Norwegian utility will save up to five per cent of its billing cost per annum and future proof itself for Smart Meter infrastructure roll-out.

Oslo, Norway, London December 15th , 2011 – Infosys Limited (NASDAQ: INFY) today announced that it has been engaged by Hafslund, one of the largest listed utility companies in the Nordics, to transform their billing, collections and customer services business processes delivering measurable value back to their business and significantly improving the customer experience for its 550,000 customers.

The resulting business benefits will enable Hafslund to make up to five per cent annual savings on its billing operations. This will set the stage for Hafslund’s future Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) rollout which will require robust systems and services capable of analysing and managing increased data volumes.

Hafslund was looking to improve their understanding of its customers and associated billing information. Currently, a significant number of customer queries were being directed to call centers, which adversely impacted the collection operations, which led to potential revenue leakage and reduced customer satisfaction.

The Infosys consulting and system integrations team worked alongside Hafslund's management and operational executives from business development, marketing and customer servicing functions in Norway to analyse and assess the complex process and operational layers that underpin their customer operations. Using the Infosys Business Value Articulation (BVA) methodology, which leverages a unique set of business tools, Infosys was able to identify changes in these processes. An example of this was Hafslund’s invoicing process whereby Infosys’ recommendations enabled substantial improvements in serviceability and helped rationalise the cost of billing.”

Key facts

    Billing is a key touch point in communications for utility customers and a poor experience is heavily linked to increased customer attrition. Therefore, it was vital for Hafslund to optimise its billing and customer service operations.

    Infosys identified and recommended a series of billing and customer service process change initiatives to create business value for Hafslund, based on its deep domain expertise in the Utilities sector and also of its know-how of their operations through its previous engagements spanning five years. Hafslund has adopted many of the recommendations and was very impressed with Infosys' capability to rapidly carry out a transformational consulting exercise which would translate into operational technology solutions.

    The use of Infosys’ Business Value Articulation (BVA) methodology provides a framework to analyse the key value levers within a problem area, how these can be measured and the key enablers that facilitate the necessary change(s). Through this approach, the value benefit of particular initiatives can then be articulated.

    The focus was on process changes which when combined with IT solutions, will streamline Hafslund’s billing & collection operations, increase coherence in the customer services processes and improve overall operational efficiencies. These process improvements will also support future AMI and Smart Meter service innovations for Hafslund that will require modern billing, charging and customer care systems capable of processing large volumes of transactions in near real time.

Key Quotes
Thore Sveen, Managing Director, Hafslund Fakturaservice, commented on the new initiative, “Infosys conducted a detailed analysis of our processes and systems. We appreciated the speed and the depth of the analysis which clearly demonstrated their extensive knowledge of the Industry.

They discovered a number of areas for improvement and have provided solutions which are creative as well as practical. We have found that the Infosys' methodology identifies and outlines value of the recommendations to our organisation. We clearly see that we can achieve significant savings from the recommendations. We also believe that Infosys' recommendations will help us achieve improved customer satisfaction.”

Mukul Gupta, Head of Energy, Utilities and Services, Europe at Infosys said: “In an increasingly competitive industry such as Utilities, accurate billing and excellent customer service is vital to maintaining a happy and loyal customer base. This new consulting engagement with Hafslund has helped identify key process areas for improvement and created innovative ways to improve billing and customer services functionalities. We have also prepared Hafslund for its future AMI rollout which will require robust systems and services capable of analysing and managing increased data volumes.”