Oracle Utilities Applications Power Customer Information System for Pakistan’s Sui Southern Gas Company

SSGC will service its 1.9 million customers better and faster through the Internet and call center using Oracle(r) Utilities applications.

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.- Oracle announced today that Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Pakistan’s leading integrated gas company, has successfully migrated its billing, customer care, metering and other customer-related functions to Oracle(r) Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The solution provides SSGC with a platform that integrates business processes, aligning them with industry benchmarks and industry-leading practices. Fully integrated with Oracle E-Business Suite -- SSGC’s ERP system -- the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing implementation addresses the unique needs of Pakistan’s utility industry and variations in demographics and geography.

With a distribution network of 25,764 kilometers covering 120 towns and 930 villages, SSGC has an exclusive distribution and sales license in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan. SSGC’s core business is to buy natural gas in bulk, transmit it to load centers over its high-pressure transmission system and distribute and sell it to its customers through its supply network.

“I take great pride in announcing that our Customer Information System is now live. This is a landmark achievement and in line with our technology-enabled cultural transformation. By implementing this state-of-the-art application, SSGC has become the first utility company in the entire South Asia region to deploy such an advanced customer management solution. Our IT professionals within the Customer Services Division, Utilization, Measurement and Finance departments have collaborated remarkably well on this project. They have demonstrated tremendous dedication and worked extensively to attain business excellence,” said Munawar Baseer Ahmed, Managing Director for Sui Southern Gas Company.

Enabling a major company milestone, Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will help provide SSGC with a 360-degree view of its customers and enable greater financial control. Adding more than 60,000 new customers every year, SSGC has critical business needs in the area of metering and billing.

“With the completion of the implementation of Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, we will be able to better maintain customer records, handle credit and collection activities, track service orders and interface better with our customers,” said Irfan Zafar, General Manager Central Information Systems, Sui Southern Gas Company. “This system will reduce billing errors and help us resolve customer queries faster through real-time tracking of these queries. The information technology department has been at the forefront for the deployment and effort to change the people’s mindset around a cost-conscious and performance-based culture. We have now set clarity of vision, having created willingness to change, established commitment at all levels, developed skills for change agents, empowered people to manage change resistance, realigned organization culture, managed the environment, embedded change element in the project plans and ensured open and honest communication.”

“Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will also enable greater compliance with country regulatory guidelines,” he added.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing has led to complete automation of SSGC’s customer-facing processes with well-defined accountabilities leading to greater efficiency, productivity and quality of customer operations. The new implementation will allow SSGC to embrace industry best practices. Through a state-of-the-art call center, SSGC staff will use Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle E-Business Suite to track customer complaints on a real-time basis and efficiently manage and resolve customer queries. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will also allow customer self-service over the Internet.

“Our Customer Information System combines the right blend of IT infrastructure, well-trained personnel, customer-centric business processes and software applications. It also provides a technology platform integrating business processes that are aligned with leading industry benchmarks to enable more accurate billing, improved customer service and business practices that enhance customer value,” said Zuhair Siddiqui, General Manager for Information Technology, Sui Southern Gas Company. “Our CIS addresses the unique needs of the utility industry, integrating demographic and geographic variations that permit our ’Service with a Smile’ objective to become even more a reality,” he added.

“SSGC has been an Oracle technology and applications customer since 1996. With Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing we will be directly touching SSGC’s 1.9 million customers in the country,” said Samina Rizwan, Regional Director for Oracle’s South Asia Growth Economies. “We are proud to be a part of this new milestone in SSGC’s history.”