Omnichannel Customer Experience through an API-based Engagement Model

API Driven Development

5.4MN Customers

$15.4BN Annual Turnover,

1 goal: Omnichannel Growth

Being nation's largest generators of electricity, producing nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S and powering more than 400,000 residential customers and businesses, is fantastic until you need to implement changes that your customers are looking for. So when our client recognized the writing on the wall and decided to go omnichannel while modernizing and integrating their IT, we knew that achieving competitive omnipresence was a tall order to meet and required a disruptive approach.

Benefits

Snapshots

Challenge

Lack of new-age customer engagement models that restricted omnichannel, market-wide reach; fragmented IT systems impaired efficiency and service resilience; delayed delivery and receipt of payments.

Solutions

Implemented an API-based engagement model; standardized IT architecture and infused connectivity; integrated third-party payment gateway services with a backend messaging layer; implemented OAuth-based security model

Benefits

Expanded customer reach; enabled efficient IT delivery; slashed product development and launch time; ensured swift and seamless transactions.

Key Challenges

At a time when the business economy advances at a dizzying rate, enterprises must interact with customers across a variety of channels to boost engagement and stay ahead of the competition. However, our client lacked modern engagement models that posed difficulties in reaching out to the target audience across multiple channels. The legacy systems weren’t providing the flexibility needed to meet shifting customer demands.

IT architecture proved a nemesis to business agility. The tightly coupled integrations between systems and applications weakened the service quality and decelerated go-to-market time. As a result, growth was sluggish.

Obsolete, high-latency transaction processing system posed difficulties in processing and receiving on-time payments. It lacked modern interfaces and integration with common payment gateways that the customers were looking for. This was a critical bottleneck to seamless service delivery and dented customer loyalty.

Our client is one of the largest US-based electric energy companies, serving over 5.4 million customers in 11 states. As one of the country’s largest investor-owned utilities, the company powers more than 400,000 residential customers and businesses, has operations spread approximately over 60 stations, and boasts the largest electrical transmission network in the nation.

Our Solutions

The most pressing need was to provide a high-level customer engagement model that could not only facilitate omnichannel growth and customer engagement, but also ensure compliance with ever-changing power distribution regulations. We leveraged Software AG’s Digital Business Platform to deliver an API-based solution that could deliver a seamless and rewarding omnichannel customer experience. We used a multi-site, high-availability, multi-tier API architecture to meet the needs of our client’s 5+ million customer base.

Our team provided top-notch integration using Software AG’s webMethods integration suite. We connected our client’s disparate systems and applications, which included customer information mainframe systems, third-party payment service providers, outage and ticketing systems, and alert/notification services, to deliver a seamless, efficient, and high-functioning IT environment.

We also implemented Software AG’s Universal Messaging, a high-performance, low-latency messaging platform, to ensure on-time delivery and receipt of customer payments. The use of enterprise gateway servers ensured protection of sensitive and confidential information. An OAuth-based security model was also implemented to enable users to access services at the touch of their fingertips.