As fiercely independent as the people in rural America are, it is through cooperation they have thrived. When private enterprise would not bring electric power to them, they formed groups that went out and got it. When the phone company would not provide service to their unprofitable little towns, they formed groups that went out and connected themselves. These groups were known as cooperatives.
Today, cooperatives still serve the majority of rural America’s electric and telecommunications needs. They’ve been doing so for over 70 years. The business model is complex with no guarantee of success. In fact, most early attempts at running cooperatives in the U.S. failed until Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal gave it the framework to succeed.
While many industries have produced co-ops, those of the telephone and electric industries often find themselves on the leading edge of technology. And as the country heads into a new era of environmental and fiscal demands, they could lead by example and show the world how their industries can work together to create not only a smart grid for the efficient use of power, but a powerfully efficient back office that helps them stay competitive.
A look inside the National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) reveals how the drivers which led to the development of co-ops — groups of people with a common need — are the same drivers that led these co-ops to adopt the same model themselves to fill their common need for business and operations support systems. It also shows how they are identifying areas of co-opportunity — ways they can work together to make the smart grid a reality.
The NISC
A cooperative, according to the International Co-operative Alliance, is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture simply calls it a “user-owned, user controlled business that distributes benefits on the basis of use.”
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| NISC’s Gerry Fisher |
NISC is an IT company that develops and supports software and hardware solutions for its member-owners, primarily utility cooperatives and telecommunications companies across the country and most recently in Canada. It serves electric co-ops in 47 states and telephone co-ops in 28 states with a few CLEC and wireless operators in between. Together they serve more than 5 million users. The company specializes in integrated IT solutions for consumer and subscriber billing, accounting, engineering and operations, with its iVUE platform at the center.
