Web Workshop Draws 100+ to Atlanta
JD Power Headlines Event

Our users turned out in droves and some brought friends. It was by all accounts a great workshop. Here are just a few of the highlights of Apogee's Annual Web Workshop held last month. If you'd like a personal walk-through of anything covered here, just give us a call.

JD Power's 4th Annual Residential Electric Utility Study. Jeff Conklin, Senior Director for JD Power and Associates, brought a powerful message from the front lines of assessing customer satisfaction for utilities. He revealed the top five components of satisfaction as identified in his company's massive customer satisfaction survey conducted each year.

JD Power interviewed 23,000 residential customers of 108 utility operating companies. These five attributes surfaced as the key components of satisfaction:

Each components is defined as:

Jeff presented which utilities ranked the highest and provided JD Power's analysis of "What the best utilities do best."

Compared with other utilities like cable TV and telephone service, use of electric utility websites is about the same and for the same reasons: billing, account history and information related to their services. However, relative to satisfaction indicators for other utilities (cable, phone etc.), overall satisfaction with electric utility websites leaves significant opportunity for improvement. He reported that the number of electric bills paid online since has more than doubled since 2000, now measuring 15% compared to 6%. And, according to the survey, Internet users were twice as likely to have some college education or more versus non-users, have an average income of $71,000 versus $33,000 for non-users, and an average monthly electric bill of $105 versus $88 for non-users. In other words, Internet users are prime target customers for utilities!

Other Workshop Highlights

Accenture's Top Rated Utility Websites

Content and Lead Generation

C&I Portal

Content Managements Systems

Using Website Activity Reports

Web Audits

What our Attendess Said...

What is Your Website's Performance Rating?

If your website were an employee, would it be getting a raise this year? Most utility managers do not think of their website as they do one of their own employees. Both are (potentially) important contributors, consume valuable resources (time and money), and require management attention. However, many companies fail to spend even a little time each year evaluating their home page.

Employees are assessed against performance goals each year and may be eligible for a promotion, a raise, or performance coaching. Yet few companies would "fire" their own website.

At a minimum, your site should be periodically audited and benchmarked against clear goals, in much the same way your staff is reviewed. Just how do you evaluate your website? How can you determine if it is delivering the value you expect?

In general, a well-performing website should enable your utility or cooperative to meet or exceed six basic eGoals:

1. Enhance corporate image and brand identification
2. Extend corporate reach in community
3. Earn dollars through lowered costs and new revenue from online transactions
4. Efficiently use staff by automating existing processes
5. Expand customer services and economic development efforts
6. Encourage repeat visits to site based on ease of use and relevant, interesting content.

By utilizing Apogee's e-Business audit services, we can provide a "performance appraisal" of one of your most important assets. This service begins with interviews of management and key staff to set direction and expectations. It is followed by a situation analysis of the current site, benchmark comparison to other websites, and a review and recommendation of content and functionality. Finally, results are detailed in an actionable report with prioritized, step-by-step recommendations.

The e-Business audit adds value in several ways:

• Provides a roadmap that shows where you are and where you need to go to increase the activity and value of your website
• Positions you as a community advocate through better communication with existing and prospective customers, employees, and the community at large
• Enables methods to improve customer service at a reduced cost
• Improves reach, image and scope of economic development, and
• Gains additional revenue from and enhance relationships with community business and trade allies

Knowing how well your employees are performing is critical to any business. Knowing how well your website is performing can be just as important, especially given the potential of the Internet and the need for increased cost management in today's utility environment. Click here for sample e-Business Audit Report.

Here's what some of our recent audit customers have to say:

"Apogee's e-Business audit was for us the spark that got everyone at South Central Power interested in web re-design. The web audit and management interviews got everyone committed to making the website a priority for our company." -- Ed Kindler, Vice President, Customer Service, South Central Power Co.

"We are very pleased with the e-Business audit provided by Apogee and have taken a number of steps to implement the recommendations in the report. Apogee's outside perspective has helped ElectriCities better appreciate the value of our website as we continue to make additional enhancements. " -- Bill Crabtree, Strategic Communications Specialist, ElectriCities of North Carolina, Inc.

For more information, contact Rob Wilhite at 770.270.6507 or rwilhite@apogee.net. Rob joins Apogee's Web Audit Team from Accenture where he served as a consultant in the Utilities Strategy and Business Architecture section for two years. Prior to that, he worked for EPRI as a manager in the Retail Energy Products group and earlier held various management positions within Florida Power & Light's marketing department for 11 years.

SMUD Adds New Dimension To Demand Exchange: Capacity Payment Program

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has used the Demand Exchange® platform to deliver two demand response programs for two years: Power Net and Power Direct. Both are voluntary, price-responsive programs. Recently SMUD added a new twist - a capacity payment program.

Called Power Net Plus, this new program is an extension of SMUD's Power Net. With this capacity payment program, SMUD makes an upfront payment each month, July through September, in exchange for the right to call upon program participants to curtail their energy consumption as specified in their individual agreement.

Customers agree to several flexible parameters when they sign up. These include:

• the minimum curtailment requirement (MCR) that must be delivered,
• the minimum number of hours for any given curtailment call,
• the amount of the premium payment,
• and the total number of curtailment hours per month.

These parameters are entered into the Exchange and used for management of all aspects of the program, including online event settlement.

"Our customers came to us with a request for this type of program," explains Harlan Coomes, Senior Demand-Side Specialist at SMUD. "Though they really like the voluntary program, they wanted a program with a guaranteed payment. Power Net Plus combines the best features of both program-types."

When called upon by SMUD, program participants must reduce their consumption by at least 80 % of their contracted MCR. Failure to do so in any given hour of a curtailment event results in a penalty equal to the total monthly premium payment divided by the number of monthly curtailable hours the customer has in the program.

Look at these innovative features of Power Net Plus.

1. Participants can also simultaneously take part in Power Net opportunities. When SMUD activates the voluntary program by sending out an hourly price signal to customers, Power Net Plus participants must perform according to their mandatory agreement. If they wish they may pledge additional load reduction in response to the hourly price offer. In the event settlement process, the Power Net Plus performance is examined first before the price responsive pledge is accounted for.
2. Customers can aggregate multiple accounts for the purpose of achieving load reduction. In other words, a customer may have several accounts, none of which is capable of achieving substantial load reduction by itself, that when added together equal a considerable demand reduction amount.

"The key for making our demand response programs a success has been the automation the Demand Exchange platform facilitates," says Mr. Coomes. "When we decided to roll out the new program we knew we could count on the Demand Exchange to implement it."

For more info, contact Eric Watson at 770-270-6517.

If Airlines Sold Paint

Abstracted from Power Engineering, October, 2002

As we continue to think about our price signals to customers, let's be sure we are sending the right message…

Customer: Hi. How much is your paint?
Clerk: Well, sir, that all depends on quite a lot of things.
Customer: Can you give me a guess? Is there an average price?
Clerk: Our lowest price is $12 a gallon, but we have 60 different prices up to $200 a gallon.
Customer: What's the difference in the paint?
Clerk: Oh there isn't any difference. It's all the same paint.
Customer: Well then I'd like some of that $12 paint.
Clerk: When do you want to use the paint?
Customer: I want to paint tomorrow. It's my day off.
Clerk: Sir, the paint for tomorrow is the $200.
Customer: When would I have to paint to get the $12 paint?
Clerk: You would have to start very late at night in about 3 weeks. But you will have to agree to start painting before Friday of that week and continue painting until at least Sunday.
Customer: Well, alright, I will paint then. I think I need maybe five gallons. Oh, why not make that six, so I'll have enough.
Clerk: Oh no, sir, you can't do that. If you buy paint and don't use it, there are penalties and possible confiscation of the paint you already have. We can sell enough paint to do your kitchen, bathroom, hall and north bedroom, but if you stop painting before you do the bedroom, you will lose your remaining gallons of paint.
Customer: What does it matter whether I use all the paint if I have already paid you for it?
Clerk: It matters to us. We make plans based upon the idea that all our paint is used, every drop. If you don't, it causes us all sorts of problems.
Customer: Well then forget it! I'll buy what I need from somewhere else.
Clerk: I don't think so, sir. You may be able to buy paint for your bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen and dining room from someone else, but you won't be able to paint your connecting hall and stairway from anyone but us. And I should point out, sir, that if you paint in only one direction, it will be $300 a gallon.
Customer: I thought your most expensive paint was $200!
Clerk: That's if you paint around the room to the point at which you started. A hallway is different.
Customer: And if I buy $200 paint for the hall, but only paint in one direction, you'll confiscate the remaining paint.
Clerk: No, we'll charge you an extra use fee plus the difference on your next gallon of paint. But I do believe you're getting it now, sir.