Gas South Fuels Customer Experience with Oracle Cloud

Rhea-AI Summary

Gas South collaborates with Oracle to enhance customer care, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. The utility automates key processes using Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service, resulting in operational efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Gas South leverages data analytics and automation to drive business outcomes and enhance customer experience.

Energy Sector Analyst

The partnership between Gas South and Oracle signifies a strategic move towards operational excellence within the utility sector. By leveraging Oracle's cloud-based solutions, Gas South is likely to see a reduction in operational costs due to the automation of manual processes. This cost-saving measure can be substantial in the utility industry, where margins are often tight and efficiency is key to maintaining competitive advantage.

Furthermore, the emphasis on data analytics and real-time management suggests a forward-thinking approach to decision-making. For investors, these improvements in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction could translate into a stronger competitive position for Gas South in the Southeastern U.S. energy market, potentially leading to increased market share and profitability.

Customer Experience Consultant

Enhancing customer experience is a pivotal aspect for service-oriented businesses like utilities. Gas South's initiative to streamline payment controls and billing processes could lead to higher customer satisfaction and retention rates. In a competitive market, this focus on customer experience can serve as a differentiator, potentially impacting the company's public image and customer base growth.

The use of cloud-based platforms also suggests a scalable model for customer service, which could support expansion efforts or adapt to fluctuating demand without significant additional investment. This scalability might be particularly attractive to investors looking for companies with the potential for growth without proportionate increases in costs.

Technology Implementation Specialist

The collaboration between Gas South and Oracle Consulting Services (OCS) highlights the importance of industry-specific technology expertise in implementing complex cloud solutions. The ability to eliminate manual transactions and enhance data management indicates a strong alignment between Gas South’s operational needs and Oracle’s technological capabilities.

From a business perspective, staying current with technology is essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Gas South's investment in Oracle's solutions not only suggests a commitment to innovation but also positions the company to potentially reap the benefits of future Oracle advancements. For stakeholders, the alignment with a tech leader like Oracle could be seen as a proactive measure to future-proof the company against evolving technological demands.

Largest Southeastern natural gas retailer collaborates with Oracle to automate services, reduce costs, and boost efficiency

AUSTIN, Texas, March 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Energy and Water Customer Edge – To better serve nearly half a million customers across 14 states, Gas South relies on Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service. By embracing the combined power of the SaaS solutions and Oracle managed services, the utility has automated key processes to enhance customer care, reduce costs, and improve regulatory compliance. Gas South collaborated with Oracle Consulting Services (OCS) and its team of industry-focused technology delivery experts on the implementation.

"Gas South is driven by a desire to innovate across everything we do, including delivering superb customer service, automating processes for customer experience improvements and resource efficiencies, and maximizing data analytics to better inform critical business decisions," said Greg Dunavant, vice president of customer operations for Gas South. "With OCS' trusted guidance, we are capitalizing on the benefits of deep utility operations experience and technology expertise. Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service is transforming our customer experience in meaningful ways and leveraging automation and real-time data management to create powerful business outcomes."

Dunavant will share Gas South's journey with Oracle in a session at Customer Edge on Tuesday, March 26. An Atlanta-based subsidiary of Cobb EMC, Gas South is one of the largest retail natural gas providers in the Southeastern U.S. The company serves more than 470,000 residential, business and government customers in 14 states across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

Cloud-based service innovation
A longtime Oracle customer, Gas South implemented Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service to deliver high-performing customer care and metering in a cloud-optimized platform. With this solution, the natural gas retailer has improved customer experience and satisfaction by streamlining automatic payment controls and interim bill processes to reduce bill fluctuations.

Gas South has made strides in enhancing operational efficacy and cost-effectiveness through strategic automation initiatives, eliminating thousands of manual transactions each month as well as reducing monthly manual labor and analysis tasks. Furthermore, the utility has enhanced the customer experience by expediting the identification of exceptions that require attention, resulting in prompt issue resolution.

"Thanks to our long relationship with Gas South, we're able to better anticipate when and how to implement the right Oracle Utilities CCS capabilities, at the right time, to support their KPI goals and innovation objectives," Dave De Maio, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Customer Services for Industries. "Through Oracle's customer and transaction-focused solutions and managed services support, our industry-aligned consulting group can help drive Gas South's cloud-based innovation initiatives on time and on budget. This collaboration keeps Gas South's technology current, enhances customer platforms to meet customer initiatives, and frees resources to focus on vital business needs."

Data-driven innovation
Capitalizing on its efficiency gains, Gas South has also worked with OCS to implement additional solutions such as Oracle Utilities Market Transaction Management to help direct, manage, and reconcile its energy transactions in near and real time, across multiple systems.

In addition, the platform extracts and analyzes data generated by Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service for use on data clouds and external systems through the implementation of  generalized data export (GDE) and Oracle Utilities Information Lifecycle Management (ILM). This helps the retailer address data management issues by applying the appropriate solution to each phase of the data's lifecycle. 

Learn more about this and other successful projects at Oracle Energy and Water and join the discussion on LinkedIn.

About Gas South
Gas South is one of the largest retail natural gas providers to more than 470,000 residential, business and government customers in 14 states spanning across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Gas South is an Atlanta-based subsidiary of Cobb EMC, providing simple natural gas plans and excellent customer service. Gas South upholds its purpose to Be A Fuel For Good by giving back 5% of their annual profits to help children in need, prioritizing basic needs, education and health. The company has donated more than $16 million to charities since 2006, including $4.5 million in 2023, its largest year ever for corporate giving. To learn more about Gas South and its purpose to Be A Fuel For Good, visit www.GasSouth.com.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company--ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

 

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SOURCE Oracle

What is Gas South's collaboration with Oracle aimed at?

Gas South's collaboration with Oracle aims to enhance customer care, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

How many customers does Gas South serve across states?

Gas South serves more than 470,000 residential, business, and government customers across 14 states in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest.

What solution did Gas South implement from Oracle to streamline customer care?

Gas South implemented Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service to streamline customer care processes and improve customer experience.

How has Gas South improved operational efficacy and cost-effectiveness?

Gas South has improved operational efficacy and cost-effectiveness through strategic automation initiatives, reducing manual transactions and labor tasks.

What additional solutions has Gas South implemented from Oracle?

Gas South has implemented Oracle Utilities Market Transaction Management to direct, manage, and reconcile energy transactions in real time.