Citizens Energy Group and AAC Utility Partners Achieve Successful Oracle C2M CIS Implementation

Columbia, SC, October 07, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Citizens Energy Group (Citizens) is a broad-based utility service company that provides natural gas, water, wastewater, and thermal energy services to about 800,000 people and thousands of businesses in the Indianapolis area. Citizens implemented a commercial off-the-shelf Customer Information System (CIS) in the late '90s and had continually modified the system to meet its business and customer needs. Due to an aging technology platform and the desire to continue delivering excellent customer service to its customers, Citizens selected AAC Utility Partners (AAC) to lead them in the assessment of their business to determine if they should maintain, upgrade or replace their current CIS. Utilizing its NavigateOne™ methodology, AAC led Citizens through an evaluation of their business, functional and technical requirements, including an assessment of their organizational readiness and project risks.

Utilizing the NavigateOne™ Assessment Report and Recommendation as input to their strategic plan, Citizens decided to replace their current CIS. Based on the quality of the Needs Assessment engagement, Citizens contracted with AAC again to lead their evaluation and selection of a new CIS and systems integrator. "The Citizens core team and management were very impressed with AAC's approach to our project. The NavigateOne™ methodology was comprehensive and brought industry best practices to assist Citizens in understanding our needs as well as where we could make improvements for our customers," said Curtis Popp, Vice President, Customer Experience. "Based on the success of the CIS Assessment engagement, we were very confident that AAC was the right company to lead our selection process," continued Popp.

Leveraging all of the work product from the assessment phase, AAC led Citizens through the CIS vendor/systems integrator selection process from RFP development through contract negotiations. After a thorough analysis, scoring, and vetting by the Citizens core team, the recommendation was made to enter into negotiations with Oracle for the software and Infosys to provide system integration services. "One of the primary reasons we preferred AAC over other consulting firms is their focus on the implementation project," stated Curtis Popp, Vice President of Customer Operations. "As the Statement of Work is the foundation for a successful project, AAC has developed the NavigateOne™ Statement of Work to ensure its client's interests are protected for their projects. AAC provided the leadership in developing and negotiating the NavigateOne™ Statement of Work, and it served as a strong tool throughout the project," Curtis continued.

Citizens went on to hire AAC to provide Program Management services to lead the C2M implementation project. Citizens Energy Group officially went live with C2M on July 27, 2020 - under budget and on-time.

"AAC is appreciative of the confidence that Citizens placed in our firm throughout the Assessment, Procurement, and Implementation process," stated Edwin Crow, AAC Managing Partner. "It is such a rewarding experience to work with a group of professionals who share a common focus on success – not only of the project but of the entire project team. Citizens was committed to the success of this project from the very beginning; they provided a strong project team and empowered them to succeed. Congratulations to Citizens Energy Group for executing such a complex project."

AAC Utility Partners, LLC provides consulting services exclusively to utilities for the transformation of mission critical systems, including CIS, ERP, FMIS, WMS, MDMS, AMI. AAC assists utilities with Strategy/Assessment, Selection/Cloud Adoption, and Project Implementation Leadership Services. Through a foundational vendor-independent methodology – NavigateOne™ – AAC has pioneered a proprietary set of proven processes, tools, templates, and software completely scalable and customizable to the unique needs of utilities software initiatives. AAC is the leading independent cloud consulting firm focused on utility industry specific applications and business process services. For more information, visit www.teamaac.com.

Citizens Energy Group provides safe and reliable utility services to about 800,000 people in the Indianapolis area. Citizens operates its utilities only for the benefit of customers and the community. Additional information is available online at www.CitizensEnergyGroup.com.