Portland General Electric
Portland General Electric (PGE) is a recognized leader in the utility industry with more than a century of experience delivering safe and reliable electricity.  As a fully integrated electric utility, PGE serves more than 738,000 retail customers in northwest Oregon and wholesale customers throughout the western United States. Headquartered in Portland, PGE is Oregon’s largest electric utility, serving about 45 percent of the state’s population in a service territory that encompasses more than 3,000 square miles.

PGE’s number one priority it to deliver safe and reliable power to its customers while providing excellent customer service. In addition, PGE is operating in a rapidly changing industry characterized by energy market restructuring, expanding energy-related products and services and increasing competition.  These market forces have compelled PGE to look closely at its changing customer relationships and focus on improving the quality and effectiveness of each customer contact. 

In 1997, PGE introduced the Nortel Networks Meridian Integrated IVR into the contact center, the first in a series of investments in technology to better manage customer relationships. Ever since, the Nortel Networks platform has been integral to the contact center’s infrastructure.  In 1999, PGE replaced the Meridian Integrated IVR with the Nortel Networks Open IVR, more than doubling their overall port capacity. In 2001, PGE upgraded to the Nortel Networks Periphonics IVR and introduced the Nortel Networks Symposium Call Center Server.

Chrysalis Software developed and implemented the applications on all three IVR platforms. The latest release of the application provides callers a variety of self-serve options, including  access to account information, starting or stopping service, requesting to pay a bill via credit card, reporting power outages, and accessing information on repair times. A customized “call-back” application automatically calls customers who have requested to be contacted after a reported outage has been resolved.  The Chrysalis-developed application detects CLID, ANI and DNIS to play targeted outage messages to callers in the affected area, down to the single house level. The IVR application accesses PGE’s IBM mainframe via a tn3270 host interface application over a TCP/IP LAN using an interface developed by Chrysalis Software known as ChrysTerm.

“Chrysalis Software has played an integral role in the overall success of PGE’s contact center,” said David Worth, PGE voice specialist.  “Chrysalis employs highly knowledgeable individuals who are experienced at implementing sophisticated contact center projects.  If Chrysalis is involved in my project, I know that it will be done right, as well as on time.”  Worth also noted that Chrysalis’ commitment to a comprehensive, collaborative, and configurable information gathering process early in a project helps them create inventive and dependable solutions to common industry problems.

Callers who do need to speak to a customer service representative can access any one of up to 200 customer service representatives anytime during normal business hours. Using sophisticated intelligent call routing deployed by Chrysalis Software, the Symposium Call Center Server connects each caller to the customer service representative best-suited to handle his or her concerns. Based on their training and expertise, a PGE customer service representative may be assigned any or all of up to 19 different skill sets defined by PGE and up to 48 different “expertise ratings”. The Symposium Call Center Server uses Nortel Networks Meridian Mail ports to read special broadcast announcements and menu options to callers while they wait in queue.

According to Worth, the IVR system has reduced the number of calls requiring assistance from a service representative from 65% to 25% of all inbound calls.

Chrysalis’ flagship Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) product, Sonata, pops a screen of information about the caller simultaneously with the call’s arrival at the representative’s phone set.  C-Pop enables each representative to transfer both the call and the screen to another agent or supervisor as needed.

Worth estimates that the Symposium Call Center Server has successfully handled as many as 15,000 calls per hour during peak outage times — a significant improvement over the previous system. Most importantly, the system has resulted in improved customer service and a more satisfied customer base.

PGE relies heavily on the historical reporting capabilities of both the IVR and the Symposium Call Center Server to keep the PGE management team abreast of contact center performance. With the help of its state-of-the-art contact center, PGE has been able to offer its growing customer base excellent customer service resulting in some of the highest reliability levels and lowest customer complaint rates in the industry.  Chrysalis Software is pleased to be part of the solution.