Commentary
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Apr 18, 2003 |
Wise business philosophers have repeatedly told us that if we want to be successful in the business world, we must have loyal and highly satisfied customers. Drilling down a little deeper into this truism, we find that the way to engender loyalty and satisfaction from the market is by ensuring value and trust in the partnership between the firm and its customer. -
Apr 16, 2003 |
North American utility companies were first introduced to the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the mid 1990s. At the time, software vendors presented CRM as a package of IT functions for identifying customer niches and their evolving needs, along with developing, selling, and marketing new products and services. -
Apr 14, 2003 |
The electric power industry is a very mature business – now close to 120 years old. In its earlier years, the industry was driven by the demands of society to improve life, and to build infrastructure and increase productivity in order to meet the needs of industrializing economies. Today, in much of the world, the forces of the market, technology and regulation are transforming the ground on which most of the industry has traditionally operated. -
Apr 14, 2003 |
The pervasive use of LANs in school and campus environments, and also in multi-facility commercial, industrial and residential sites, is good news for building managers, electrical personnel and maintenance engineers tasked with cutting operating costs. Installed after the master meter in a building or facility, submeters are used to define the energy usage of a specific location, user or circuit. -
Apr 10, 2003 |
It always amazes me when I open my bills and find they contain only the computer-generated billing statement – and nothing more. Not that I have a lack of reading material – most of us suffer from overloaded mailboxes. But when you finish reading this article, I think you’ll agree that any company not enclosing a customer newsletter in their billing statement is missing a very cost-efficient opportunity to build customer relationships. -
Apr 10, 2003 |
As more and more sophisticated electronics is introduced in production processes, the industrial equipments are becoming more sensitive to power quality problems. Whenever an industry experiences malfunctioning of equipment due to quality of power supply, it requires monitoring to identify the exact problem and then verify solutions which are implemented. -
Apr 07, 2003 |
You made the decision to outsource your CIS and billing. You have gone as far as selecting an Application Service Provider (ASP) after a brief selection process. The final and most critical phase is the contract. -
Apr 01, 2003 |It’s no secret global weather patterns are changing dramatically with larger, more violent, and further reaching storms of all types and in all seasons slamming communities more frequently and randomly. On top of this, calamities such as earthquakes, terrorist attacks and fires can strike with any degree of ferocity and very often without warning.
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Mar 31, 2003 |
The utility industry is in turmoil. Ongoing revelations about “abuses” of market power and “misguided” employees executing “round-trip” trades are “front-page news” known not only to regular readers of this magazine but to the general public as well.
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Mar 28, 2003 |
Energy risk management didn’t begin until the 1980’s and by the 1990’s, crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, propane, and natural gas all experienced varying degrees of success trading on the NYMEX. On the other hand, electricity was a dismal failure. Why would participants that need hedging for price exposure on hydrocarbons, not need it for a derivative product like electrical generation?
