Portland General Electric, Oregon
Background
Portland General Electric (PGE) operates at numerous locations in the
greater Portland area and employs 2,200. PGE frequently sends mailings
to its 90,000 customers, as well as to its 900 assigned accounts. Account
managers, business analysts, and an administrative staff make up PGE’s
management team. The IT department at PGE is comprised of 50 people, all
located in downtown Portland in World Trade Center #3.
The Problem
Portland General Electric IT staff frequently found themselves dealing
with system-failure caused by PGE’s contact management software.
Within the entire network, anytime there was an upgrade to any system,
reporting capabilities would fail. Whenever PGE had to update or fix this
failure, it basically equated to a complete reinstall of its contact management
software. This faulty software made the administrative staff’s computers
completely nonfunctional; and eventually the program had to be removed
just so administration could make it through a day with functioning desktops.
PGE was in need of a solution that would eliminate timely and expensive
system failures, as well as maximize their existing Novell GroupWise investment.
The Solution
GroupLink’s ContactWise™ offered PGE contact management capabilities
covering all aspects of its operations. PGE’s contact management
and support now utilizes the following three-tiered system:
1. Account Managers
With the implementation of ContactWise, PGE Account Managers are now able
to keep track of customers on a very in-depth and thorough basis. GroupLink’s
ContactWise uses custom functionalities to track specific information
with specific customers. Account Managers are required to generate weekly
reports; ContactWise allows for the user to add notes in a contacts history
to assist in this task. While reports are generally written at the end
of the week, managers can now see specific events and their date and time
as they happened.
2. Business Analysts
PGE Business analysts function as traveling account managers while visiting
any of PGE’s 900 assigned accounts. Alex McCartney is a Business
Analyst for Portland General Electric. “GroupLink’s ContactWise
provides the ability to input and access information like we have previously
not experienced,” said McCartney. “The system allows us to
keep track of notes using headings like ‘phone record,’ ‘email,’
‘site visit,’ ‘association related,’ ‘letter
mail,’ and many others.” The level of information available
to PGE business analysts has virtually exploded with the implementation
of ContactWise.
3. Administrative Staff
PGE’s administrative staff oversees mailing needs associated with
contact management for its 90,000 customers. ContactWise provides the
staff with the means to quickly and effectively negotiate mailing labels
and to mail merge where necessary. Mailers commonly go out to tens of
thousands of customers at a time, and GroupLink’s ContactWise makes
this task as simple as possible.
Conclusion
The implementation of GroupLink’s ContactWise has been a huge success
for Portland General Electric. The ability to take an established and
successful investment in Novell GroupWise and expand upon it has added
value to an existing successful situation. While eliminating system glitches
and crashes, PGE has also expanded its contact management capabilities
with ContactWise. Contact management with GroupLink’s ContactWise
has translated into saved time, effort, and money for Portland General
Electric. |
