HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplemental Communication - City Manager's Report - PowerPo 5/15/2017
UTILITY BILLING
SYSTEM UPDATE
I
New Billing System
o Software tested for seven months.
o New system went live on April 10, 2017. I
o Conversion of over 55,000 water, sewer, I
trash, and FireMed accounts.
o Also converted 13,000 autopay and ebill;=�j
accounts to a new online service.--
SUPP EMENTA .
- ----- COMMUNICATION
. i �t
5/15/2017
Changes
o New bill statement design
o New account number
o Automatic payment and electronic billing
• Consolidation of services from two vendors to
one new vendor.
i
Due Diligence
o Five person team assigned to review
water bills line by line
o Quality control identified slight variations
o Customer bills released upon resolution
but after 3 to 4 review rounds.
i
o Some delays resulted in the next period j
bill being received within 7 days
2
5/15/2017
Implementation Challenges
o Online Registration and Interface
o Account number conversion
o AutoPay
1
I
i'
Notifications to Customers
o Pre-implementation
• Bill statement message for 4 months (December-March).
• December announcement in City Manager newsletter.
• Coming Soon notice on city web site.
• Presentation at City Council on January 17, 2017.
o Post implementation
• Update of City web site with new payment options.
• Email announcement to online account customers.
• Special phone messages regarding the change.
• Social media updates. --�
� I
3
5/15/2017
Summary
o New software is billing correctly
o Overbillings have not occurred
o Bill statements back-to-back for some
o Staff will continue to communicate to
customers via inserts and online
o Delinquent notices and penalties will
remain suspended
4
UTILITY BILLING SYSTEM UPGRADE
City of Huntington Beach
January 17, 2017
Utility Billing Software
City began upgrade process in September
of 2015 with the selection of Advanced
Utility Systems
Software is scheduled to "go live" at the
end of this month , at the earliest.
SIT 7
New Features
The following new features & services will be available:
• Customer Self-Service Web Portal
• Access to Account Information (Billing & Consumption)
Pay Bills Online with real time payment posting
Enroll in Automatic Payments
• Enroll in Electronic Billing
• Pay Bills By Text Messaging (via mobile phone)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system
Revised Bill Statement
New Bill Statement
New Account Numbers
New account numbers
City will automatically convert the account
numbers for 90 days.
City will communicate to customer the requirement
to update their records.
After 90 days the city will stop converting and
payments may be rejected.
The conversion is designed to be transparent to
the customer
Changes
How this affects the customer
Walk in or mail payments — no changes
Online banking — Will need to update account number within
90 days
Auto pay — no changes unless updates to bank account
desired, then new registration will be required of customer
One Time pay — customer may access with their new account
number
E-bill customers will continue to receive their bill statement via
e-mail. For security reasons, a new registration will be
required to access account information.
1/17/2017
Questions