Service Optimization Helps Direct Energy Proactively Address Challenges Of Deregulation

Even when you know what you want, you don't always know how to get it. Direct Energy consulted with Zamba, the system integrator that led Direct Energy to Clarify, and those discussions led to ClickSoftware. ClickSoftware's ClickSchedule optimization software provided Direct Energy with real-time appointment scheduling and resource management tools. Best of all, ClickSoftware's solution was easily integrated with Clarify's CRM offering.

The solution did not take long to implement, either. Teams from Zamba and ClickSoftware spent the summer of 1999 working on the integration.

And although both the Clarify and ClickSoftware systems went live simultaneously, the implementation was relatively painless. However, Direct Energy encountered an unexpected volume of transactions, which would have raised problems during the peak season at the start of each year. A team from ClickSoftware analyzed the problem, increased the size of the server and tweaked the software, and Direct Energy was off and running.

Although the system met the main objectives right away, the finetuning continued as Direct Energy personnel became more comfortable manipulating the system to meet new objectives. For example, the system can be tuned to assign more air conditioning work than water heating during a heat wave. Similarly, ClickSchedule enables users to change its parameters to find which weighting of objectives maximizes results to the company.