Vertex Provides Customer Platform to DC Water

Long-standing relationship between DC Water and Vertex ÔÇô combined
with VertexOne upgrade ÔÇô establishes unprecedented industry standard for
the utility industry

RICHARDSON, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vertex,
a leader in utility customer experience solutions, today announced that
DC Water has completed the implementation of the VertexOne SaaS Customer
Platform. This upgrade expands an almost 20-year relationship between
the two organizations, leveraging the strengths of each organization in
the pursuit of ÔÇ£World ClassÔÇØ customer service.

DC Water expects to experience significant benefits with the new
platform through access to VertexOneÔÇÖs new customer information system,
customer web portal and mobile self-service, bill presentment, as well
as its payment and mobile workforce management solutions.

ÔÇ£The achievements of the combined VertexOne and DC Water teams have set
a new standard in how future utility industry implementations are
executed and supported,ÔÇØ said Andrew Jornod, Chief Executive Officer,
Vertex. ÔÇ£At Vertex, we have had a long-established vision for a more
efficient and effective way to implement and support a CIS and related
technologies. DC Water has helped us make that vision a reality.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£This was the first complete customer information system upgrade in 18
years,ÔÇØ commented Henderson Brown, IV, DC Water Interim CEO and General
Manager. ÔÇ£DC Water is now providing state-of-the-art services to
customers while providing added security of their customer information.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£We have already seen several improvements and benefits in our front and
back office operations from our upgrade to VertexOne,ÔÇØ said Charles
Kiely, Assistant General Manager, DC Water. ÔÇ£We were also able to bring
outsourced back-office operations back in house. Now, we are able to
look more strategically at our business and also focus more on our
customers.ÔÇØ

DC Water completed the initial VertexOne customer self-service portal, www.mydcwater.com,
and mobile self-service app after only seven months. The new
self-service experience gives customers an easy-to-use, fully-secure
platform for bill pay and usage analysis. The early launch of these
features allowed DC Water to improve the customer experience early in
the project, while streamlining operations and positioning the
organization to deploy more enhanced customer service features after the
core CIS went live. At the end of 2017, DC Water completed the larger
implementation of migrating its 18-year-old customer information system
onto the VertexOne SaaS Customer Platform, powered by SAP.

Simultaneously, DC Water also completed the implementation and
integration of the VertexOne SaaS-based Mobile Workforce Management
solution powered by KONA, from The Confluence Group. In addition, DC
Water added new electronic billing and payment features, powered by
Kubra. This was the second phase of the implementation ÔÇô and the most
complex portion ÔÇô serving as a key milestone for the VertexOne SaaS
Customer Platform.

DC Water serves a high volume of government agencies along with
residential, commercial and industrial customers, including all of the
federal government buildings located in the District of Columbia. DC
Water has relied on Vertex as its customer experience technology partner
for nearly 20 years and embarked on this major expansion of the existing
partnership in Dec. 2016. The utility was searching for a tier-one
solution that would allow it to better engage its customers, adapt to an
increasingly complex market landscape, and provide customers with
state-of-the-art technology to manage their accounts. These requirements
demanded an agile solution that could grow and evolve as the demands on
the utility increased. To ensure its resources stayed focused on serving
its customers and improving the operation, DC Water chose a
cloud/SaaS-based model to lower overall cost and risk, depending on a
service provider to maintain the platform.

ÔÇ£Deploying VertexOne in the cloud allows us to shift our focus away from
the technical IT challenges of a traditional CIS to solving business
problems,ÔÇØ said Tom Kuczynski, Chief Information Officer at DC Water.
ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre in the customer service business, and technology is a means to
that end. Our partnership with Vertex allows us to put the customer
first while Vertex addresses the bulk of the technology challenges.ÔÇØ

About Vertex

Dedicated solely to the utility industry, Vertex Business Services has
been a recognized leader in customer experience solutions for the past
20 years. Vertex serves nearly 10 million end customers for more than 30
electric, gas and water clients across North America. Through a wide
range of innovative services and solutionsÔÇöincluding the VertexOne cloud
platform inclusive of CIS, ERP, EAM, MWM, MDM, and Customer Self
ServiceÔÇöVertex helps utilities more efficiently deliver a compelling
customer experience while also driving utility operations forward.
Vertex takes on the heavy lifting of keeping current with the rapid pace
of technology changes, so utilities don't have toÔÇöleaving our customers
more time to focus on core utility business and leaving the technology
to us. For more information, visit www.vertexone.net.

About DC Water

The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) is an
industry leading multi-jurisdictional regional utility that provides
drinking water and wastewater collection and treatment for millions of
visitors, residents and employees in the District of Columbia, and also
collects and treats wastewater for a population of 1.6 million in
Montgomery and Prince GeorgeÔÇÖs counties in Maryland and Fairfax and
Loudoun counties in Virginia.

DC Water's service area covers approximately 725 square miles and the
enterprise operates the world's largest advanced wastewater treatment
plant with a capacity of 370 million gallons per day and a peak capacity
of 1.076 billion gallons per day. Blue Plains is also a model in
sustainability, with anaerobic digesters burning sludge for combined
heat and electricity and plans for green infrastructure on an
unprecedented scale to reduce combined sewer overflows.

Contacts

VertexOne
Kim Schafer, 303-961-3347
[email protected]