, visit www.mincom.com.

SOURCE: Mincom