Newsbyte: Utility Companies Redefine Customer Engagement With New SAP Multichannel Foundation Software

AMSTERDAM, Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the release of SAP® Multichannel Foundation for Utilities software, enabling utility companies to provide real-time, unified customer engagement through customer-preferred channels. A multichannel, self-service approach helps drive increased customer satisfaction, higher profit margins and lower average response times to customer requests. The announcement was made at European Utilities Week, being held on October 15-17 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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"SAP has worked with leaders in the utilities industry to change the dynamics of customer service," said Henry Bailey, global vice president of Utilities Business Solutions, SAP. "With real-time, unified customer engagement programs, utilities now have the tools to vastly improve the customer experience as well as reduce the costs associated with traditional service channels."

Empowered customers are changing the way services are delivered as new generations of consumers expect a more consistent experience across multiple touch-points. Businesses today can leverage upwards of five channels to proactively engage their customers, making multi-channel efforts the new norm. SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and the recently released SAP® Utilities Customer Engagement mobile app facilitate utilities to deploy self-service apps in an affordable and scalable way. Now, multiple departments —from sales and marketing to customer service — can use multi-channel and multi-touch interactions to address the most relevant customer needs. SAP aims to provide a rich experience through mobile and social interaction, consistent communication across all channels, real-time answers and personalized offers.

SAP Utilities Customer Engagement has improved functionality to map areas suffering from power outages, explain what is causing the outage, show its impact and provide estimated restoration time. Additionally, the mobile app now allows utilities' customers to self-register, start and stop service, update account information, inquire about usage, pay bills, set up autopay, read meters, report outages and view outage information anywhere, at any time.

SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities currently includes a new web self-service portal for utilities and makes it easier to incorporate other web portals' mobile apps, mobile SMS, social platforms, interactive voice response (IVR) and email. SAP Utilities Customer Engagement is currently available on iPhone iOS 5.0+ and Android 4.0+ and can be downloaded on iTunes and Google Play by searching "SAP utilities."

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

Media Contacts:
Jochen Wolf, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-45059, [email protected], CET
Shannon McLoughlin, Burson-Marsteller,+1 (617) 912-5412, [email protected], EDT

SOURCE SAP AG