Automated power outage and reporting solution

In 2004, Eckoh established a strategic partnership with US-based Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. (TFCC) to deliver power outage communications solutions to UK utilities.  In 2005, Eckoh and TFCC deployed an automated power outage and reporting solution to supplement ScottishPower’s in-house capability.

TFCC’s HVCA® service delivers location specific information thanks to Eckoh’s advanced speech recognition technology, which can capture the caller’s spoken post code and address, use that information to pinpoint the location for which the caller is reporting an outage and then provide available service restoration information for that location.

The system has the capability to  recognise callers registered with ScottishPower as being ‘at risk’ - individuals, for example, whose medical needs depend upon electricity - and can pass them directly to a contact centre agent for personal attention.The system is fully integrated with ScottishPower’s outage management systems providing the ability to effectively pin-point outages on a real-time basis.  This means ScottishPower can quickly identify the locality and extent of multiple outages enabling them to resource the call centre efficiently

Benefits for ScottishPower 

• Confident Management of traffic peaks during storms or outage periods
  
• End-to-end capture of every customer record, whether dealt with by an agent, the automated service, or both 
  
• Capability to Identify and transfer of “at risk” customers whose medical needs depend upon electricity
  
• Call centre agents are armed with real-time outage reporting capabilities, ensuring that they are accurately informed during an outage 
• Enables agents to focus on more complex calls from special needs and critical care customers during large storms or power outages

Benefits for Customers

• In-built adaptive personalisation technology means that callers can be automatically recognised if they have been registered as “special needs” or when they connect to the TFCC’s HVCA® service more than once
• Customers can use the solution to report a power fault on a no wait, no queue basis, whilst providing an automated 24/7 service for restoration estimates as they become available
• Due to comprehensive information capture, customer records are kept up to date for accuracy of future communications

Thomas Calabro, Senior Vice President for TFCC

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Eckoh in the UK marketplace and are delighted at the partnership’s success in winning this significant contract with ScottishPower. The HVCA® solution selected by ScottishPower combines TFCC’s market-leading proven performance in North America with Eckoh’s UK market leadership in the provision of high volume automated call handling solutions. Together with Eckoh, we look forward to replicating our success in the UK with ScottishPower and other utility clients.”

About ScottishPower
ScottishPower is a leading international energy company that includes serving over five million homes and businesses in the UK.  ScottishPower generates electricity, operates and maintains large power delivery networks and provides a full range of energy supply services including metering, billing and call centre support.