Today, I'm going to discuss about the future of utility management system leveraging the advanced customer information systems. Basically, we are trying to transform the utility industry using the latest and the greatest technology that we recently had AI to efficiently manage the operations and increase the customer satisfaction. So here, it's mostly related to the utilities industry, but we're trying to discuss more about the technologies that we used for this conference. So here is the content, table of contents that we are going to discuss. this is all about introduction to CIS, challenges with the legacy CIS system, and the benefits of upgrading the CIS system, and the key components of a CIS upgrade, the whole CIS upgrade process, how it can be done. we'll take an example of Catapult project that we recently implemented here in Kansas Board of Utilities, Kansas City. board of public utilities. And, the, what are the, all the tangible outcomes for, the CI subgrid that we did, the future proofing of these utility operations. And then we'll have a small conclusion for question and answers. let's talk first about the introduction to CI system, what CI system, would encompass and what all the systems that it includes, to help the We are to help the utility system utilities to manage the customers. So this is a critical part of the. managing, customer interactions like billing and services, drives efficiency in utility operations by centralized, customer data. And it also enables adaptation to future technologies like smart grids and IoT. So whenever the, so for example, you have a lot of meters connected all together. To the system and whenever the billing happens, there is nothing manual here. So everything is automated from the grid to the billing system, and how this automation is done and how this, customer information system leverages the whole, collection of data to enhance the customer, customer satisfaction is what it is all about in the CIS. So the modern energy sector demands responsive and data driven systems. the modern system where the customers are using a lot of mobile phones and they want to get an idea about how much energy is being used and, how far the bill is and when did they pay and they wanted to pay online using the mobiles and all these, operations which the customers want to do can be done using upgrading the customer information system. So the legacy systems lack the flexibility and power to meet growing industry demands. That's obvious. and, thus, CIS modernization enhances the ability to meet regulatory and compliance standards. So the most of the public utilities, they have these regulatory and compliance standards, which they got to meet with the, the state's public utility commission, where they Fix the rates, even if they want to increase any of the burden on the financial burden on the customers, they, these state organizations, they make sure the customers are satisfied and there is, they follow some rules to, in case of they want to increase the cost for these utilities. And, what are all the challenges with the legacy systems? the scalability issues, and integration difficulties, poor user experience inefficient workflows due to outdated design, maintenance challenges like the higher cost if you want to go to upgrade it can't be pushed to cloud and this the existing legacy systems is all about in the They're all in the cloud, right? the latest and greatest technologies are all in the cloud and, the computing is all performed in the cloud. But when you come to the old legacy systems, the systems are all installed in the on prem like Linux and other late, Technologies which sit on the on premise server room where we have a server team and a lot of administrators and DevOps personnel working on automating all these operations on the on premise, coming from installation, upgrades and all the stuff, right? so we don't want to go with the legacy system where all these operations are taken care on site by the, within the, people, IT personal staff of the utilities. So when we go to the new system, all these are taken care of in the cloud, right? So that's obvious with the latest technologies that are going on. And there are also a lot of security vulnerabilities with the legacy systems and Cyber security threats, legacy systems leads to bottlenecks in operations, impacting customer satisfaction and long response times during high demand periods due to outdated infrastructure. so what are all the benefits of, upgrading the CI system? the enhanced user interface, the customizable dashboards, improved navigation for quicker access to data, improved, data handling, supports large scale data, processing with real time insights and superior customer service where interactive self service portals and instant communication via multiple channels. So it easily integrates with emerging technologies like renewable energy and management. So some, for example, you want to have a solar farm where customers wanted renewable energy from the solar farm, or they want to install a renewable energy source on their own, sy on their own premise. and, the grid can accept, absorb some of the energy from their system when they have access. And, and. When they want more energy, which they can't produce, the grid can supply. So all this is called net metering system in, the modern system where, using the latest and greatest technologies can be configured, right? and scalability and future proofing. easily integrating with, integrates with the emerging technologies like Yeah. That we discussed, we just discussed. So data driven insights enables advanced analytics for productive maintenance and demand forecasting. Yeah. there, there is a system by name called Maxima within the CIS utility system where, uh. where all the meters, all the inventory and all the personnel that you see during the outages, the outages, this can be automated using the preventive maintenance that we are using the latest technologies. the cost efficiency obviously reduces operational costs by automating tasks and workflows, which the billing and other teams, most of their administrative tasks can be, automated. So regulatory compliance, streamlines, adherence to the evolving, evolving, industry regulations. So the utility system is a wide, more than, 50 utility systems within the states and in some states have, so everything, every utility system has to follow some rate structure approved by the, commissioner or something through Zoom calls to the customers where they have to, agree with the rate structure that is prescribed by the utilities, put forward by the utilities for the future. all these. Standards are taken care of by using the latest and latest CIS upgrades. So the what about the key components? So what does these key components of CS upgrade include? So the enhanced user interfaces because of the latest, user interactions, with the new software takes very less time. It improves the productivity, making the system user friendly, right? Oh, the older system, there are, let's say if they want to go to a workflow, if they have 10 clicks to reach the end, to get to information to respond to a customer. So with the enhanced user interface, the time to reach, to get the information and respond to a customer is very less. So advanced data handling capabilities and capable of processing data from various sources such as smart meters and IOT devices So all these IOT devices and this and smart meters, they produce lots and lots of data whether it could be testing those meters whether the voltage is testing is performed with the without going through the We thought, sending the personal from the inventory station to the, location. So all these, data that we are getting from, The meters and IOT devices which are managed by the utility, can be analyzed within the CI system. So that's, one of the major advantage, of this. So robust integration capabilities, the CI system can be integrated with all the GIS information system and customer relationship management and, and metadata management. So metadata management is some, something like a sucker, which gets all the information. And there are some. capabilities within the MDM system, which processes before it spits out that information to the CI system, right? the, all the integration is between all these systems and the CI sits like a heart within, between all these systems. So when you get real time analytics, the, it provides operational insights, helping utilities and manage peak demand periods, obviously when all the customers, when there is a game like an NFL, when all of them want to sit and watch, and, during such peak demand periods can be addressed easily with the, By forecasting the energy demand usage with this latest information that we are using, that we are getting from these smart devices and, and when you have all this information, so you can predict the future of the, energy usage and, have, a lot of initiatives where, with the. you can propose a time when if a customer wants to use less energy during those peak times, you can reward the customer for that time. And all these, new features can be enhanced using the CIS system. obviously the security and compliance sits at the forefront of, The CS system or whichever system we are having now in the IT world because of the cyber security threats that we are getting where all we need to make sure the customer's data is secured and it's stored in a reliable place like a dedicated cloud location like, for a lot of these, latest, like AWS, Azure, and other. vendors like Oracle, they build a separate, data centers for government organizations so that they don't have to, worry about the compliance and, regulatory issues, which comes with this, data accessibility things. So what is the whole process of CIS upgrade process, right? The comprehensive evolution of current systems weakness and bottlenecks, identify pain points through feedback from end users, understand regulatory and compliance gaps, planning, obviously the developer roadmap for technology section, selection and resource allocation. All, some of these things are project management, tasks, where, the technology roadmap and, resource allocation, comes under that, align upgrade. So the strategic initiatives from the CIO or the, the organization from the board, needs the IT needs to map and align our initial, tasks according to the plan, proposed by their board. so how the implementation, obviously it has to be a phased manner. You can't just, take down the legacy system and then have the new system available. that's how it is, right? So it has to be a phased manner where each functionality is moved out and then eventually a cut, a cutout is done. so let's say, and we're talking here about training and support. it's obvious that, all the new system. It shouldn't be more easy for the existing billing clerks and MDM analysts or the business users to get on as soon as they were given the new system. So obviously there is a lot of training and regression test cases that they executed. execute before the system goes live. That makes them more comfortable in using this and, and also the risk mitigation is separate, separate team where they're identifying the potential risk and impact upon operations during this transition. So that this is all about the whole upgrade process, what all different steps that we include and different measures that we take for the smooth transition. for example, we implemented a project by name Catapult, which we call it as because, we are moving from, existing legacy system for all these head end MDM, CIS, and Maxmo. All these systems could be upgraded at a single shot and Make the, utility system in the, latest and greatest technology use usable, right? so the legacy system, the obviously slow processing and high operational costs. the, with an upgraded system, we have modular design, faster data processing and improved customer interaction. What are all the tangible outcomes? So impact of CIS upgrade, the key outcomes are Operational efficiency, reduced processing times, automation, and manual workflows like we discussed earlier. The business users can easily automate and process time and the processing time is reduced and manual workflows are reduced. So obviously operational efficiency is achieved by saving a lot of time. Faster query selection with comprehensive customer data at fingertips. the more easier, the more flexible. For a business user to get information, the better he can serve the customer, right? The billing accuracy, the more the number of issues that you get with the billing system with the cycles that you run every day are reduced by more than 50 to 60 percent with the new billing system, obviously, because of the availability of data and the accuracy and the dashboards that we discussed before. The data driven decisions, the use of real time analytics for data forecasting and energy management, that's coming from the smart grid and analyzed at the, Dashboards that are provided with the new CS upgrade. There are a lot of cost savings through automation and modern infrastructure, improved collaboration, seamless data sharing across departments, improves overall energy, operational synergy, employee productivity, improved system usability, results in faster onboarding and fewer errors. how do we use this as a future proofing utility operation system, right? financial services API security access, success, scalability, designed to grow with increased customer base, data volume, In integration with smart technology, seamless adaptation to smart meters, electrics, charging stations and renewable energy sources, regulatory adaptability and customer engagement enhances customer facing features such as mobility app, mobile apps and self service portals and system architecture allows for incremental upgrades ensuring long term cost control. Finally, the modernization of CIS system is just not a technical upgrade. It is a strategic improvement for, utility companies, looking to thrive. Sorry. Thriving in the modern energy landscape, upgrading to a modern CIS offers immense benefits including enhanced operational efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and a scalable foundation for future growth. By addressing the limitations of legacy systems, utilities can unlock the potential of real time data analytics, advanced customer service features, and seamless integration with new technologies such as smart meters and renewable energy sources. As the energy sector continues to evolve, staying competitive requires adaptable, adapting, fixable, future proof, systems that can grow the needs of both company and its customers. Investing in sales modernization today ensures that utilities are well positioned to meet rising customer expectations, comply with emerging regulatory requirements, and optimize their operations for long term success. That's all. Thank you so much. And if you have any questions, you can post me online or you can post to the virtual conference question and answer section. So I'd be happy to answer all those questions. Thank you.