Case Studies- Utilities
Challenge:
Deregulation in the gas and electric supply industries in Canada is rapidly changing the way utility companies run their operations. Outsourcing of non-core competencies, such as the procurement, management and printing of both marketing and billing/statement collateral represents opportunities for cost reduction and competitive advantage.
“For many utilities, the procurement function represents an area in which significant cost reductions can be gained. Typical utilities spend between 40 percent and 60 percent of their operations and maintenance budgets on third-party materials and services, which means the procurement organization has a tremendous opportunity to help a utility dramatically improve its overall business performance.” Accenture 2004.
Solutions and Results:
DATA customizes our approach to outsourcing based on a customer-centric consulting model, where a partial or total solution forges the startup relationship with our clients. Often, a single service level agreement for a specific product or service expands into a full blown document management strategy over time. The following are some examples of flexible solutions and the corresponding results DATA has delivered to utilities marketplace.
ENMAX Corporation, a leader in providing electricity and natural gas to the Alberta provincial market, has a multi-year document management agreement with The DATA Group of Companies, including the production, printing and fulfillment of statements and marketing materials to ENMAX Energy's customers. Initially selected as the most suitable supplier for outsourced document warehousing and fulfillment, DATA now offers ENMAX a much broader scope of services. Today, end users access a wide variety of services using integrated on-line search and requisitioning for document collateral through the corporate intranet, linked directly to DATA's own E-Procurement System, The DATA Document Manager,
The company no longer needs to procure, store or manage any inventoried print collateral, and has shed the capital costs of equipment and staffing overheads, allowing management to focus on optimizing their primary objective of delivering customer satisfaction. Mission critical document processing protocols produce ENMAX customer statements from processed data delivered directly to DATA's facilities. The information for each ENMAX customer is printed, inserted into envelopes with customized marketing material, and delivered directly into the mail system. Disaster recovery processes and redundancy systems within DATA's network infrastructure ensure that all regulatory best practices are followed and documented. Overall savings to the company were significant at the undertaking of our agreement, and are documented within regular vendor performance reporting processes. The relationship with The DATA Group of Companies has delivered savings to ENMAX over $600,000 in print and related costs over the past year alone.
By leveraging DATA's capabilities as a trusted outsourcing partner, our utility customers garner immediate performance enhancement to their print procurement functions, seamlessly integrating into DATA's production, delivery and billing systems without significant investment or management resources to implement the solution. Such is the case with DATA's comprehensive print management relationship with Direct Energy. Direct Energy Essential Services is a Direct Energy Partnership brand, which services residential and small commercial businesses providing natural gas and electricity. DATA currently provides the company with Commercial Printing Services, Storage and Distribution of Print Collateral, Business Forms and Stationery, and Account Management Services. Direct Energy employs over 2600 people across Canada and was originally contracted to produce customized direct marketing products, with the objective to provide quick turnaround on variable imaged materials based on market information. Our ability to provide the client with access to robust production and print delivery facilities and a dedicated customer service team prompted the client to expand the scope of services to include a total print management initiative, stating:
“We don't' usually do this, we are quite reluctant as a company to put all of our eggs in one basket, however, we have decided to move all of our printing over to DATA. We are so impressed with what you have been able to do. DATA is very popular around here right now, and we think that you deserve this.” Direct Energy Procurement
In November 2004, Superior Propane and DATA successfully implemented a multi-year agreement for the provision of Business Critical Document printing, finishing and mailing services. For more than 50 years, Superior has served the energy needs of Canadians across a wide variety of areas - residential, industrial, commercial, oil & gas, agriculture, food service, construction and auto - growing into Canada's largest distributor of propane, related products and services. The company has 1800 employees providing service to more than 300,000 customers across the country.
To provide for Superior's needs, DATA's digital print and fulfillment centers process and print millions of impressions and invoices per year. Although Superior Propane has previously outsourced this process to another party, they were anxious to improve the level of service and support for this business critical function, and selected DATA based on our stability, experience, technical support, resources, proposed service levels and competitive pricing. In our first year of production, DATA provided Superior with documented savings of over $200,000.