Oracle Utilities Direct Integration, a pre-built integration between Oracle Utilities Customer Care and both Oracle Financials and Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management, is now available. This Direct Integration will allow utilities to improve efficiency, enhance customer service and lower technology cost of ownership.
The Direct Integration is based on Oracle Application Integration Architecture for Utilities, the industry's first cross-application business process integration platform. Based upon Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Application Integration Architecture for Utilities delivers pre-built process integrations across Oracle Utilities products, as well as third-party and legacy applications, to allow utilities to deploy applications more quickly and with less risk.
Today's announcement supports Oracle's strategy of delivering complete, integrated and end-to-end product suites on an open, standards-based middleware and database architecture. Oracle's approach helps customers to simplify computing environments, lower cost and risk, and provides greater choice and flexibility.
As utilities work to meet customer demands, adapt to industry deregulations and address environmental sustainability, they must integrate mission-critical applications -- like customer care and billing -- with corporate financial functions.
The Direct Integration between Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle's financial applications helps ensure a seamless automated flow of financial transactions through the entire lifecycle, requiring no duplication in information distribution between the two applications.
For example, when a utility issues a customer refund, it initiates the process in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The new Direct Integration automatically sends a request for payment to the appropriate Oracle financial management application. Once completed, the financial application sends the final transaction details back to the customer care application so the utility can maintain an accurate, up-to-date customer record. In the future, if the same customer calls with a question, the customer service representative will automatically have access to previous payment information, allowing for rapid issue resolution and improved customer service.
This tight integration improves efficiency, as end users of one application do not need to "learn" the other or make any adjustments in their daily work.
The Direct Integration also allows utilities to reduce project implementation costs and risk, as they no longer need to define requirements and build custom integrations between customer care and financial applications.
The Oracle Utilities Direct Integration between Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle Financials supports Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.2, Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 and PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0.
