Expertise Across Many Generations of CIS Plus Products Wins Blue Heron CISPlus Project

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Feb. 24, 2015 - PRLog -- Blue Heron Consulting (BHC) announced today that it has been selected by Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to modify its CIS system (CIS Plus), to accommodate a purchase of receivables (POR) program and consolidated billing system.

BHC is best known for its Oracle CC&B SI (system integrator) credentials and has more experience working on earlier versions and generations of Oracle’s CC&B than any other company in the industry. This experience dates back to the mid 1990’s when current BHC CEO, Stephen Northrup, was the project manager of the first package implementation of CIS Plus at Rochester Gas and Electric in upstate NY. Since that period, BHC has worked on every version of the CIS Plus product since it was purchased by Oracle, including today’s version: Customer Care and Billing (CC&B) v2.4.

Blue Heron’s long history and knowledge working with CIS Plus is extremely important to the success of PGW’s CIS Plus consolidated billing system project that will deliver itemization of all charges from both PGW and the chosen gas supplier in a single billing statement.

Utility Commission Mandate Requires Operational Changes at PGW

This project became necessary after the Pennsylvania Utility Commission (PUC) recently mandated that consumers in the state of Pennsylvania be offered gas service billing supplier options aside from their existing natural gas supplier (NGS). To comply with this mandate, PGW will maintain the gas lines and the service calls while the chosen supplier will feed its gas into the PGW system.

Benefits for Customers

When asked about the benefits that residential customers will gain due to this change, Michael Gross, a software engineer for BHC said, “The consolidated billing system we are creating will allow consumers to make better educated choices regarding their gas usage. Additionally, the entrance of choice will likely foster competition between suppliers for the residential market, leading to better prices for consumers.”

While the deadline for the project is August 2015, BHC anticipates an early completion date.

About PGW

PGW provides natural gas service to approximately 502,000 active accounts within the city of Philadelphia, using 6,000 miles of gas mains and services. PGW is the only utility currently distributing natural gas within the city of Philadelphia, and its mission is to provide safe, reliable natural gas service to the citizens of Philadelphia at a reasonable cost.

About Blue Heron Consulting

BHC is a 100-percent utility-focused system integrator that has served the utility industry for more than 16 years. In addition to Oracle CC&B customer information system (CIS) implementations, BHC has deep experience integrating and supporting, business intelligence (BI), Work and Asset Management (WAM) and mobility solutions. In an era when many utilities are facing increased pressures to address infrastructure and increased competition, BHC fills an important niche in the industry for providing objective, cost effective, high quality, value-based systems integration services.