Utility Industry
The utility industry is currently undergoing a significant structural transformation. More competitive markets, government regulation, and business opportunities are driving many of these changes. To manage this transition and to effectively take advantage of business opportunities, utilities need to have the right software. Epiq Technologies has been working with utility customers for many years and has developed solutions that are uniquely tailored for power generation, transmission, distribution and retail utility companies.
Epiq's utility solutions are designed to fit with utility-specific business processes in order to provide the lowest total cost of ownership and deliver a high return on investment. Often, there are two areas that utilities can focus on initially in order to achieve rapid cost savings, productivity gains, and high ROI. These two areas are the initial purchase (procurement) of assets and asset disposal (investment recovery or asset recovery). The following sections provide information about two of Epiq's products that address Utility business processes in these important areas.
Utility Procurement Management:
The purchase price of an asset can be an important determinant of ROI. If a utility pays too much for a product or service, it will be more difficult to achieve a high return on investment. To help utilities automate and simplify their procurement process, Epiq has developed automated tools to improve the procurement of non-payroll goods and services. Epiq's Utility Procurement Management solution provides utilities with many benefits:
- Improved ability to meet regulatory demands through process controls and documentation.
- Audit role lets authorized users review transaction documentation or event records.
- Workflow project controls.
- Data export to demonstrate compliance.
- Process cost saving through electronic procurement.
- Lower purchase price for goods and services.
- Quickly generate RFI, RFQ, and RFP documents.
- Automated bid collection process.
- Event and specification publication to targeted distribution lists.
- Reports on vendors or on vendor activity that can be used to make supplier performance evaluations.
- Workflow status reports for RFQ's let managers evaluate procurement performance against deadlines or standards.
Utility Asset Recovery Management:
It can be difficult for utilities to obtain the best price for assets that are at the end of their useful life. Utilities often use third party asset recovery companies to sell items like work trucks, scrap metals, or office equipment. However, these intermediaries often charge a hefty price for their services or else purchase these items for a fraction of their value with the intention of selling them later. Epiq's Utility Asset Recovery Management solution gives utilities control over this process by simplifying and automating it. The solution also provides them with the ability to meet regulatory demands. Epiq's Utility Asset Recovery Management solution provides utilities with many benefits:
- Definable user roles to give management and auditor access to process records and event documents.
- Escalation and detailed workflows.
- Data export for rapid analysis and reporting.
- Increased collaboration among investment recovery personnel.
- Ability to rapidly publicize and distribute event information to targeted distribution lists.
- Consistent event format and structure helps achieve compliance for important regulations.
- Automated negotiation reduces time and boosts asset sale prices.
- Increased participation in the asset sale process.
- View, monitor, and evaluate the results of several investment recovery events to determine effectiveness.
- View event participant historical bidding activity to determine if participant should be invited to an event for a particular asset type.