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New Hires Debbie AndersonDebbie joins us as a Senior Project Manager in the services group. She will initially be focused on several Smallworld consulting projects and opportunities, and in time we expect to use her organization and leadership skills in many different areas of the company. Prior to iFactor, Debbie worked at GE, managing many of their largest Smallworld implementation and development projects in the US. Debbie's home life includes her husband Scott and two active boys, along with a very active lifestyle that recently included a hike across the Grand Canyon (and back!).  Cassandra ChamberlinOur new office manager Cassandra came to us from Food Team Inc., a hospitality staffing service where she worked for four years in a variety of positions: Office Manager, Staffing Specialist, and Marketing Coordinator. She is a Minnesota native, and has a Bachelor's Degree in Communications from St Cloud State University. Cassandra lives in Gilbert with her husband, Greg, and new Shorkie puppy, Emily. She loves to vacation and most recently traveled to New Zealand and Australia to celebrate her first anniversary. She is very excited to learn and grow with iFactor! Dave HansonDave's IT background covers more than 30 years in the software development arena. The primary focus has always been hands on development and has also included management responsibilities for the full application lifecycle. Dave is an avid motorcycle rider and just completed a cross country trip from Huntsville to Phoenix.
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Greetings!
Welcome to the first edition of the Informer for 2011! So far the year is off to a great start, with new staff members, new projects, and exciting product development plans firming up at iFactor. As you will see below, Storm Center is getting a major upgrade this year and we are continuing to expand the Notifi and StreetLightOutages.com platforms. After a great launch in 2010, our investment in smartphone solutions for utilities continues, and you will be hearing lots more about EnergySuite in the coming months! Of course, one of the most exciting announcements is the upcoming iConnect 11 event, our first chance to gather all of our customers together in one spot for a day (and night!) of sharing ideas and information to help us continue growing together.
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Industry Update
I recently attended DistribuTECH in San Diego and was amazed at the number and variety of vendors there offering solutions to the utility space. From well-known utility vendors like GE and ABB, to companies traditionally known in other spaces like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics, the show was full of great ideas. I was able to learn lots about the latest in DMS and SCADA systems, meter data management platforms, smart meters, and telecommunications tools. There were also many vendors offering in home devices for monitoring and managing energy information, data providers, telecommunications companies, and equipment manufacturers.
Among all that excitement, I thought it was really interesting to look at how we fit in - iFactor was the only vendor I saw at this large show who is 100% focused on customer communications solutions for utilities. With the wave of recent pushback from consumers and regulators on smart meter deployments and smart grid programs, it is clear that customer sentiment is critical to success! This really motivates us at iFactor to continue on our quest to deliver focused software products which address specific business needs in this niche. It is clear that in addition to improving customer satisfaction and cutting costs, our solutions can help provide part of the foundation for these critical infrastructure and world improving grid projects!
In other industry news, Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative (PCEC) and Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) have become the latest additions to the iFactor Storm Center family. PCEC recently added Storm Center to their website, making it easy for members, media, and key personnel to view outages by location and zip code. CSU has implemented Storm Center internally, providing widespread visibility into real-time OMS data and improving operational awareness throughout the utility. Read more about the PCEC and CSU Storm Center implementations on our blog.
Our StreetLightOutages product is now hard at work for NIPSCO, allowing customers to find and report streetlight outages directly on the NIPSCO website using an interactive map. NIPSCO's streetlight locations are  displayed on Microsoft Bing Maps, allowing users to search for lights by pole number, address, or location description, or simply by panning and zooming to the appropriate location. When an outage is reported, NIPSCO receives a detailed outage report including all the necessary information to repair the streetlight.
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Product News
It has been a busy year in the development of Notifi, our enterprise communications platform for utilities. Over the past 6 months, we have seen incremental growth on the front-end and the back-end of Notifi. On the utility interface side (a.k.a. the front-end) we have added a variety of new web services to expand both the Core and OMS/CIS modules. These additions add support for new transactions, such as billing and payment alerts and energy communications, including standard Smartflows, message templates and web services to support them. We have also expanded the reporting and management capabilities with an improved management console and new data APIs. On the back-end, we have been working to integrate several new data transport providers with Notifi. This allows us to offer comprehensive options for communicating with customers, from 2-way SMS texting to proactive email and voice alerts. As we continue to expand these options, we expand the reach of your messages and the price points for various transactions, aiming to meet the needs of each utility and different customer segments.
The iFactor development team continues to improve StreetLightOutages.com, making it easier than ever for users to report streetlight outages and check the status on previously reported lights, and for organizations to manage streetlight outages while keeping their customers updated on the repair progress. Our latest updates have streamlined the reporting process for users by providing more search options, quickly pinpointing a particular address or pole number, and clearly indicating poles with multiple lights. We've also sophisticated the management console for organizations, allowing those with administrative access the ability to export outage reports to Excel and add comments to individual light outages.
Our development team is well underway in the creation of Storm Center 3, the latest version of our industry leading outage information product. Storm Center 3 builds on the capabilities of the new Bing Maps 7 API which includes enhanced performance, a new map look and feel, and support for the delivery of content to the browsers on iPhone and Android devices. In addition to the map itself, we will be optimizing all of the standard Storm Center features to support detection and display on these mobile browsers. Storm Center 3 will be available for free to all customers with current maintenance and support contracts in the second quarter of 2011. You can contact us now to start planning an upgrade project to implement Storm Center 3 on your website.
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iFactor is excited to announce iConnect - our first annual customer event! iConnect will include updates on the latest product features and development plans across the iFactor suite of utility communication and software products, in addition to face-to-face interaction with the iFactor team regarding priorities and directions for future product development. Find out more on our event site! |
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Sincerely,
Brad Sileo
iFactor Consulting |
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