Gentrack on track with $15m NZ utility deployment

Peter Dinham
Friday, 09 December 2011 02:17

IT Industry - Deals

 

Utility billing and customer management software vendor, Gentrack, is ahead of schedule with the deployment of a system upgrade for New Zealand energy retailer, TrustPower, under a $15 million renewed, multi-year contract.

The first phase of the upgrade will be completed in the first quarter of next year and the remaining deployment will be completed by the end of 2012.

Under the renewed contract, TrustPower - a Gentrack customer since 1992 - will upgrade its core billing and customer information system to the new Gentrack Velocity platform.

According to Gentrack CEO, James Docking, a review of alternative systems was completed by TrustPower with Gentrack Velocity providing a 'stronger business proposition over its ERP competitors.'

'New Zealand has a competitive and dynamic electricity market with many players and complex market transactions.  It requires a strong level of expertise in order to deliver software to support these market processes and interactions - expertise that is hard to replicate for many of our competitors.

'Having worked with TrustPower for over 20 years we've established an intimate knowledge of their business strategy and culture. We were able to demonstrate how our software and services will help them to achieve their business goals in the context of competing in the New Zealand electricity market when customer switching is at an all-time high,' Docking said.

According to Docking, the Gentrack billing system will provide TrustPower with the tools to engage customers in new ways and to streamline its business processes using a new generation of process management capabilities. With phase one on target for completion in early 2012, Docking says that the project will enable TrustPower to drive its business forward and further strengthen its position as one of the sector's premium service providers.

'Our priority has been to get alongside the TrustPower project team to understand their business drivers before deploying the off-the-shelf billing, customer management and collections components of Gentrack Velocity. The initial phase of the project is ahead of schedule with subsequent phases planned for delivering any new capabilities that TrustPower may require.  This approach greatly reduces the level of project risk enabling TrustPower to maintain its high level of customer service and to ensure billing activities continue to run smoothly,' Docking said.