As the needs of telecom and utility more strongly mirror each other, opportunity knocks for software providers. Case in point is this week’s selection by New Zealand’s Meridian Energy of Martin Dawes Analytics' Lavastorm Analytic Engine.
Meridian will use Lavastorm to develop, test and improve on its business rules and the conditional logic used for handling tariffs as well as streamline its billing accuracy process. Meridian is the largest state-owned electricity generator in New Zealand and provides both time-of-use (TOU) and non-half-hour (NHR) tariffs to its residential users. It also provides several tariff packages for its commercial and industrial customers.
Lavastorm can detect and eliminate the data or logic inaccuracies that could lead to rating errors.
Linda Perkins, retail operations manager at Meridian Energy, said the tool is so flexible that the company already sees an opportunity to apply its analytic rigor to customer analytics, meter analytics, usage analytics, and settlement.
Gaining full visibility into the data and achieving better accuracy improves the speed of detection and resolution of rating errors. It has already validated a number of rating errors that were previously thought to be inaccurate, thereby improving revenue performance and the over-all customer experience. Eliminating false positives also is significantly improving the productivity of the resolution team.
This is just the beginning, according to Drew Rockwell, CEO of Martin Dawes Analytics. He said the transition to Smart Grid will dramatically increase both the data and business logic complexity for utilities.”The combination of our technology and the ingenuity of their teams mean that they can put controls in place that maximize revenue today, and de-risk Meridian’s further movement to Smart Grid operations,” he said.
