Our Customer Care & Billing (CC&B) system that was launched in July 2016 is due for an upgrade to the most recent version, Oracle Customer Cloud Service (CCS). Moving to what’s called “next gen software” in the cloud is a big project involving a lot of GUC employees working closely with vendors. The kickoff for this project took place last month and will take approximately 14 months.  

“CC&B has been very good to us, but it’s time to upgrade to new enhancements that will help our employees and customers,” said Scott Mullis, Director of Customer Relations.    

Moving to CCS will enable GUC to: 

• build the foundation for Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI);  
• take advantage of new software features; 
• lower costs by moving to the cloud; and  
• gain efficiencies through standardized workflows and reduced customizations.

It’s important to point out that this project will not affect customers. All upgrades are happening behind the scenes.  

CCS Project Highlights 
During this project, we will be working with Oracle and TMG Consulting. Oracle provides the CCS product while TMG assists us with implementing the upgrade.  

On the GUC side, we have the following employees across all departments who have been assigned various project roles and will be spending some or all of their time assisting with the project. The Leadership Team consists of Becky Pope (IT) and Elizabeth Sharp (IT), both serving as Project Managers. Courtney Basile (IT) and Robin Nichols (IT) serve as Functional Leads while John Bartolotti (IT) and Robin serve as Technical Leads. The Executive Sponsors include Andy Anderson (IT), Jonathan Britt (Finance), Anthony Miller (Gas), Scott Mullis (Customer Relations), and Chris Padgett (General Manager’s Office). The Steering Committee is Andy, Scott, Colleen Sicley (Customer Relations), Ken Wade (Electric), David Springer (Water), Durk Tyson (Gas), Brian Weigand (Finance), and Steve Hawley (Public Information). 

The Project Team includes Natalie O’Neal and Wendy Rogers with Electric, Paula Vinciguerra and Kenny Daniels with Meter, Lisa Johnson (Gas), Nikia Best-Manuel (Water), Denine Hardee (Billing), Juliet Telfair (Customer Relations/Call Center), Shannon Oakley (Customer Relations/Credit), Brian Weigand and Kim Coggins (Finance), and Max Wu (IT).  

Our teams have been busy during phase one (solutioning/needs assessment) of the project, which includes CCS functionality (or solutioning) workshops, preparing data for conversion to the upgrade, and preparing a training strategy. The solutioning/needs assessment will transition to system configuration in December, when TMG will take our requirements and configure CCS to meet our business needs. See full schedule below. 

“I’d like thank our project team members who have regular GUC duties,” said IT Director Andy Anderson. “Everyone involved in this project brings certain areas of expertise, and they have stepped up to assist with a smooth transition from CC&B to CCS.”