“I was looking for a technology partner that could help us meet a customer’s needs and expectations in ways defined by the customer, and then exceed them. We needed a customer information system with a ‘wow’ factor.”
James Barnes,
Chief Customer Officer, City of Tallahassee
Opportunity
The City of Tallahassee, Florida (COT) supplies water, wastewater, electricity, gas, and refuse services to more than 106,000 customers in the state capital, Tallahassee, and parts of unincorporated Leon County.
The fourth largest multi-service municipal utility in Florida, COT maintains an absolute dedication to providing safe, reliable service to its customers and recognizes that proactively replacing aging utility infrastructure with modern solutions is crucial to delivering on that promise.
COT’s aging legacy, on-premise customer information system (CIS) was among those systems due for replacement. They initiated the procurement process by sending an RFP to 78 different solutions vendors. COT went on to closely evaluate 14 CIS solutions providers. But one stood out from the rest.
Solution
COT required a CIS solution that could:
After a thorough evaluation of leading utility CIS vendors, COT selected Itineris’ UMAX, a native cloud-based solution built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform.
Not only did UMAX fulfill every major technical requirement, but Itineris also possessed an impressive record as a vendor focused on customer partnerships and an absolute commitment to project success.
The implementation of the UMAX CIS and Customer Self-Service System (CSS) at COT:
Selection
Itineris competed against a staggering fourteen vendors offering solutions for COT’s CIS replacement project. The procurement was managed by AAC Partners, a leading consulting firm specifically focused on the tier one and tier two utility space. This proved an extremely competitive process where Itineris was chosen based on the following scoring criteria:
Itineris & UMAX cited differentiators by COT
Results
Following a two-year-long implementation process involving hundreds of personnel, CoT successfully went live with their UMAX CIS on February 13, 2023! The project team from Itineris and CoT maintained an optimistic outlook filled with eager anticipation and enthusiasm throughout the days leading up to the cutover. They were enormously proud to see the system go live without any issues, ready to serve the city and its residents well for years to come.
“We were all connected and had a stake in the success of this project. That’s one of the things I like about our partnership with Itineris. It makes a difference when you work with someone who shares your values and culture. That’s very critical, and you can’t put that in an RFP.”
James Barnes,
Chief Customer Officer, City of Tallahassee
This resulted in
An award-winning utility
Customer Executive Icon Award
James Barnes, chief customer officer at the City of Tallahassee, received the prestigious Customer Executive Icon Award at the 2022 Cloud for Utilities Summit in Beverly Hills. The Icon Awards spotlight projects, initiatives, and executives who are helping to move the utility industry forward. This was the first inaugural award ceremony conducted by Cloud for Utilities.
The #1 public utility in America
The City of Tallahassee has been recognized twice as the #1 public utility in America (’12 and ‘21). The American Public Power Association’s (APPA) E. F. Scattergood System Achievement Award recognizes the top public utility in the country for demonstrated achievements that made a difference in the community, improved service to customers, and enhanced the profile of public power.
APGA System Operational Achievement Recognition
CoT’s Gas Utility has an outstanding reputation, having not only achieved a violation-free audit from the Florida Public Service Commission for the 14th consecutive year, but also receiving the American Public Gas Association’s (APGA) System Operational Achievement Recognition (SOAR) for sustained operational excellence—three times! In fact, CoT’s system is the only one in the United States to maintain the highest level of APGA’s operational achievement recognition since the inception of the program in 2014.
