Assessing a Utility

The next product that we will discuss is a high level Utility Profiling Tool that will aid in providing insight and strategies that will help a utility understand their operational readiness for improvement. UtiliWorks Insight allows Utilities to determine major areas for improvement and the detail of the presentation is sufficient for the development of strategic improvement concepts. This assessment will allow Utilities to understand their “Current Reality.” and create a variety of remedial activities related to processes, behaviors and most importantly, performance and improvement potential.  It is built on the NeuraMetrics Platform and uses Six Sigma and other quality principles for business process improvement.  Its comprehensive analysis is then made available to understand specific performance gaps and improvement opportunities.  This unique and quantitative insight drives understanding, benchmarking capability and targeted improvement in priority areas including Revenue recovery, Identification and Mitigation of product losses, Implementation of variable rate structures, Improved meter and billing accuracy, Reduction of labor costs, Reduction of customer complaints and errors and Enabling customers to manage consumption.   

If you would like to try our Vendor Management and Oversight Risk assessment you may go to www.neurasurvey.com and enter the Survey Code: vmosampler Once you have finished this survey (which is a sample of the actual survey) you will be able to access our analysis tool and view your results. You will also be able to view the results of others that have taken the survey and compare your results to theirs. All who enter the survey are anonymous. There is no way to trace the respondents answers. Enjoy!

An effective a vendor management and oversight process occurs when the process is assessed from several perspectives. This web based VMO assessment system not only helps to assign vendor risk, but helps to identify the institution’s possible business exposure from a faulty VMO process.
• It uncovers problems before the auditors find them
• It is a path to cost avoidance (fines)
• It lowers consulting / internal auditing costs while improving information
• It reduces risk
Ultimately, this assessment will result in not just compliance but improved business performance.All vendors are classified by function (usually major/minor), risk (low, moderate, high), and other internal criteria (price, length of project, access to data, etc). The combination of these three identifiers will determine the required participation in the RFP process, and the documentation requested for inclusion on the Approved Vendors list.To acquire data about the VMO process, respondents are asked to answer a query that is automatically scored, prioritized, analyzed and sorted to characterize the process and drive corrective action .Once the data is gathered management and problem solving teams are provided with a variety of data displays to understand and prioritize problems for corrective action.

Before we move on to other products I believe we should spend a little more time on our VMO Assessment and what it specifically does. Using this tool starts with identifying and communicating with the desired respondents. They need to know what the assessment is, why it is being conducted, and what to expect when it is complete. It is important to reinforce that their results will be confidential and they are encouraged to be candid and reflect reality, not what should be. It is easy to assess 100% of a target population, not just a small sample typical with “face to face” assessments.
A time period (perhaps 2 weeks) is defined as the “open period” during which time, the respondents can access the survey portal from any Internet Explorer connection available to them, and respond. They are allowed to respond in multiple sessions if needed (in other words, they can answer some questions, logout, and come back later to answer the remainder).
Once the open period is over, the analysis tools can be utilized by management and other problem solvers to identify strategic strengths and weaknesses, contrast performance across various demographics including locations, titles, departments, functions, etc. and finally derive concise actions to solve these problems.Using this tool starts with identifying and communicating with the desired respondents. They need to know what the assessment is, why it is being conducted, and what to expect when it is complete. It is important to reinforce that their results will be confidential and they are encouraged to be candid and reflect reality, not what should be. It is easy to assess 100% of a target population, not just a small sample typical with “face to face” assessments.
A time period (perhaps 2 weeks) is defined as the “open period” during which time, the respondents can access the survey portal from any Internet Explorer connection available to them, and respond. They are allowed to respond in multiple sessions if needed (in other words, they can answer some questions, logout, and come back later to answer the remainder).
Once the open period is over, the analysis tools can be utilized by management and other problem solvers to identify strategic strengths and weaknesses, contrast performance across various demographics including locations, titles, departments, functions, etc. and finally derive concise actions to solve these problems. In the next blog I will deliniate the features of this product.

The first product we would like to spotlight is our Vendor Management and Oversight Risk (VMO) assessment. VMO is an emerging need for many institutions, and, thereby, is an area of increased focus by auditors and regulatory agencies. This assessment can be used to evaluate current practices and implement the initial system, prioritize and implement needed actions, and provide ongoing monitoring to assure long term compliance and results. It recognizes the regulatory requirements, industry best practices, and the institution’s geographical differences. It offers functional insights and is an excellent opportunity to identify both strengths and weaknesses in your program and the vendors that serve your company. For more information please see: http://www.neurametrics.com/vendormgtoversight.html

NeuraMetrics is in the business of Business Intelligence. All the business intelligence that we gather is focused on helping companies drive performance improvement and better decisions and we cover a broad range of topics because we work with subject matter experts in various industries that are focused on the same task. These alliance partners work with us to create assessment products that are used as an aid in their work and our partnership is such that either we at NeuraMetrics or they may sell the end product. As a result, our product line is broad and the industries our products serve vary widely. I will dedicate the next few blog posts to describing some or our products so as to help the reader better understand what we do. This will guide our blog in a direction that appears to jump around a bit to the casual observer, but in reality we will be exploring the various uses for our methodology and hopefully the more than casual observer will begin to understand our mission. That mission is to create Web Based, On Line Survey Services (SaaS) that help organizations drive performance improvement and better decisions. Please join our Blog and comment freely about what you read here.

Successful businesses often lose the pulse of their customers and resort to guess work to make changes to facilities, products and services that are key components driving Customer Loyalty, Growth and Repeat Business. The smart companies make decisions based on continuous, organized, reliable and accurate data. Everyone knows what a Customer Satisfaction Survey is and some people know how to use the information it produces and that information should be gathered with Drip Intelligence, viewed daily, or at least weekly and analyzed using the best analysis engine you can find.

With Drip Intelligence you could, along with gathering intelligence from your customers, also gather intelligence from the Mystery Shopper Network and instantly compare what the Mystery Shoppers are saying with what your customers are saying. Very Powerful! With Drip Intelligence you may continuously keep track of and monitor your Mystery Shopper Network, continuously monitor and keep track of how customers are reacting to the business decisions you are making and be able to adjust your processes as well as the Mystery Shopper’s routine “on the fly”.

For a short discussion about Voice of the Customer in Manufacturing see: http://www.neurametrics.com/csformanufacturing.html

When investigating the use of various Business Intelligence Programs you should recognized that Customer Loyalty, more than perhaps any other single factor, is what keeps customers coming back. The "Mystery Shopper" network is a tool that many companies use. The dilemma is; do the reports from mystery shoppers really match what your customers are saying, are they relevant for your business and are they timely.

For a short discussion about Voice of the Customer in the Automobile Industry please visit http://www.neurametrics.com/csautomobilemarket.html

A Voice of the Customer program must produce diagnostic and predictive outcomes that support strategic impressions for business decisions. In short it must provide data that is really relevant to the executives in the organization; data that they feel is hard to get and is essential to have every week. Or, if your system incorporates Drip Intelligence, - every day!

The focus of any Voice of the Customer Program is to generate strategic and actionable business intelligence that can be used to better your organization.

For a short discussion on Voice of the Customer for the retail market you may go to http://www.neurametrics.com/csretailmarket.html

The timeliness of the information gathered is as important as gathering the information. I have been told by people that oversee Voice of the Customer programs that the information they receive is always too late to fix the problem. This tells us that these people recognize the need to continuously analyze the information and make adjustments on the fly.

Drip Intelligence should be a part of a cost effective web based Voice of the Customer Program that your customers use to tell you, in quantative and behavioral terms, exactly what is driving their buying behavior, while providing enormous insight into your organization and continuously prioritizing areas for improvement.

You can survive (even thrive) in a recession if you can react quickly to changes in customer needs, perceptions, and behaviors regarding your facilities, products, and services. These are the key components driving Customer Loyalty, Growth and Repeat Business and being able to react quickly will give you a huge advantage to stay viable and stand out against the competition. In any economy, it's very important to get ongoing feedback from your customers.

Don't wait to do an annual survey to find out which key indicators are affecting
your business this month or this quarter. In this kind of economy, it's more important to be getting a constant flow of customer feedback.

For a short Power Point Presentation please see: http://www.neurametrics.com/images/NeuraTool_for_Customer_Satisfaction_2009.pdf