By Zia Askari
Communications can become a centralized fabric which can intertwine telecoms and public utilities to deliver true next generation service experiences at the customer level.
In today’s scenario it is increasingly getting about delivering the right experience rather than just the availability of service and public utilities constituting of electricity, power etc are now becoming the fundamental building blocks of creation of smart cities.
Hence there is a need for these utilities to have next generation smart grids with centralized pricing and billing, dynamic customer communication and multichannel payment that can create true business value for concepts around smart metering without revamping a utility’s core infrastructure.
If we look at current scenario, the utility industry is also on the verge of major technological change of guard with new age methodologies coming into the fore at new domains and there are new business models emerging around smart metering and availability of smart grid.
However, as we move ahead, public utilities need to rethink beyond just providing energy or resources to their customers and actually work around the customer experience part. Next generation technologies and infrastructures can create this opportunities for the utilities to enable them to offer their customers with new products that change the way customers use services and interact with their utility companies.
This can also open up revenue streams for the utilities while at the same time, providing visible, and direct benefits to consumers which is key to venturing towards new areas of business and operational efficiencies that are dependent upon getting closer to the customer.
With smart technologies that promise to deliver tomorrow, public utilities can look for future-proof best of breed solutions, solve inherent challenges with their smart grid implementations and focus their efforts towards delivering unique customer experiences. This can better prepare themselves to handle future areas of business, that may be coming from areas such as Smart Homes, mobility and availability of renewables energy resources.
Picture Courtesy – www.Freedigitalphotos.net
