Utilicorp's fame delivers its first marketing application
Mary Ann Stewart
P.E. UtiliCorp United
20 W. 9th Street
Kansas City, MO 64105
Utilicorp's fame
At the end of 1999, UtiliCorp completed an aggressive three year reengineering and
conversion project for its mapping systems, taking paper and electronic maps of gas and
electric facilities distribution system in eight states to a common electronic format. This
reengineering effort focused on moving mapping functions for facilities design from
centralized drafting personnel to decentralized construction coordinators in field offices.
Applications development for design work based on customized tools proceeded in
parallel with data conversion and hardware/network rollout. The resulting AM/FM/GIS
of UtiliCorp has evolved to become FAME (Facilities Management and Mapping
Enabler).
One of the goals of FAME was to provide enterprise-wide pipes and wires information to
managers for use as an analysis and decision making tool. The UtiliCorp marketing
research department proved to be receptive to an early exploration of these new
capabilities. FAME provides very attractive data for marketing research because
facilities designers are constantly making entries of their proposed and as-built designs
into the main data store. This facilities information can be immediately viewed and
queried by the marketing FAME user, and can be combined with other geographic and
database information for analysis.
Utilicorp energy delivery marketing
UED (UtiliCorp Energy Delivery), the "wires and pipes" division of UtiliCorp United,
consists of the transmission and distribution network. These regulated operations serve
franchised territories in eight states, with rates set by state or local regulatory bodies. The
energy delivery business unit serves 373,000 electric distribution customers in Missouri,
Kansas, Colorado and West Virginia and 851,000 natural gas distribution customers in
Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and West Virginia.
UED's organization is centralized around the major functional processes of transmission
services, network services, community services, market services, and customer services.
Earnings are enhanced through a focus on management of assets, introduction of new
products and services and providing customer-focused solutions. Support for growth
initiatives comes from the packaging of processes for transfer to new operations, sharing
and leveraging of knowledge gained from global delivery experience, and customerbased
programs to retain existing customers and expand the network.
The retail market for energy is changing. While policy makers debate the nature, extent
and pace of change, there is little doubt of one important end result: retail energy
customers will have more and different opportunities to shop for electricity, natural gas
and energy services in the future. To prepare for this future, marketing objectives focus
on increasing services to existing customers, new customer acquisition, retaining existing
customers and improving knowledge of customers. In addition, programs are offered to
customers through direct sales, telemarketing, and direct mail. There is a substantial
appliance service business, offering a tiered system of service contracts, and including
such products and services as bill insurance, stand-by generators, duct sealing and
cleaning.
